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Effects of guilt
Effects of guilt
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Impact of Guilt on MacBeth What is guilt and what major impact does it have in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare? Guilt is defined as the fact or state of having offended someone or something. Guilt may cause a person to have trouble sleeping and difficulty in relationships with others. The effects of guilt tie into Macbeth with the theme of night and darkness. Guilt causes the main characters’ consciences to overcome them mentally and physically causing their downfalls. In the tragedy Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the recurring theme of night and darkness is used to symbolize guilt and conscience such as when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want the darkness to conceal their evil deeds and in the end, when Lady Macbeth is afraid of the darkness and nighttime. In Act I, after King Duncan names Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland, Macbeth is already plotting to kill Duncan. He asks the darkness to come and hide his evil deeds so no one would see the terrible thing he was about to do. He says “Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see” (Act I, scene iv, ll.50-53). This is demonstrated again after the murder of Banquo when Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth “Come, seeling night, scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, and with thy bloody and invisible hand cancel and tear to pieces that great bond which keeps me pale”(Act III, scene ii, ll.46-50). This quote from the play also shows the importance of night and darkness to Macbeth’s plot of killing Banquo. He is asking the night to come and hide and cover up the things he has done to Banquo. These examples from Macbeth show that throughout the play, Macbeth wants the darkness to conceal his evil deeds. Lady Macbeth also asks the night to come upon her and hide her by the darkest smoke of hell. She doesn’t want to be seen as she and Macbeth commit their terrible deeds. She wants the night to hide her thoughts and actions about killing Duncan while she is reading Macbeth’s letter. She says “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, not heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, to cry ‘Hold, hold’!” (Act I, scene v, ll.50-54). She is already planning the murder of Duncan long before her husband’s return.
Here, Macbeth realizes that if something is not done to Banquo, his sons will become Kings. Macbeth can not have this. He had already worried that his soul will go to hell for what he had done. His fear become evident in this scene also, "But to be safely thus: our fears in Banquo Stick deep;" [Act III, S I, L 53-54] Macbeth has Banquo murdered,
Guilt is a very potent emotion that an individual always feels in relation to others and has its genesis in the wrong done by some person to other. The two prominent works of literature that is Macbeth and The Kite Runner, though contrived centuries apart, revolve around an unremitting feeling of guilt felt by the central characters that are Macbeth and Amir, and the ordeal they had to go through owing to the psychological and practical consequences of that guilt.
In Macbeth, there are a lot of guilt and regrets felt by Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth. For example, Macbeth regrets killing King Duncan because now he is worried that if the people find out it was him, he would be executed. Also Macbeth starts to feel guilty about the people who he killed, but he likes to do it because he wants to be king. Lady Macbeth is starting to become worried about the people trying to come after for what she is encouraging Macbeth to do. Macbeth, a man driven by ambition, could not escape from guilt which haunted him.
Everyone deals with guilt at least one time throughout their life, and several authors use guilt to help build up suspense in their story. Guilt in Macbeth not only affects his mental state of mind, but it also destroys him physically, along with a few other characters such as Lady Macbeth. The characters are affected by guilt so much, that it actually leads to their death essentially, just because they were not able to handle the consequences for the events that occurred. Despite being destroyed by guilt, they were still forced to carry on with their lives and they did have to try to hide it, even though Macbeth was not doing so well with that. His hallucinations were giving him up and eventually everyone knew the he had murdered Duncan so he could become the next king.
Guilt plays a strong role in motivating Macbeth, and causes Lady Macbeth to be driven over the edge of sanity - to her death. Throughout the story, there are many different types of guilty feelings that play a role in Macbeth’s fatal decisions and bring Lady Macbeth to commit suicide. Although there are many instances that show the power guilt has played on the main characters, there are three examples that show this the best. One is, just after the murder of the great King, Duncan. Guilt overcomes Macbeth where he can no longer think straight. A second example is soon after that, where all the guilt Macbeth feels at first, changes into hate after he decides that Banquo must be killed as well. The last example is just about at the end of the play, when we see Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, and then later committing suicide; this all because of the burden of her guilt. All of these examples build the proof that in this play, guilt plays a very large role in the characters’ lives.
