Ramifications of Guilt
Guilt plays a crucial role in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth begins a smart, strong warrior and ends the play as a fraction of the man he begins as. The guilt Macbeth causes himself first affects him before he kills duncan, and plays a large role throughout the play; the ramifications of guilt become evident as the play goes on.
In the beginning of this play, Macbeth feels very guilty about what he has done to Duncan. Macbeth betrays his cousin who wholeheartedly trusts him. After Macbeth commits the murder he converses with Lady Macbeth about what he has done “as they had seen me with these hangmans hands listn’ing their fears I could not say ‘amen’ when they did say ‘God bless you’” (Shakespeare 2.2.25-27). This shows Macbeth is so guilty about what he has done to his king that he cannot even say the word “amen” when servants say “God bless you”. Macduff and Lenox interrupt the conversation between Macbeth and Lady
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macbeth with a knock. The knocking at the front gate strikes fear and anxiety into Macbeth due to the suggested fear of discovery(Fearnley 425) says John Fearnley, a professor of psychology at John Hopkins university . This fear and anxiety is caused by the need for self-preservation and a feeling of guilt within Macbeth. He knows if he is discovered he will not be the king, and he will be killed. As the play progresses Macbeth’s mental health begins to deteriorate. Banquo has a gentle soul and a strong moral compass; this intimidates Macbeth and he orders Banquo and Fleance killed. “In an attempt to feel better about their shame, people will oftentimes strike out at others in the hopes that they will be lifted up by bringing others down”(Barker). Macbeth hires three different murders to do the deed; hiring multiple people is proof he is skeptical of men and their trustworthiness. The skepticism and doubt is caused by the little voice in the back of Macbeth’s head reminding him of the lurid deed he did commit with his wife, and the one he is hiring others to do for him. His conscience is still playing a role, but the hunger for power and paranoia outweigh it. After Macbeth hears of Banquo’s murder he hallucinates, seeing Banquo’s ghost at the dinner table. This hallucination seems extremely real to Macbeth; he yells to the ghost “never shake thy gory locks at me!” (Shakespeare 3.4.50-51). This is is one of Macbeth’s many hallucinations throughout the play. This is Macbeth’s consciences way of showing him he is doing the wrong thing. Macbeth has no sense of morality by the end of the play.
He has completely deteriorated into a fraction of the man he was at the beginning; he started strong, with a good moral compass and trustworthy reputation. Macduff begins to suspect Macbeth of his crimes early in the play, and this frightens Macbeth. The intimidation causes Macbeth to order his men “ give to th’ edge th’ sword his wife, his babes, and all who trace their line to him” (shakespeare 4.1.152-154). He shows no remorse over ordering a Macduff’s entire family murdered. He does not even think twice about committing such a horrid crime. Lady Macbeth later dies and Macbeth’s reaction is she would have died anyway, and life is all a joke told by an idiot (shakespeare). Macbeth will do anything to stay in power and that is blatantly obvious by the end of the play. He shows no regret or ill feelings toward any of his actions and he is very desensitized. When he is told he will probably be killed he does not even seem scared, he sees himself as
indescrutable. Macbeth first starts to feel guilty before he even commits to murdering Duncan. He is guilt about even thinking of killing his king. As the play progresses he feels less and less guilty and begins to not even think about what he is doing. He begins going crazy as the guilt is weighing so heavy on his conscience. He becomes distant, cocky, and paranoid; these are all ways guilt affects the brain.
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 others. The two prominent works of literature that are 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 the Shakespearian tragedy Macbeth, though, manages to murder the Scottish king Duncan to actualize the prophecy of the three witches, yet the guilt emanating from such nefarious acts and intentions continues to foreshadow Macbeth’s life throughout the plot. The very moment Macbeth approaches Lady Macbeth with hands dipped in the blood of Duncan, his deep seated guilt oozes forth as he says, “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more;/Macbeth does murder sleep (2.2.45-46)”. Thereby, from this moment onwards, Macbeth is shown to be strongly stung by an unrelenting and continually nagging sense of guilt that makes him engage in strange and suspicion generating acts and manners.
