How Does Shakespeare Show Macbeth’s Guilt, Despair and Madness?
We first see Macbeth after battle as a strong, brave man who is unafraid by the thought of killing. Some would say he didn’t have a conscience, but after the meeting with the witches, Shakespeare makes Macbeth so full of guilt and despair it turns him mad.
After the murder of Duncan, Shakespeare makes Macbeth look ashamed and filled with guilt. Saying to himself;
“Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas in incarnadine, Making the green one red.” Shakespeare has made Macbeth describe the blood like his guilt saying it shall never leave him. When talking to his wife earlier on he said to her:
“It cried “Sleep no more!” to all the house. “Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.” ” Meaning that, as sleep is a form of peace, Macbeth shall not feel peace. He will stay awake and go mad with despair.
Shakespeare shows madness in the banquet scene when Macbeth sees a “ghost” or a hallucination of banquo. No one can see the ghost except Macbeth, in some productions there is nothing there at all but others have a ghost that the cast ignores.
In the royal Shakespeare theatre production of Macbeth, Ian McKellen (Macbeth) shows complete fear and madness of the illusion hiding behind others shouting sweating even drooling like he has no control over his body, in the end his wife has to comfort him like he is a small child. Which is how I believe Shakespeare would want that scene to be portrayed.
There are lots of time I think Macbeth feels despair. When he is told that fleance is still alive he says,
“Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect, Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, As broad and general as the casing air. But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.”
Shakespeare is telling us that he is now scared. Everything would have been perfect if he hadn’t ran. But his
After the murder of Duncan, Shakespeare makes Macbeth look ashamed and filled with guilt. Saying to himself;
“Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas in incarnadine, Making the green one red.” Shakespeare has made Macbeth describe the blood like his guilt saying it shall never leave him. When talking to his wife earlier on he said to her:
“It cried “Sleep no more!” to all the house. “Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.” ” Meaning that, as sleep is a form of peace, Macbeth shall not feel peace. He will stay awake and go mad with despair.
Shakespeare shows madness in the banquet scene when Macbeth sees a “ghost” or a hallucination of banquo. No one can see the ghost except Macbeth, in some productions there is nothing there at all but others have a ghost that the cast ignores.
In the royal Shakespeare theatre production of Macbeth, Ian McKellen (Macbeth) shows complete fear and madness of the illusion hiding behind others shouting sweating even drooling like he has no control over his body, in the end his wife has to comfort him like he is a small child. Which is how I believe Shakespeare would want that scene to be portrayed.
There are lots of time I think Macbeth feels despair. When he is told that fleance is still alive he says,
“Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect, Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, As broad and general as the casing air. But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.”
Shakespeare is telling us that he is now scared. Everything would have been perfect if he hadn’t ran. But his