Macbeth and Guilt

Macbeth Essay Alright let’s face it; we all know Macbeth killed King Duncan & is guilty without a doubt. It’s no surprise there that the guilt sinks in him & Lady Macbeth throughout the entire play. Seeing ghosts, sleep walking, insomnia, it just says guilt all over it. It just shows that guilt on the human mind is highly critical, especially when you commit some type of murder. Others may bear with the guilt & hide it deep down like myself at times, but Macbeth, yeah that’s a different story. Human guilt on the mind is highly effective in this particular play. A perfect way of showing the guilt between Macbeth & Lady Macbeth is the sleepwalking Lady Macbeth has had after the murder of King Duncan. As the gentlewoman & doctor enter the the washroom where Lady Macbeth sleepwalked to, they notice that she’s washing her hands repeatedly. “Out, damned spot! out, I say! One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him,” she says as she constantly washes her hands. The “spot,” as Lady Macbeth calls it, is the blood on her hands from the night she and Macbeth killed King Duncan. She’s trying to wash the guilt away from her hands, fearing someone will find out about them murdering the king and be executed. The gentlewoman seems like she knows, but keeps her mouth shut just to not cause anymore trouble. “Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!” No matter how many times Lady Macbeth washes her hands, the guilt will never fade away from her. Another reason to show the guilt of Macbeth is his critical insomnia, which immediately happened after he murdered King Duncan. This syndrome is commonly known as Chronic Insomnia, when one cannot sleep for more than three weeks. Macbeth’s insomnia lasted more than that. It lasted about three months. Lady Macbeth yells at him constantly, urging him to sleep for once even though he refuses. “You lack the season of all natures, sleep,” Lady Macbeth cries out to him one night as she gets tired of watching him sit there wide awake. “It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak; Augurs and understood relations have
By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?” Macbeth says as he stays awake for another restless night. It shows that the guilt of the murders he has done is slowly gaining control of his physical and mental actions. The last thing that I’m pretty sure made Macbeth guilty even more throughout the entire play is when Macbeth saw the ghost of Banquo at the dinner party. As the merriment and joyous activities proceed as Macbeth dances with the other guests, the ghost of Banquo, which Macbeth had killed, appears in the main seat at the table, covered in blood. Macbeth is the only one who sees the ghost, so it was quite sudden when he started freaking out. “Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that Which might appal the devil,” Macbeth screeches as the ghost of Banquo just sits there, glaring menacingly at him. Lady Macbeth tries to calm the guests down, saying he hallucinates all the time, that it was nothing out of the ordinary. “Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo! how say you? Why, what care I? If thou canst not, speak too,” Macbeth cries as Banquo suddenly appears standing on the dinner table. Macbeth is an all out mess from seeing this ghost while Lady Macbeth urges the guests to leave now. I think that was when Macbeth actually realized and seen the guilt in him that he had been hiding. So obviously, there is a load of guilt in the human mind of Macbeth & Lady Macbeth. But hey, that’s the price to pay when you’re a maniac tyrant who is ambitious enough to kill the king, his best friend, and many other people. The massive insomnia, ghosts of Banquo, sleep walking, all signs of guilt. He brought it to himself from greed and ambition, he gets to pay the price. Karma works in it’s mysterious ways, whether it’s blood, guilt or envy. What goes around comes around.