The Importance of Guilt in Macbeth Through the story, guilt motivates Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to a great extent. Macbeth was a kind, fine nobleman of the king Duncan. But one day his benevolence and patronage to the king changed. He had met the three witches who had revealed the three prophecies. The first prophecy was that Macbeth would become the thane of Cawdor.
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.
Have you ever felt so terrible for something you did, or even felt awful before you even do that dangerous act? A part of the human nature is the very complex brain which gives humans the thought that they have done something wrong or are about to do something wrong. This is called your conscience and if you do not listen to it, very bad things can occur as a direct consequence. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth comes across as a hero and then turned into an absolute monster due to the inhumane acts that he takes to become the most powerful leader and hold that position. Art Markman from phychology.com defines the use of guilt. He says, “Guilt is a valuable emotion, because it helps to maintain your ties to the people in your community.”(Psychology.com)
The tragedy of Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, the play itself is full of so many key points. He has a way of bringing certain components together to make the tragedy an actual tragedy. Macbeth is full of nobility,bravery, greed, blinded reason, guilt, death, treason, and many more. Shakespeare has a way making his audience think of the physiological dealing of the characters in the play. There are many themes in the play to make the physiological part of the play be considered and the major ones are, fair and foul and foul is fair theme, how ambition can subvert reason, and the major theme of the play is guilt, which takes it’s tole on a few characters in the play.
What is guilt and what major impact does it have in the play Macbeth by William
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.
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.
I think this is because he is so insecure that he feels he needs to kill Macduff to make the prophecy come true. The multiple roles of Macbeth in the play demonstrate his changing character and illustrate the complete evolution of Macbeth's personality. Macbeth begins as a respectable person and gradually his personality descends until he eventually falls apart and loses control. Perhaps the message that Shakespeare is sending is that no good will come from evil -even if it first appears that you will not be found out.
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.
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.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, he chronicled the story of Macbeth’s rise to power and all he encountered during that journey. One theme that is present throughout the entirety of the play is guilt. As the story progressed, it can be seen that guilt affects each character differently depending on their role in the play. However, every person deals with the guilt in their own way. Everyone is influenced by a feeling of regret at some point in their lives, and the way they deal with it will affect them in the long run. It can be seen taking a drastic toll, particularly on the characters of Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Ultimately, the presence of guilt in someone is determined by how easily they let it affect them.
For example, because he felt threatened by Macduff, he chose to kill his entire family. This caused Macduff to be filled with many emotions. He felt upset at the loss of his family but also angry knowing Macbeth's true personality. He even told Malcolm out of anger, "Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself. Within my sword’s length set him; if he ’scape, Heaven forgive him too." Macduff explained to Malcolm that he would avenge his family's death by fighting Macbeth. After the fight between the two, MacDuff returned exclaiming "Hail king! For so thou art. Behold where stands The usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free. I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, That speak my salutation in their minds, Whose voices I desire aloud with mine. Hail, King of Scotland!" Macbeth was killed by Macduff, and his position as king, which he had worked so hard to obtain was given up to Malcolm. Macbeth lost his position only because he chose to deceive the public. Had Macbeth actually been a good king, and not deceived the public with a false image, he would still be alive, and have
Macbeth is ridden with guilt and is consumed with his inability to “pronounce ‘Amen’” (2.2.34). In response, Lady Macbeth says that “’Tis safer to be that which we destroy/ Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy”, meaning that it is better to be destroyed then be the murderer, left dwelling on past deeds (3.2.6-7). Lady Macbeth advises Macbeth not to think too long about the crime he has committed, but instead “be bright and jovial”, and show his strengths as the new King of Scotland (3.2.27). However, Lady Macbeth, unwittingly, had set in motion the downfall of Macbeth and the destruction of his mental state. After murdering the King, Macbeth became emotionally unstable. For example, Macbeth fears that Banquo’s descendants will become king as the prophecy foretold; therefore, he decides that in order to protect himself, he must murder Banquo. Moreover, Macbeth becomes guilt-ridden and fearful of all those who might discover his involvement in Duncan’s murder. Macbeth is overcome with an immense feeling of shame and is shaken by his fears, jealous of the “restless ecstasy” that Duncan feels in his grave (3.3.22). In addition, he is visited by hallucinations, further tormenting his state of mind. When news is brought to Macbeth that the queen is dead, he contemplates the meaning of life, reflecting on the fact that “Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player/