Guilty Conscience in Macbeth

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In my opinion, the statement “If you commit a crime and don’t get caught, it doesn’t really matter because your guilt over what you have done will destroy you in the end” is true and happens in reality. What is a crime? It is an evil act that breaks the law or the basic values of the society, harming the individuals of the society. So if you commit a crime, and don’t get caught the fact that you have committed a crime and your heart knows will haunt you forever and make you feel guilty. If you know that the act you did was wrong, but you did it anyways ignoring what you knew will definitely lead to your destruction. Even though, you would appear to be confident to others, after committing the crime, but your inner conscience will always curse you and will eventually destroy you.

This is what happened to Lady Macbeth in the play written by William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”. When Macbeth informed Lady Macbeth of the witches’ prophecy of him being the king of Scotland, she incited him to kill Duncan (because of her desire or ambition to rule Scotland). She could not kill Duncan herself, so she told him to slay Duncan. Even though, Lady Macbeth did not kill Duncan, she knew it was because of her provocation that Macbeth was forced to take this step. In the beginning of the play, she is blood thirsty and cruel. In the middle, when she had to hide Macbeth’s hallucination of seeing Banqous ghost, she said “Good friends, think of this as nothing more than a strange habit. It's nothing else. Too bad it's spoiling our pleasure tonight” (III, iv, 101-103). She is still confident and is trying to stabilize Macbeth’s thoughts. Till this point she is not shown to be guilty of her act but confident. Gradually, as the play progresses we hear about Lady Macbeth’s condition from her maid, who says to a Doctor “Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise/from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her/closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon 't, read it,/ afterwards seal it, and again return to bed, yet all this/while in most fall asleep” (V,I, 3-8). Then Lady Macbeth says while sleep walking “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, 'tis time to do 't/. Hell is/murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard?

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