Guilt and Conscience

Macbeth - Ambition/ Guilt and Conscience

Macbeth tries to hide his desires because of his fear of his own ambition

Let not light see my black and deep desires - A1S4

Macbeth - Appearance and Reality/ Guilt and Conscience

Highlights themes of deception and how things aren’t as they seem - a symbol of the murder M will commit - mind plays tricks on him because of his guilt - helps understand his mental state - tormented by desires

A dagger of the mind - A2S1

Macbeth - Guilt and Conscience

By killing the divinely appointed kill he went against God and nature - guilt stops him from even saying the word

I could not say ‘Amen’ - A2S2

Macbeth - Guilt and Conscience

Disturbed due to his guilt - loss of comfort/purity - consequence of killing Duncan

Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep - A2S2

Macbeth - Guilt and Conscience

M cannot get rid of the guilt he is feeling even when he washes away the blood (symbol of guilt) - tragic

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood - A2S2

Donalbain - Appearance and Reality/ Guilt and Conscience

People are two faced - becomes paranoid because of his guilt - foreshadows the betrayals and murders that will happen

There’s daggers in men’s smiles - A2S3

Macbeth - Ambition

Highlights M’s vaulting/endless ambition - cannot be fulfilled even after getting the crown - his status is only temporary

Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown - A3S1

Macbeth - Guilt and conscience

After everything that he committed he won’t be forgiven - after all the violence he’s now trapped by his own choices/by fate - loss of morality (blood = guilt of murders and terrible deeds) -

I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that […] returning were as tedious as go o’er - A3S4

Banquo - Ambition

Power can affect even the noblest of minds - Banquo also had ambition - asks the supernatural to suppress his ambitions - shows it’s possible to refrain from acting on ambition

Merciful power,/ Restrain in me the cursed thoughts - A2S1

Banquo - Equivocation

Epithet for the witches - shows distrust in the witches - while Macbeth acts on his ambition, Banquo remains cautious

I fear/ Thou played’st most foully for ‘t - A3S1

Lady Macbeth - Masculinity/Ambition

Despite being ambitious and has a strong desire to be cruel, she cannot actually kill - still a woman, who is, by nature. weaker

Had he not resembled/ My father as he slept, I had done ‘t - A2S2

Lady Macbeth - Guilt and Conscience

Dramatic contrast between LM and M (M feels much guiltier because of killing Duncan)

A little water clears us of this dead - A2S2

Lady Macbeth - Guilt and conscience

Reveals all her repressed guilt and fears - manifested through insomnia and visions of blood - suffers the same emotions as Macbeth without expressing them - overwhelming

Out dammed spot […] will these hands ne’er be clean? - A5S1

Lady Macbeth - Guilt and conscience

Contrasts “a little water clears us” - shows how the guilt is corrupting her mind - blood as a symbol for eternal guilt - can’t escape fait

All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand - A5S1