The Destruction Of Guilt In Lady Macbeth By William Shakespeare

Lady Macbeth could not handle the guilt and loneliness accompanied with her actions and killed herself. Throughout the play Lady Macbeth slowly becomes less and less of a central character, and barely has any lines past the banquet. Her fading into the background is representative of the isolation she feels from her husband. While she had origional ly started him on this path with hopes that she would rise to power with him, he has left her behind and she is left to clean up his messes. It seems as if her husband has become too obsessed with power and no longer cares for her. When Macbeth hears of her illness he seems not to care, he says “Cure her of that. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze

As he accrews more and more guilt Macbeth descends further into a spiral of insanity, he stops sleeping, kills those who were once his friends, and becomes a harsh dictator that is the complete opposite of the man we see in the beginning of the play. After the murder of Duncan Macbeth cannot contain his feelings and his guilty conscience comes pouring out of his mouth saying, “Who can be wise, amazed, temp’rate, and furious, Loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man. Th’ expedition of my violent love Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature…” (2.3.129-132) Macbeth's guilt can be clearly seen whenever he goes into a long winded speech, generally just minutes after he supposedly learned of what he is speaking about. This is seen several times throughout the play such as after he has Banquo killed and sees him at the banquet “Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ th’ olden time, Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear. The time has been That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end. But now they rise again With twenty mortal murders on their crowns And push us from our stools. This is more strange Than such a murder is.” (3.4.91-99) Macbeth speaks out loud about things he should not know about. This long and wordy speech from Macbeth further