Guilt Flashcards
‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood from my hand?’
L = hyperbolic imagery emphasizes the magnitude of his crime; even the God of the sea can’t wash the blood away.
D = the blood can be washed from his hands, but it will stain his conscience for eternity.
‘Wake Duncan with thy knocking, I would thou coulds’t’
L = the stools symbolise the throne – Macbeth ordered Banquo’s murder to protect his throne but Banquo still threatens it from beyond the grave. Banquo’s ghost is a projection of Macbeth’s guilty conscience that increases his paranoia.
‘they rise again… and push us from our stools’
L = the stools symbolise the throne – Macbeth ordered Banquo’s murder to protect his throne but Banquo still threatens it from beyond the grave. Banquo’s ghost is a projection of Macbeth’s guilty conscience that increases his paranoia.
‘give to the edge of the sword his wife, his babes…’
now killing even innocent infants.
R = the audience despises Macbeth as infants cannot defend themselves; he is no longer noble.
‘I am in blood stepped in so far, returning were as tedious as go o’er’
L = the imagery of the river of blood emphasizes that Macbeth feels it is pointless to feel guilt; he has been responsible for so many murders - they cannot be undone so it is pointless to feel guilty; he may as well continue to murder anyone who threatens him.
R = audience feel pity for him as he cannot redeem himself.
‘will these hands ne’er be clean’?
L = rhetorical question is an ironic contrast to Lady Macbeth’s claim ‘a little water clears us of this deed’ after Duncan’s murder.
C = sleepwalking believed in Jacobean era to be sign of possession by evil spirits; modern audience knows it is her guilty conscience playing on her mind & giving her not rest.
TS1
Macbeth feels guilt at the murder of Duncan as he knows he is a morally good king and the murder is unjustified.
TS2
After Banquo’s murder, Macbeth’s guilt manifests itself in the form of Banquo’s ghost.
TS3
Although Lady Macbeth appears ruthless before Duncan’s murder, we see her guilty conscience when she begins sleepwalking; her guilt is so great it eventually leads her to commit suicide.
