Lady Macbeth Guilt Essay

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Recommended: Exploring the theme of guilt in macbeth

Jasmine Szucs
1-16-2015
English 2
Ms. Martin
Lady Macbeth: Consequences of Unrequited Guilt The Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth emphasizes the important and unanticipated effect of guilt through the murders of Duncan and Banquo. Lady Macbeth is a heinous and overly ambitious woman. Her desire for authority debilitates her ability to distinguish between right and wrong. As a result, she loses her integrity by concocting a grandiose plan to execute two honored noblemen. As she witnesses the mentally degrading effects of guilt within the mind of Macbeth, the negative power of guilt grows within her as well. When Lady Macbeth's prestige is at its peak, her growing ambition for power corrupts her morals and results in her conversion into a ruthless …show more content…

Lady Macbeth's enthusiasm towards the prophecy reveals herself to have strikingly unscrupulous qualities. Her first inclination is to take matters into her own hands, by doing whatever it takes to make the prophecy become a reality. However, she feels that Macbeth, although ambitious, is not as relentless as she is. She fears that "... thy nature, it is too full o' the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it." (I.V.16-20). Lady Macbeth knows that her husband is ambitious, but she fears that Macbeth is not merciless enough for the guilt associated with their plan to gain the …show more content…

Moreover, the murders have also devastated Lady Macbeth in her subconscious state. While sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth exemplifies the theme of washing and cleansing. She urges Macbeth to murder Duncan and Banquo, but then deludes herself into believing that "A little water will clear us of the deed."(II.III.86). In the first scene of Act V, Lady Macbeth washes her hands profusely knowing that "These hands will ne'er be clean." (V.I.45-46). Her bizarre behavior reveals a dramatic change in her emotional state. The blood on Lady Macbeth's hands symbolizes the overwhelming sense of guilt that she was only able to release my terminating her own

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