Lady Macbeth Guilt

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Shakespeare’s Macbeth depicts a desire for power, guilt, and plenty of murder. These traits shift from character to character throughout the story. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both reverse roles and gradually turn into each other throughout the play. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is depicted as ruthless and heartless because of her plan to kill the king. She is controlling of Macbeth and speaks degradingly to him in order to get him to carry out her evil plans. Because of this, Lady Macbeth is also seen as the more masculine character and the leader in the relationship. She prays to the spirits, saying “Make thick my blood, stop up th’ access and passage to remorse (I v 41-42).” She wants to be more “manly” and to not feel bad about…show more content…
He does not want to go along with his wife’s plan. He views King Duncan with admiration and doesn’t want to harm him. Eventually he does kill the king, but he feels a great amount of remorse and guilt. Later in the play, Macbeth takes on the role of his wife by planning the murder of Macduff’s family. He becomes more like the leader and more masculine partner when his wife asks about his schemes by saying “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, till thou applaud the deed (III iii 45-46).” Macbeth never truly feels guilty for the murder of Macduff’s family and views it more as something that had to been done, rather than as a sin. Near the end of the play, Lady Macbeth seems to act more and more like her husband after his first murder. A doctor and another woman see her sleepwalking while talking about the murders and trying to wash her hands. She feels as if she cannot clean her hands, or her conscious, of the murder. This is very similar to Macbeth after he murdered the king, where he says “Will all great Neptune’s’ ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine (II ii 59-61). He feels like no amount of washing his hands would ever get them clean, and that the blood shed would even turn the oceans

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