To What Extent Does the Impact of Guilt on the Characters Similar in Macbeth and An Inspector Calls?

Macbeth and An Inspector Calls, both plays written by William Shakespeare and J.B Priestley. The pair embeds the aspect of guilt upon their characters. ‘Macbeth’, a play written in 1605, set in 11th century Scotland. Contrastingly ‘An Inspector Calls,’ written in 1945, set in the North Midlands during the post-war period. Despite the variation in setting, the impact of guilt on the characters were similarly approached.

Situated at the the start of the play, Shakespeare exposes Lady Macbeth’s masculinity through her dialogue. Lady Macbeth has just received the news that Macbeth has been named Thane of Cawdor, during in which she said, “Come you spirits...Unsex me here.” When Lady Macbeth uses the words, ‘unsex me’ she is exhibiting that she has no passion in acting like a normal woman of that medieval time. Alternatively she aspires to resemble a masculine personality. She assumes if she takes on the role of a man, she can convey the audacity to commit regicide. Relating to the theme of guilt, Lady Macbeth shows no real concern about killing and regicide, which demonstrates that she either has very little guilt or none at all. The audience of 1605 will presume that she is trying to go against nature and God. In 1605 most of the audience must have had very strong beliefs and conduct life in a way Christianity teaches them. When they encounter someone, like the character of Lady Macbeth they will assume she is going against God’s will. This generates negative vibes from the audience and leads to the audience disliking Lady Macbeth’s character.

Similarly Priestley illustrates the femininity of Sheila via her dialogue. Towards the middle of the play, Sheila is explaining her story to the Inspector, when Pries...

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...ts heavily impacted by her guilt. Priestley shows that Sheila has changed to a better person due to guilt. We see this when, “You might aswell tell him, because he is going to make you tell him.” By using ‘ Might as well’ Priestley is trying to display that Sheila has changed from a feminine and girly character to a more mature and well rounded person. Comparing Sheila to Lady Macbeth, we can interpret that guilt has done good to Sheila, as she learnt to use guilt to become a better person. However Lady Macbeth has been engulfed by the power of her guilt which has lead to death. Linking to Priestley’s views we can see that he has used social views that everyone is same, to aid his message. Initially Sheila was spoilt and different to everyone else but now she has changed and are more equal to everyone else.