No person can go through life without facing the consequences of their actions. In fact, it is generally believed that every action must have a reaction. This belief is exhibited in Shakespeare's Macbeth. In the play, Lady Macbeth was the push that led her husband, Macbeth, to kill their king. This murder causes a series of consequences for both characters, which ultimately lead to their downfall. These character’s actions led to negative repercussions, but the audience will have a hard time pitying them, as their tragedy appears to be self inflicted. This idea of a self wrought tragedy is apparent in Lady Macbeth, as she is initially seen as a brutal woman because she convinced Macbeth to kill king Duncan, and aided in the murder. However, her guilt eventually lead to her own demise.
The audience is left in no doubt about Lady Macbeth’s determination when she asks the spirits to make her masculine ‘unsex me here’ and make her completely evil:
The cover of darkness is used to hide several evil actions. Macbeth learns that Malcolm is the heir to the throne, and now realizes that he must kill both Malcolm and Duncan to become king. He is terrified by his own horrible thoughts, “Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep
The darkness that is profoundly found throughout the book signifies that the natural order is broken and things have gone wrong. “Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires” (Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 4, Page 3), shows that Macbeth developed his murderous desires, but was still ashamed of them and did not want people to see him for who he really is.
In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is overly whelmed by the letter she receives about Macbeth. This pushes her to the extreme and causes her to react outrageously. " Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here…make thick my blood…take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers…come thick night." (I;v;40-50) All these images of darkness and horror reveal the true character of Lady Macbeth; she feels the need to become wicked. Her attitude is even more horrific when she calls on evil spirits to come and possess her, taking control of her actions. This sort of behavior causes the audience and reader to assume Lady Macbeth is a psychopath, and therefore would have reason to hold her responsible for having a major impact on her husband and driving him off, enlightening a twisted sinister and threatening dark side of him.
Here, she is punishing the sailor by depriving him of his sleep, which she realizes is important for anyone to function normally. Without the ability to recuperate after each hard day's work, one would grow very weak and eventually start to lose one's mind. Next, we can observe night's connection to the unknown. As seen in my word journal, Lady Macbeth beckons, Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, / To cry "Hold, hold!" Without the obscurity of night, she would not have urged Macbeth to kill the king as she did. The night, however, gives her the impression that Macbeth can indeed kill King Duncan with no one uncovering his contemptible crime, the same idea that Macbeth had when he said, "Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires.
When Macbeth returns home she tells him of their plan. He is worried and she sees this. She tells him, “Only look up clear. To alter favor is to fear. Leave all the rest to me.” (Act 1 Scene 7 Lines 69-71). She plans the murder of Duncan while Macbeth tries to decide whether or not to go through with it. She seems to have gotten the strength to go through with. This shows a cruelty that women were not supposed to have in this time period. Women were seen as the fairer sex and not capable of thinking up such terrible schemes. The character of Lady Macbeth goes against the view of women.
...le Macbeth tells them that ‘every man be master of his time’ so that he can ‘keep alone’. By choosing to isolate himself and not inform Lady Macbeth of his plans to murder Banquo we see how Macbeth feels as if he can’t even trust his closest companions. After turning his back on Lady Macbeth, Macbeth becomes fixated not only on the prophecies of the witches but when he hints to Lady Macbeth that ‘a deed of dreadful note’ will fall upon Banquo and his son he talks like the witches. This shows how Macbeth has turned his back on seeking council from his lords and advisors and begins to act as a king who instead of rationally thinking things out, he chooses to justify his reasons on prophetic predictions from a world of sorcery.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the theme of guilt and conscience is one of many explored throughout the play. Macbeth, is a well respected Scottish noble who in the beginning of the play is a man everyone looks up to; however as the play progresses he makes a number of bad decisions. Eventually, as a result of his actions he suffers guilt and this plays heavily upon his character until his personality is completely destroyed. Shakespeare uses a range of techniques in order to develop this theme, such as, characters, imagery.
Lady Macbeth expresses a hidden evil throughout the play. Behind closed doors, she shows her evil by voicing her heartless phrases to herself. She shows she has no love but for her evil and knows no bounderies when it comes to having her way. "That I may pour my spirits in thine ear" Shows that Lady Macbeth knows that she is evil and is wishing that she could share her evil with Macbeth. "Make thick my blood, Stop up th' Access and Passage to remorse." Expresses Lady Macbeth wanting more evil and is asking for her blood to stop the passage through her heart, so she can continue her evil ways without any remorse or guilt. Although Lady Macbeth is evil, she knows well not to convey this trait to the public, but to be pleasant and sweet to the king and others.