Text. Lamb had a very solitary and painful life. One can only trace a fragment of his life’s happiness to his childhood days as is apparent in the poem, “The Old Familiar Faces” as well as the highly emotive essay, ”Dream Children-A Reverie”. Concerning the latter, he begins the essay by stating that children love to listen stories of a great uncle or a “granddame” and continues to account the story of his grandmother, Mrs. Field to his precious little children; namely Alice and John. Mrs. Field used to live in a rich and luxurious mansion in the county. She was a housekeeper. She was highly esteemed and loved by all who remembered her as a very good and religious woman. The owner of the house lived in a more fashionable house elsewhere, leaving Mrs. Field as the sole guardian of the house. Even though she worked in the house, Mrs. Field managed to keep it like one of her own. The house was old but distinguished from every corner. Lamb used to spend his holidays there as a child and was each time overwhelmed by its beauty and majesty. Mrs. Field often spoke of seeing the apparitions of two small children (a boy and a girl), running up and down the steps of the house at midnight; of which Lamb had no luck of witnessing (probably an innuendo to The Babies In The Wood). He remembers how he used to stroll in the big house with its worn-out curtains and flinging tapestry. He would constantly gaze at the busts of the “twelve Caesars” imagining them to come alive or simply freeze like one of the statuettes. This was one of his most favourite idle occupations. Then again there was a nearby lush garden, which posed of swanky surroundings, with its nectarines, peaches and oranges. Lamb often visited the old and ever-faithful yew and fir tre... ... middle of paper ... ...sider: “Glamis hath murdered sleep; and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more-Macbeth shall sleep no more.” (Macbeth) Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking with a taper in her hand and constant rubbing of her hands is only an extention of that guilt and a sort of ill omen of what is more to come. In this case, one may say that the unconscious neither forgives nor forgets. References Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation Of Dreams (1900). Tr. A.A. Brill. New York: Macmillan, 1913. Lucas, E.V. (Ed.) The Works of Charles And Mary Lamb. London: Methuen and Co., 1905. Morpurgo, J.E. (Ed.) Charles Lamb: Selected Writings. New York: Routledge, 2003. Ward, Thomas Humphry. The English Poets. Selections with Critical Introductions by Various Writers and a General Introduction by Matthew Arnold. Vol. 4. New York & London: Macmillan And Co., 1894.
In the Shakespearian tragedy Macbeth, though Macbeth 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 deeps 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. Yet, Macbeth time and again interprets his guilt as a sign of cowardice and moves on to spill more blood to consolidate his hold over an ill gotten throne. The torment and anguish inherent in these lines that are imbued with the seeds of guilt eventually metamorphose into a full blown sense of guilt and shame that continues to torment his soul.
Everett, Nicholas From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamiltong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright 1994 by Oxford University Press.
how guilt slowly eats at the consciences of the guilty souls such as Lady Macbeth in the tragedy.
Lady Macbeth once thought that she would be able to wash herself clean of the horrors she once committed. This is not possible for she is so full of guilt that now her hands are completely covered in blood. Lady Macbeth feels as if she cannot escape the evils of her past, she is trapped in the evils of the present. Lady Macbeth is trapped even in her sleep of the evils she and her husband have committed.
Lady Macbeth appears to think that the murder wasn’t something to feel guilty about, and even if it was, a few good deeds would fix the mark of their souls. However, in her sleepwalking episode, her true feelings appear. She mindlessly rubs her hands and cries in her haze, “Here’s the smell of blood still. All/ the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little /hand. ”(V.i.53-55).
The play identifies how Macbeth faced guilt after he killed his King, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable.” Macbeth is hallucinating a dagger in which was caused by the guilt he feels after killing King Duncan. Macbeth also states, “I’ll go no more.I am afraid to think what I have done. Look on ’t again I dare not…..What hands are here? Ha, they pluck out mine eyes.Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine….” Macbeth’s emotions are everywhere. After he killed King Duncan he immediately regretted it as he explains that no water, not even Neptune’s ocean can wash the blood and guilt off his hands. Macbeth not only faced guilt but he also losses his sanity. Macbeth hallucinates Banquo’s ghost making him scared and on edge, “[to the Ghost]. What man dare, I dare. Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The armed rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan tiger; Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble. Or be alive again And dare me to the desert with thy sword. If
I truly care about the well-being of Her Majesty Lady Macbeth, and upon serving your royal highness for countless decades; I have come to acquire your many confidential health issues. Lately, your wife has been involved in episodes of sleepwalking. I have probed for a deeper understanding of the peculiar habits of Lady Macbeth, where she recounted the murders of Duncan, Banquo and Lady Macduff. Commencing my discovery, I began to question my loyalty as the matter on hand was not one you would consider typical. I spent two sleepless nights devoted to the Queen by faithfully continuing to wait and observe her sleepwalking. Her illness appeared to exceed my realm of cold and fevers; instead, she is dealing with a problem that is causing her much mental anguish. I was astonished to see that she was psychologically crumbling, right before my eyes. Her reverberating ...
