Role Of Guilt In Macbeth

The overarching effect of guilt on the human mind is interchangeable with the effect of addiction, or more commonly known as remorse. Throughout the play The Tragedy of Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, the effect of guilt is a persistent aid in both character and plot development. Macbeth undertakes in certain actions that will undoubtedly change himself and his wife Lady Macbeth as characters. Shakespeare's prolific use of imagery as a symbol demonstrates the constant feelings of guilt felt by many, eventually leading to their anxiety and terror, and as a way to exhibit special effects in Shakespeare's time to create atmosphere. Throughout the play, the imagery of blood as a symbol adopted by Shakespeare allows for the feeling of guilt to be presented extremely well. Shortly after the opening of the play, Lady Macbeth foresees a great
Since a majority of Shakespeare’s audience read his plays, Shakespeare needed a way to conceive images into the blank canvas that is the mind: imagery. All throughout the play, imagery is used to show what is occurring currently. Near the latter half of the play, Lady Macbeth begins to sleepwalk and display signs of insanity and craziness. Both the doctor and the gentlewoman observe her crying out “Out damned spot! Out, I say! One; two: why, then, ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who know it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him”(5.1 32-7)? Yet another instance of the imagery of blood pertaining to guilt, this particular proclamation helps demonstrate the power of using imagery as special effects to create an