Guilt Theme In Macbeth

The author of Macbeth is William Shakespeare, and he is well known for his plays and language. The play starts off with our main character Macbeth who is told of his prophecy by the three witches of him being the king of Scotland. Knowing this Macbeth is then persuaded by his wife to take the life of his king and take the throne. Macbeth is now paranoid about what he has and had done now to become king and securing it. William Shakespeare uses the literary elements; imagery, alliteration, and symbolism to illustrate the theme guilt.
Shakespeare utilizes imagery in the scenes of Macbeth’s grief for killing king Duncan, lady Macbeth cleaning the spot on her hand, and the voices Macbeth hears after he has finished his dark deed. Lady Macbeth

was washing her hands speaking to herself in a monologue, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One; two.” (5.1.34) demonstrates Shakespeare’s use of Lady Macbeth’s guilt through the imagery of king Duncan’s blood that stains Lady Macbeth’s guilty hands because she persuaded Macbeth to kill king Duncan for the throne. Another imagery quote from the same scene is “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” (5.13.36-39) demonstrates the amount of blood of king Duncan is so vivid it makes Lady Macbeth paranoid and guilty about what she has done. Macbeth telling Lady Macbeth of the voices he hears “Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more! Macbeth shall sleep no more!" (2.2.59-60) demonstrates the guilt in his head, which will leave him paranoid throughout the play for killing king Duncan. The effect imagery creates for the theme guilt is how each character's guilt from the play is shown through an object they describe vividly.
Shakespeare utilizes alliteration in the scenes of Macbeth babbling to his wife about king Duncan’s death, Macbeth hearing the reports from the murderers, and Lady Macbeth telling Macbeth to wash his hands which he used to kill king Duncan. Macbeth discusses to Lady Macbeth and says the line “ Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.” (3.2.61-62) This portrays guilt through the alliteration of “bad” and “begun” which can be interpreted that the starting of bad deeds will continue to grow and be more heinous with more bad deeds. Macbeth tells the murders “I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.” (3.4.31-32) The alliteration used by Macbeth speaks his guilt by the words “cribbed”, “confined”, and “confined” for the reason that he is tangled up with doubts and fears from his previous actions. Another scene showing alliteration is the scene with Lady Macbeth telling Macbeth to clean his bloody hands “Go get some water And wash this filthy witness from your hand.” (2.2.64-65) This alliteration exhibits the use of the “w” sound, but the meaning of this quote is to show how they feel guilty about what they’ve done and now tries to hid any evidence of committing the murder. The effect of alliteration creates for the theme guilt is the character’s conscious that repeated stated they are guilty or that they have done something wrong.
Shakespeare utilizes symbolism in the play Macbeth with blood symbolizing guilt.

The scene with Macbeth finding a bloody dagger thinking “ And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood.” (2.1.55) This asserts guilt through the symbolism of blood, that Macbeth imagines blood on the dagger on the grounds that he feels guilty about what he is going to do. When Macbeth orders the murderers to kills his friend Banquo and he returns as a ghost. Macbeth tells that "There’s blood upon thy face". (3.4.16) The blood also symbolizes guilt because Macbeth indirectly kills Banquo and now Macbeth knows that the blood of a person who is murdered will come back to the person who committed the murder. Another scene utilizing blood as a symbol is when Macbeth assumes the throne as king of Scotland and mentions to Banquo about Malcolm and Donalbain fleeing to England and Ireland saying “We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed In England and in Ireland.” (3.1.33-34) The word “bloody” mention by Macbeth portrays how Macbeth wants Banquo to see that the two sons are guilty and fled because they killed their father. The recurring symbol of blood symbolizes guilt from the actions characters that are responsible for a specified wrongdoing.
Shakespeare utilizes a wide variety of literary devices to demonstrate the theme guilt that reoccurs a lot in the play Macbeth. The use of Shakespeare’s imagery showed a character's guilt, alliteration portrayed a character’s guilt by them being paranoid, and symbolism

is asserted through blood which is a recurring symbol that shows up frequently related to guilt. These literary devices all connect back to Shakespeare illustrating guilt from the character’s actions.