To fully understand this poem, the reader would find it helpful to know what led Coleridge to write it. Coleridge grew up with English essayist Charles Lamb in school and the two were close friends (Merriman.) In their later years, however, the two rarely saw each other as Coleridge lived in the country side and Lamb lived in the city, where he cared for his mentally ill sister (Merriman.) On one of the rare days Lamb went to visit him, Coleridge planed to go on a walk through the scenic area surrounding his house with Lamb and some other friends, but before they left, Coleridge’s wife accidentally dropped boiling milk on his foot and he was unable to participate in the walk (Benzon.) While the others gallivanted across the countryside, Coleridge sat in his garden and wrote this poem.
(II, ii, 35) His innocence was killed and he knows that he has to live with this guilt for the rest of his life, hence Macbeth will never sleep peacefully ever again. After each successive murder, Macbeth becomes more and more inhumane. “I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o 'er.” (III, iv, 143-145)
He no longer is the innocent soldier he once way, he now has “unclean hands”. Lady Macbeth however, assumes his innocence. She claims she cannot murder Duncan herself because Duncan looks to much like her sleeping father. She is all words and no actions. Macbeth is devoid of any human emotions as the play goes on, and Lady Macbeth assumes the emotional role. Lady Macbeth begins to have dreams in which she cannot get the blood off her hands, and ultimately commits suicide from guilt of her actions. This breakdown of Lady Macbeth really highlights how inhuman the murder of Duncan has made Macbeth.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth the theme of guilt and conscience is one of the most prominent in the play. It gives life to the play and gives depth to the characters, it makes Macbeth a much more realistic character because we are shown that he is not perfect and still responds to temptation. The results of committing evil acts have such a powerful effect on the human mind, that it is eventually destroyed by it. Macbeth’s destroyed mind is evident when he states, “O full of scorpions is my mind dear wife!”. Macbeth and his wife, like all of us must live with our own actions; unfortunately his choices make this impossible and light the way to a tragic and dusty death for the Macbeths.
By embracing evil, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have committed unnatural actions that disturb them. Their guilt does not leave them in peace, and slowly degrades their health. Macbeth's guilt causes him to act strangely in front of his guests, and it disturbs him deeply. Macbeth's guilt is deeply mutilated, and it only affects him when he hallucinates "Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves / Shall never tremble" (III.iv.124-125), and as soon as his visions disappear he feels better "Why so, being gone, / I am a man again.- Pray you sit still" (iii.iV.130-131), not something normal considering the actions he has committed. His guilt paralyzes him when he does feel it, but most of the time he is guiltless, and that encourages him to commit more murder. Although his guilt does not ultimately destroy him, it is a factor that brings his own men against him, since through his guilt he reveals the actions he has committed.
1 Modern Poetry. Third Edition. Norton. I am a naysayer. 2003. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the Williams, William.
Macbeth’s story highlights the inherent goodness found in all of us, but also the evil that lurks within us, unnourished. Although there is no redemption for Macbeth’s evil sins, he finally comes to acknowledge his crimes and thus can provoke pity in the eyes of the audience. Macbeth’s psychological journey from a courageous general to a “ dead butcher” (5.9.41) is one that truly merits to be called a tragedy.
This specific action consequently resulted in Macbeth’s level of morality to continually decline as he is acutely aware of his own tyranny. Therefore Macbeth attempts to forget the horrific deed he has committed and be the figure that orders and disorders. Our perception of Macbeth being a wise and loyal soldier is now eroded, as we start to view Macbeth constantly questioning his own actions, and is also impelled to perpetrate further atrocities with the intention of covering up his previous wrong-doings.