Lucas Puchades

10/2/2023

Advanced Placement English Language and Composition

Mrs. Borrelli

FCAs

Clear and Concise Thesis (25)

Introduction and Conclusion Paragraph (45)

Introduce, State, and Explain Quotations (30)

The Guilt of Lady Macbeth

Guilt, a complex and deeply engrained emotion in the human brain, serves as a powerful

moral compass, influencing our thoughts, actions, and relationships. In writing, characters

change throughout their story and can develop feelings of guilt. These changes affect their

actions and can play a huge part in how the story plays out. In the play, Macbeth, by William

Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth purposefully corrupts herself with darkness in order to accomplish

things she otherwise deems unattainable, because of this she is overcome with guilt resulting in

significant impact on the story, and her death.

Lady Macbeth is still too nervous to kill Duncan, even after her corruption by darkness

and intoxication to cloud her judgment. Because of this, Macbeth goes into Duncan’s room to

kill him himself. After the murder of Duncan, he comes back out of the room to converse with

Lady Macbeth with his hands and a dagger covered in blood. At this time, Lady Macbeth says,

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/Clean fom my hand? No: this my hand will
rather/The multitudinous seas incardine,/Making the green one red" (2,2,63-66) This quote

displays Lady Macbeth’s guilt, praying to the gods to wash the blood off of her husband’s, and

now also her own hands. The interpretation of the quote is symbolism that the blood will never

truly be washed off and will stay there as a permanent mark of guilt over the murder of Duncan.

Lady Macbeth’s blood will continue to stay on her throughout the play, and her constant desire to

get rid of it and wash it off is a metaphor for her guilt getting worse and worse and eventually

being the cause of her demise.

In Act 5, scene 1, Lady Macbeth has been burdened with this guilt for many months and

has started showing obvious signs of distress. She has started sleepwalking and muttering about

her crimes in her sleep. A doctor and her lady hears this and are deeply disturbed. Lady Macbeth

then says, "Here's the smell of blood still. All perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little

hand.” (5,1,34-35) Lady Macbeths statement clearly conveys how deep her regret lies in the

murder of Duncan and Banquo. Its also ironic, because of her mockery and name calling of her

husband when he didn’t want to kill Duncan in the first place. This quote also displays how

nothing will ever be able to wash away her guilt of murder, in similarity to the previous quote.

At the end of the play Lady Macbeth eventually completely falls victim to her immense

guilt. After her confession to the doctor and her lady she finally admits how guilty she is for

killing Duncan. Even after her confession she isn’t fixed, and her only solution is to commit

suicide. In Act 5, scene 5, Seyton tells Macbeth he hears, “the cry of a women, my good lord.”

Her suicide is a result of her fake confidence that she puts on to convince Macbeth to kill and not

be a coward. Her guilt became way too much for her to handle and even confessing to her crimes

was not enough to ease her consciousness. After her death, Macbeth doesn’t even care, which is

another display of irony, since Lady Macbeth kept calling him a coward.
 Lady Macbeths buildup of guilt and discontent caused great turmoil inside her and

eventually did result in her suicide. She could not handle all the killings and horrible things she,

and Macbeth, had to do to achieve this power and status. She could not just wipe away the blood

on her hands and permanent trauma it left in her brain. This immense guilt corrupted her even

more than the darkness and led to her unfortunate demise.