Destruction Of Innocence And Guilt In Shakespeare's Macbeth

Blame seems to be a popular topic in today’s culture, but how does one decide who is to blame? Is it a matter of innocence and guilt, or are there gray areas and different degrees of guilt and innocence? Macbeth seems inherently guilty, but then you have to factor in his surrounding circumstances. Was Macbeth manipulated into it? Did sleep deprivation drive him crazy? Does the fact that he was mentally ill lessen his implications? I would say yes to all of these above, Macbeth committed many evil acts, but he is not to blame for the tragedy that became his life. The blame belongs to Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is the original culprit, the root of all evil in this case. Lady Macbeth pressured Macbeth into killing Duncan. The act of killing Duncan

made Macbeth lose his mind, making him commit more evils. Macbeth’s lack of sanity led to sleep deprivation, which caused even more unspeakable actions.
Undoubtedly, Macbeth thought bad thoughts on his own, everyone does. Yes, Macbeth thought about killing the king, but most people would do the same in his position. It is completely understandable to want to be the king. Regardless of the relatability, Macbeth was very upset about thinking such an evil thought and he quickly brushed the idea away. Macbeth even admitted “The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, which the eye fears, when it is done, to see” (Mac.1.4.52). Yes, he hoped that the king would die, but he did not want any part in it. Lady Macbeth even acknowledged the fact that Macbeth was too good to kill Duncan by saying “Yet do I fear thy nature. It is to full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” (Mac.1.5.16). Lady Macbeth struggled to push Macbeth into agreeing to kill Duncan, but Macbeth refused because he knew that it was evil and a terrible idea. Macbeth knew that Duncan was a good king and he was grateful but, Lady Macbeth wanted the crown and she guiled Macbeth into getting it. Lady Macbeth mocked Macbeth’s ambition, she called him a coward, she boasted that he promised her, she questioned his masculinity, she even claimed she would do the same for him, and she reassured him of their success. After Macbeth had been completely torn down and influenced, he agreed to appease Lady Macbeth.
Incidentally, Macbeth started to lose his sanity. Macbeth hallucinated a dagger leading him to Duncan’s room. Macbeth then killed Duncan and started hearing voices. Macbeth was so torn up he could not even look at Duncan’s dead body; he could not bear to think about the act he just committed. Macbeth felt so guilty that he thought there was too much blood on his hands for the ocean to clean. Macbeth cried out “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No” (Mac.2.2.60). Macbeth even revealed that to come to terms with killing Duncan, he would have to lose his conscience by saying “To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself” (Mac.2.2.73). Talking of Duncan’s death, Macbeth exclaimed “Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time; for from this instant there’s nothing serious in mortality; all is but toys; renown and grace is dead; the wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of” (Mac.2.3.90). After murdering Duncan, Macbeth felt like nothing mattered, that all was meaningless, and that there was nothing good left in the world. Macbeth became mentally ill when he was persuaded into killing Duncan by Lady Macbeth.
Granted, the psychotic break Macbeth had caused him to kill Duncan, but the sleep deprivation propelled the dire situation.

Research has found that “Sleep deprivation negatively impacts our mood, our ability to focus, and our ability to access higher-level cognitive functions (brain mechanisms involved with thinking, reasoning, learning, and remembering)” (WGBH). Macbeth could no longer sleep after he killed Duncan, so he acted rashly and made decisions without thinking them through. Macbeth became so filled with paranoia and jealousy that he killed his best friend and tried to kill his best friend’s young son. Macbeth hallucinated Banquo’s ghost and started screaming with an entire crowd of people around, he clearly was not thinking properly. Macbeth also killed an entire family out of anger and betrayal, Macbeth even cursed the witches; he was obviously not using reasoning skills. To counter those who believe that Macbeth caused his own downfall, I remind you that your argument is invalid because he did not actively choose to kill, it was a combination of manipulation, mental illness, and sleep deprivation made him murder people. Macbeth even revealed “Better be with the dead…than on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy” (Mac.3.2.1). Meaning, Macbeth would have rather been dead than alive, not exactly something a healthy person would

prefer.
Thus, it is reasonable to see Macbeth’s side of the story. It is very easy to place all the blame on Macbeth; he committed the crimes after all. Albeit, there are so many other factors that instigated Macbeth to act out. Lady Macbeth is directly responsible for Macbeth killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth manipulated Macbeth in such a way that he had to kill Duncan to defend his dignity, the very core of his being. Whether Shakespeare intended for Macbeth’s hallucinations to be a mental illness or supernatural, it is more likely that it was a mental disorder. Sleep deprivation, meanwhile, has been proven scientifically to cause many cognitive health issues that correlate exactly with Macbeths irrational actions and explain his behavior.