Guilt & Paranoia

Guilt

After Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s unchecked ambition cause their downfall, their guilt and paranoia drive them insane. Their experiences of guilt however are different and expose their difference in character.

Macbeth’s guilt is focused on the murder of Duncan. After he kills Duncan his guilt turns into paranoia and causes him to go on a murder spree. The perception of himself as an honourable hero dies along with Duncan. Shakespeare suggests guilt and conscience are more powerful than ambition.

Paranoia

Paranoia is portrayed as a poison that is relentless and inescapable. Because of his fears Macbeth loses his heroic qualities and becomes murderous and mad. Shakespeare shows that Macbeth’s ambition is punished with guilt and paranoia.

Unlike Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is initially free from guilt, but as the play progresses she closes herself off to everyone and sleep walks while being trapped in guilty thoughts. Her guilt takes over her gradually but is very destructive. Through this Shakespeare shows how even the most callous people aren’t immune to God’s judgement and their own human conscience.

Blood

Blood is used as a motif throughout the play to show how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth react to guilt. They both react differently to the blood which reveals to the audience how differently their minds work. Lady Macbeth thinks she can easily wash the blood and remove guilt, she isn’t focused on the murder but getting caught. In contrast, Macbeth is shocked and focused on the blood on his hands. He knows their guilt goes beyond the literal blood.

Macbeth is faced by his guilt in the form of blood-soaked hallucinations. Shakespeare presents guilt as an intense psychological torture that challenges reality. First the dagger (Act 2 scene 1) and again when Banquo’s ghost appears (Act 3 scene 4). Because no one else can see these hallucinations Macbeth seems mentally ill to others. In Jacobean times mentally ill people were thought to be possessed.

Sleep

Shakespeare uses sleep as a symbol of innocence and peace, it brings comfort and an escape from troubles of reality. After Duncan’s murder Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as murderers, no longer able to sleep peacefully but instead nightmares. With the murder they have sacrificed their serenity and now are faced with torment from their conscience.

Because they can no longer sleep they are struck with insomnia. Macbeth’s insomnia and nightmares could cause his mindset to be plagued with murder and death. Lady Macbeth’s sleep is disturbed by sleep walking, implying her mind is never at rest. This could suggest that Lady Macbeth is doomed to always replay the murder.

CONTEXT

divine right of kings

• doctrine that the power of monarchs were given by God

• any attack on the king was an attack on God as well

James I heavily supported the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, and Shakespeare conveys how dangerous a crime regicide was by presenting it as a betrayal of God, heaven and the whole natural world

great chain of being

• Religious idea that God has a designed order for nature and humankind

• God rules the King, King rules the people, Man rules his wife etc

• If someone altered their position it would be seen as going against God

Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth’s masculinity, control and ambition as unnatural, along with Macbeth’s desire to take the king’s place unrightfully

KEY SCENES

• Act 2 scene 2 - Macbeth feels guilt after killing Duncan

• Act 3 scene 4 - Banquo’s ghost appears at the table

BIG PICTURE

• how terrible a crime regicide was, not only an act of murder and treason, but also as a crime against God

• the dangers of disrupting society and god’s natural order and the Great Chain of being

• how guilt can never truly be escaped from