Guilt quotations✅

Macbeth quotations for guilt

F o s i m m

Full of scorpions is my mind

Full of scorpions is my mind

• Shows how the knowledge of Fleance and Banquo still being alive contaminates and poisons Macbeth' - fills him with dread

• Shows his belief in the prophecies as he can’t rest easy knowing they are threats to the throne

• Adjective ‘full’ shows how excessive his guilt is

• The imagery of ‘scorpions’ hints how the witches have poisoned his every thought

M d m s

Macbeth doth murder sleep

Macbeth doth murder sleep

• Sleep is a personified as a victim of Macbeth’s actions

• Reflects Macbeth’s guilt as he has lost the inner peace that sleep guarantees

• Showing how regicide as internal (Macbeth’s mind) and external (disruption of natural order) consequences

W a g N o w t b c f m h

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand

• Contrasting LM’s “a little water”, shows how Macbeth is initially more tormented by guilt than his naive wife

• Macbeth uses hyperbolic imagery to show that no amount of water can cleanse his guilt

• The murder is so unnatural and heinous that it could turn nature's colors from green to blood red.

N s t g l a m

Never shake thy gory locks at me

Never shake thy gory locks at me

• Imperative shows how he believes he can control and manipulate the supernatural

• Being haunted by Banquo’s ghost illustrates his guilt and deteriorating mental state

O d s

Out damned spot!

Out damned spot!

• Exclamation shows her downward journey from power to madness and hysteria

• Demonstrates her inability to escape the consequences of her and Macbeth's actions

• Highlights the psychological torment she experiences, showing the destructive power of unchecked ambition.

M m s h k a m r

Make my seated heart knock at my ribs

Make my seated heart knock at my ribs

• Foreshadows the guilt Macbeth will soon feel

• Shows how he is aware of the dangerous path his ambition will lead him down

• Personification of heart shows the conflict between his morals and his ambition

W d c b u

What’s done cannot be undone

What’s done cannot be undone

• Flat emotionaless tone shows how LM is so mentally tormented by guilt she can no longer suppress it

• Contrasts earlier confidence

• Shows her powerlessness

t t o f h a w

The Thane of Fife had a wife

The Thane of Fife had a wife

• Poetic features despite prose show remnants of LM’s old self

• Destruction of her language reflects her mental decay, as she always held the most power by using language but now she can’t

i t a d w i s b m … c l m c t

Is this a dagger which I see before me … come let me clutch thee

Is this a dagger which I see before me … come let me clutch thee

• Hallucination shows deteriorating mental state

• Verb “let” connotes passivity, highlighting how Macbeth believes he has power over the supernatural but really he has to beg it to obey him

• Foreshadows how the guilt will haunt him

i c n s a

I could not say amen

I could not say amen

• Macbeth rejects religion which would have been abhorred at the time

• Separating himself from God shows how he doesn’t have the Divine Right of Kings

• Shows how guilt severs his relationship with God, implying moral and spiritual corruption as a result of regicide