Macbeth - Guilt Flashcards
A quote from Act 1, Scene 2 suggesting Macbeth’s ability to show extreme violence and mercilessness without feeling any guilt for these actions, foreshadowing his capacity to kill Duncan
CAPTAIN: Carved out his passage/Till he faced the slave;/Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him/Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chops
A quote from Act 1, Scene 4 suggesting Macbeth feels some guilt even before he commits his murder, but not enough to stop him - he is naive to its destructive power
MACBETH: Stars, hide your fires,/Let not light see my black and deep desires
A quote from Act 1, Scene 7 suggesting Macbeth to suddenly feel a significant guilt for his actions while contemplating the killing of Duncan
MACBETH: His virtues/will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against/The deep damnation of his taking off
A quote from Act 2, Scene 2 demonstrating Macbeth’s fall from a brave, noble warrior to a remorse-ridden man due to his guilt over the killing of Duncan
MACBETH: Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand? No - this my hand will rather/The multitudinous seas incarnadine
A quote from Act 2, Scene 2 demonstrating Lady Macbeth’s ruthless guiltlessness in her quest for power at the beginning of the play
LADY MACBETH: A little water clears us of this deed./How easy it is then!
A quote from Act 3, Scene 2 showing Macbeth to be constantly tortured by his guilt from killing Duncan and his desire to kill Banquo and Fleance, possibly as a result of his and his wife’s descent into evil
MACBETH: O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives
A quote from Act 3, Scene 4 showing Macbeth’s inner battle as he attempts to convince himself that he is not the guilty party in Banquo’s murder to no avail
MACBETH: Thou canst not say I did it; never shake/Thy gory locks at me!
A quote from Act 3, Scene 4 showing Lady Macbeth to be mocking of her husband’s guilt, suggesting she has not yet succumb to it
LADY MACBETH: This is the very painting of your fear;/This is the air-drawn dagger which you said/Led you to Duncan… A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,/Authorised by her grandam
A quote from Act 3, Scene 4 suggesting Macbeth is beginning to become numb to his guilt, believing he may as well continue with he spree of murders in order to secure his power, as his guilt could not be made any worse
MACBETH: I am in blood/Stepped in so far that should I wade no more,/Returning were as tedious as go o’er
A quote from Act 4, Scene 1 suggesting Macbeth has begun to leave behind guilt in order to solidify his position of king, regardless of his brutality
MACBETH: From this moment,/The very firstlings of my heart shall be/The firstlings of my hand
A quote from Act 5, Scene 1 reflecting Lady Macbeth’s desperation to be free of her guilt, and the idea that she is already being punished for her actions
LADY MACBETH: Out, dammed spot! Out, I say!… Hell is murky!
A quote from Act 5, Scene 1 presenting Lady Macbeth to have been eaten by guilt, despite believing herself to be invisible to it
LADY MACBETH: Who would have thought the old man to have had/so much blood in him?
A quote from Act 5, Scene 1 contrasting Lady Macbeth’s confidence that “a little water clears us of this deed”, presenting the idea that no one can be invisible to guilt and that it will eat away at all who earn it
LADY MACBETH: Will these hands ne’er be clean?
A quote from Act 5, Scene 1 reflecting the idea that guilt has destroyed Lady Macbeth, reducing her back to the feminine fragility she tried so hard to rid herself of (“unsex me here”) and that the guilt has completely taken over her living being
LADY MACBETH: Here’s the smell of blood still - all the perfumes/of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand
A quote from Act 5, Scene 5 suggesting guilt has broken Macbeth down to a shell of the man he once was, unfeeling and believing life to be futile
MACBETH: “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,/Creeps in this petty pace from day to day/To the last syllable of recorded time”
