Guilt Theme In Macbeth

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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 …show more content…

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

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