Guilt In Macbeth

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Pages: 3

Macbeth. Guilty or not guilty? You be the Judge. Guilt is a recurring theme explored throughout literature and drama. Guilt can be explored through various language and dramatic techniques. Within Macbeth, Shakespeare suggests Guilt and Conscience is a powerful force which drives characters to mentally deteriorate.

This is communicated in Macbeth's Dagger soliloquy in Act 2 Scene 1, where he has a hallucination of a bloody dagger and asks himself" Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?" Here, Macbeth is unsure if the blood-stained dagger is real, or just a figment of his imagination. The metaphor in this rhetorical question, "proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain", is disease imagery, connecting the illusion of the dagger to a sick
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Macbeth has another apparition, this time of a ghost of previously murdered Banquo. After he accuses the lords seated at the table of playing a practical joke on him, he speaks directly to the ghost sitting in his place on the table, saying " Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake Thy gory locks at me." This emotive language suggests that the sight of the ghost has triggered fear in Macbeth. The audience can recognise the distress Macbeth is experiencing when he says “Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee.Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold.Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with!” Shakespeare uses an imperative to convey Macbeth’s struggle for control in this situation. He incorporates this with the blood motif, representing Macbeth’s guilt, just like the blood stained dagger in his soliloquy. Saying this proves quite treacherous as he loses consciousness that nobles, witnesses, are present, and talks to Banquo's ghost as if there was no one else in the hall. The irrational behaviour of almost unintentionally giving himself up for the planned murder of Banquo, proves Macbeth’s