Theme of Guilt in Macbeth Essay Example

When brought up with the topic of health, physical health and wellbeing tend to be the first resort. However, mental health, and emotional health, are just as important. In the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, many of the characters exhibit feelings of guilt, which is prominently represented in the form of supernatural creatures. William Shakespeare included supernatural creatures in this play in order for the audience to visualize the impact that guilt has on Macbeth, and his wife, Lady Macbeth's, mental sanity. Macbeth witnesses everything supernatural from ghosts to hallucinations, and back again. Written in Elizabethan English, this play may be challenging to understand in some scenes, however, no matter the skill of the reader, they can easily analyze the significance of the supernatural. Shakespeare includes three witches throughout the play, which guide the actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, essentially leading to their downfall. After their first occurrence, Macbeth starts to see other supernatural beings who strengthen his ambition towards becoming king. However, subsequent to killing the former king, Macbeth has even more supernatural interactions which possibly cause him to regret his actions. The role of supernatural beings in the portrayal of guilt, frame the proclamation that supernatural influence is a mirrored representation of the character in which they haunt, causing their future actions to be altered, in this case, for the worse. 

In a conversation with the witches, Banquo states, “If you can look into the seeds of time/ And say which grain will grow and which will not,/ Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear/ Your favors nor your hate” (1.3.61-64).  Banquo is approaching them skeptically and with caution because he cannot confirm if they are supernatural or just regular women-like creatures. He does not want to upset them because he is aware that, if they are supernatural, then they may have the ability to harm him. However, he is not too cautious, considering that he can’t tell if they are just crazy old women, with beards. This quote is significant because Banquo realized that if they really can see the future, then they might as well tell him his prophecy because whether it is negative or positive, it will not influence his life. Had the prophecy been negative, he has no proof that these beings are reliable whatsoever. The witches' prophecy consists of Macbeth becoming a thane, Macbeth becoming king, and Banquo’s descendants becoming kings. Although Banquo waits for time to tell, Macbeth realizes that if he wants his prophecies to reign true, then he must murder the current king, Duncan. Macbeth has some issues with carrying out his actions, so Lady Macbeth decides to get involved. Lady Macbeth calls out to the spirits, and states, “Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of direst cruelty” (1.5.47-50). Lady Macbeth arrived at the conclusion that Macbeth lacks ruthlessness, which is preventing him from fulfilling the witches' prophecy. Lady Macbeth, after considering the perks and consequences, decides that she needs to assist Macbeth in the murder. Lady Macbeth says that she needs the spirits to come and take away her weak emotions, as associated with women in the time. She wants to be filled with cruelty, so she can do the merciless attack without feeling guilty or immoral. Later in the play, some of the characters encounter other variations of supernatural creatures, rather than the witches in which everyone can see. 

Physical supernatural encounters are not the only peculiar occurrences that happen in the play, some of the characters begin to have hallucinations and ghost encounters related to the guilt that comes along with murder. For example, Macbeth has a conversation with the ghost of Banquo, and as if that isn’t traumatizing enough, it is in the face of the public at a formal dinner held by Lady Macbeth and himself. As Lady Macbeth is assisting everyone to exit their first dinner as King and Queen, Macbeth says, to the ghost of Banquo, “avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee. / Thy bones are marrowless; thy blood is cold; / thou hast no speculation in those eyes / which thou dost glare with” (3.4.113-118). This quote is significant because Macbeth appears to be going insane because he seems to be talking to himself when in reality it is his conscience eating away at his mind with guilt. Macbeth's internal struggles are self-induced, because if he was not as power-hungry and ambitious as he is, then he would not be in this scenario, to begin with. Analyzed, this quote signifies that Macbeth imagines Banquo’s eyes as cold and glaring, as one may appear when dead. Knowing that Macbeth caused said death, he is forced to live with the fact that he killed a man. Macbeth states, also while speaking with the ghost of Banquo, “Thou Canst not say I did it. Never shake/ Thy gory locks at me” (3.4.  62-63). This quote indicates that Macbeth does not feel like Banquo can blame him for his death because it was not Macbeth himself who physically murdered Banquo. This is dramatic irony because the reader knows that Macbeth hired men to kill Banquo. Unlike when Macbeth murdered Duncan, Macbeth physically put the dagger into his flesh, where it was not the same case for Banquo. Macbeth is trying to avoid the guilt, however, the victim is standing right in front of him and looking him into the eyes which makes it complicated for Macbeth to figure out how to get out of this scenario. Somewhat speaking of the dagger, Macbeth had hallucinations surrounding a floating dagger in which he used to kill former King Duncan. The impact of the dagger on Macbeth’s sanity was one of the first times where the reader confirms Macbeth's extreme guilt in the form of a symbol. 

The dagger that is used to kill Duncan plays a significant role in the play. The dagger is the only thing between Macbeth’s hand and King Duncan’s corpse. In addition, after Macbeth commits the act, he forgets to return the dagger to its rightful location, due to the shock and inability to comprehend the deed that he had done. Macbeth says, “Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,/ Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,/ And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,/ Which was not so before” (2.1. 56-59). This quote is significant because as Macbeth is walking down the hallway, following the path of daggers, he realizes that if he has not killed Duncan, then his eyes would not be deceiving him. Macbeth looks at the daggers and sees the crime which he committed, and relives the blade cutting Duncan, hence releasing surpluses of blood. He sees dungeons, in which he could be sent to, at the very least, if someone figures out what he did. Before killing Duncan, he did not see daggers in that way, nor did he see floating weapons in his home. Another time when a character's eyes were deceiving them was when Lady Macbeth began to sleepwalk. As she was sleepwalking, she was doing a handwashing-like motion. As Lady Macbeth talks in her sleep, while continuously doing the hand motion, she states, “The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is/ she now?—What, will these hands ne'er be clean?—No/ more o' that, my lord, no more o' that. You mar all/ with this starting” (5.1.44-47). Lady Macbeth, having been the brains behind the murder of King Duncan, is trying to wash his blood off of her hands, and wash his murder off of her consciousness, however, no matter how hard she tries, she cannot come clean. Lady Macbeth tries to regain innocence but soon realizes that it is not possible. This essentially leads to her downfall, since, not too long after this occurrence, she commits suicide. For the entirety of the play, Lady Macbeth believes that Macbeth would be the one to spoil the murder to the public, due to his fragility and inability to remain strong. Little did she know that she was the one to break the news. 

In conclusion, not only did the supernatural witches cause Macbeth to feel the need to kill King Duncan, but Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth, were both haunted by the effects of guilt by doing so. The actions that Macbeth took after hearing the prophecy of the witches caused many other supernatural events to occur which paranoid Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth, until they were driven insane. Indirectly, the supernatural caused the deaths of not only King Duncan, Duncan’s two guards, Banquo and Siward, but also, both, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare conveyed the significance of thinking about possible consequences prior to fulfilling actions because when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth saw the opportunities that could come along with speeding up the witches' prophecy, their ambition got out of control which spiraled into a disaster. The constant influence by ghosts, witches, hallucinations, dreams, and other paranormal events assisted Macbeth’s downfall, hence causing his negative character development to be fueled by the supernatural.