Guilt in Shakespeares Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Guilt in Macbeth There is a large burden of ungodliness carried by Lady Macbeth and Macbeth in Shakespeares tragedy Macbeth. Lets look at this situation closely in the following essay. Fanny Kemble in Lady Macbeth asserts that Lady Macbeth was unconscious of her guilt, which n constantlytheless killed her Lady Macbeth, even in her sleep, has no qualms of conscience her remorse takes none of the tenderer forms akin to repentance, nor the weaker ones allied to fear, from the pursuit of which the tortured soul, seeking where to hide itself, not seldom escapes into the boundless wilderness of madness. A really able article, published some years ago in the National Review, on the character of Lady Macbeth, insists much upon an opinion that she died of remorse, as some mitigation of her crimes, and mitigation of our detestation of them. That she died of wickedness would be, I think, a juster verdict. Remorse is consciousness of guilt . . . and that I think Lady Macbeth never had th ough the unrecognized twitch of her great guilt killed her. (116-17) In Memoranda Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons mentions the guilt and ambition of Lady Macbeth and their effect Re I have given draw and quarter (1.7.54ff.) Even here, horrific as she is, she shews herself made by ambition, but not by nature, a perfectly savage creature. The very use of such a tender allusion in the midst of her dreadful language, persuades one unequivocally that she has really felt the maternal yearnings of a mother towards her babe, and that she considered this action the most enormous that ever required the strength of human brace for its perpetration. Her language to Macbeth is the most potently eloquent that guilt could use. (56) Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare explain how guilt impacts Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth is of a finer and more delicate nature. Having fixed her eye upon the end - the attainment for her husb and of Duncans crown - she accepts the inevitable means she nerves herself for the terrible nights work by artificial stimulants yet she cannot strike the sleeping king who resembles her father. Having sustained her weaker husband, her own strength gives way and in sleep, when her will cannot arrest her thoughts, she is piteously afflicted by the memory of one stain of blood upon her little hand.