Comparing Guilt In Hamlet 'And Macbeth'

Nicholas Rowe once said, “Guilt is the course of sorrow, tis the fiend th’ avenging fiend that follows us behind with whips and strings.” In Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth, both private and shared guilt play a major role, in influencing the thoughts of the characters. However, the effect that this remorse has on the characters, explains the actions they took which lead to their demise.

From time to time within both plays, there is evidence how two types of guilt play a major role in influencing the thoughts of Claudius’ and the Macbeth’s. The first type of guilt is private guilt, characterized as guilt that begins and ends internally, and this type is found in abundance all throughout Hamlet. Lurene Brown in her article “Guilt in Literature”

mentions that private guilt prevents objects, earned from committing sins, to bring satisfaction to the sinner (6). This statement is evident in Hamlet when Claudius says, “My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardoned and retain th’ offenses” (Ham, 3.3.56-57). Initially, Claudius assumed that murdering his brother to gain the crown and his brother’s spouse would bring him satisfaction and joy. However, from this quote, it is evident that the bloody crime of murdering one’s brother is haunting Claudius because throughout the play he lives in constant fear of his crimes being discovered. This type of attitude affects the play because by Claudius’ paranoia about being discovered he allows himself to slip up during the Murder of Gonzago which confirmed Hamlet’s suspicion about the ghost’s speech. On the other hand, there is shared guilt, which is characterized as remorse shared between two people, which can be found in Macbeth. Lurene Brown mentions another point about shared guilt that, “...while one [person] may be the aggressor, complicity makes anyone involved culpable as an active participant” (7). For instance, there is a strong example of shared guilt between Macbeth and his wife, surrounding the murder of King Duncan, when Lady Macbeth says, “I still have the smell of blood on my hand” (Mac, 5.1.37). Although Macbeth was the real aggressor in the bloody murder, Lady Macbeth also feels the guilt because she is an accomplice to the crime by instructing Macbeth to carry out the devilish deed. This affects the play, because this shared guilt causes Lady Macbeth leads her to become go crazy and take her own life, because she is overcome with the bloody guilt.
Above all the differences between private and shared guilt, there is one similarity between the two, which is that the guilt Claudius and Macbeth experience is a type of justifiable guilt. According to Donald Carveth in his article “Superego, Conscience, and the Nature and Types of Guilt,” justified guilt is “Our conscience [informing] us [that] we have done wrong and deserve to feel guilty” (118). In Hamlet, this is visible during Claudius during his failed attempt at praying when he said, “pray I cannot, tho inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent” (Ham, 3.3.39-41). Claudius knows that his soul is tainted and his conscience is blocking him from asking forgiveness, because he knows that he has committed such a grave sin. This notion that he has the right to feel guilty, causes him to act irrationally like sentencing his own nephew/son to death, because he believes that the death of Hamlet would allow him room to breathe and go along with his life leaving the murder behind. Similarly, this happens in Macbeth when Macbeth says, “Ere we will eat our meals in fear, and sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams” (Mac, 3.2.20-21). Macbeth’s conscience is marked with the sin of murder and it makes him unable to sleep without having nightmares about the crime. Macbeth also acts irrationally by further murdering people such as the Macduff’s and Banquo, which he believes would prevent the rest of the witches’ prophecy to be fulfilled. However, by murdering these people to allow himself room to breathe, he indirectly set the foundations for the prophecy to be fulfilled.
At the same time the different types of guilt influence the thoughts of the characters, the role of guilt in the lives of the characters determines what type of actions they will take.

Daniel Diana in his article “Shakespeare’s Tragic Ghosts: Psychological Manifestations of Guilt” mentions that Shakespeare “adapts his sources' historical accounts into tightly structured tragedies that portray men who eventually succumb to their overwhelming guilt.” This statement is evident in Hamlet when Hamlet says, “Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do,’ Sith I have cause and will and strength and means to do ’t” (Ham, 4.4.44-46). Hamlet feels guilty about taking such a long time to take revenge out for his father’s murder, and thus he takes actions to focus his life solely around trying to murder Claudius. His overwhelming guilt for taking such a long time to execute the murder, led to Hamlet’s own demise, because he didn’t care for his own life and felt as his only duty was to avenge his father’s death. However, the role of guilt is reversed in Macbeth, because unlike Hamlet, who doesn’t care about his own life and wants to relieve the guilt by avenging his father, Macbeth feels the guilt about murdering the king and wants to keep the crown. This is evident when Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost and says, “Thou canst not say I did it/Never shake thy gory locks at me” (Mac, 3.4.55). Macbeth’s guilt of murdering Duncan has made him take actions to secure the crown, but in sentencing the

murderers to murder Banquo and allowing Fleance to escape, he unintentionally fulfilled the other prophecy that Banquo’s sons will become king and that Macbeth will have a short rule.
Though the role of guilt changes between these two characters there is a something which is shared between the role of guilt between the two characters.

Daniel Diana in his article “Shakespeare’s Tragic Ghosts: Psychological Manifestations of Guilt” also mentions that the role of guilt “externalizes [their] guilt-ridden conscience in the form of graphic supernatural hallucinations” (15). In both of their cases, their guilt gave rise to supernatural elements, in this case ghosts, which whether they were just a figment of their imagination or real were only seen by their eyes. In Macbeth’s case he saw the ghost of Banquo while the other people weren’t able to see him, and this can be seen when Lady Macbeth says, “This is the very painting of your fear. this is the air-drawn dagger which you said led you to Duncan” (Mac, 3.4.64-66). Similarly, this happens during Hamlet’s conversation with his mother when he’s the only one to see his father’s ghost. This is evident when Gertrude exclaimed, “Alas, how is ’t with you, that you do bend your eye on vacancy and with th' incorporal air do hold discourse” (Ham, 3.4.117-119). Comparing these two situations we can see that the hallucinations, which have occurred, happen after committing another crime, which further worsens their guilt. In Macbeth the hallucination appears right after Macbeth indirectly killed Banquo, because of his guilt. In Hamlet’s case the ghost appears right after he killed Polonius, because Hamlet would do

anything, even kill, to avenge his father’s death.
As shown above, guilt has a major impact on the lives of those who experience it. There are two major types of guilt, private and shared, which can come upon humans. These types of guilt influence the actions taken, just like how it influenced the actions of both Claudius and Macbeth. Sometimes the actions taken to cover-up guilt might lead to our eventual demise, like it did to Claudius, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth. The role of guilt can extend into daily life, because once guilt comes upon humans it is evident that it sticks with us and slowly kills us from the inside out. The best way it seems to avoid guilt is to either abstain from committing sins or asking for forgiveness of those sins, regardless of what the consequences are.