Saturday, November 22, 2008
Guilt in Macbeth
I think it is interesting to examine how guilt in Macbeth drives the plot of the latter part of the play, specifically by comparing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth equates guilt with weakness and femininity early on in the play when she asks to feel no guilt over the planned murder of Duncan. However, it is Macbeth the masculine character that questions the plot because of his loyalty to his king, suggesting that he feels some guilt. Additionally, Lady Macbeth puts on a more convincing show for Macduff after Duncan is killed, but Macbeth is so affected that he messily tries to cover up his crime, making Macduff suspicious of him. Lady Macbeth is also ashamed and unsympathetic of Macbeth's guilt, chiding him that water will get rid of the blood when Macbeth is bothered by the stains left by Duncan's murder and trying to stop his raving at the sight of Banquo's ghost. However, I would argue that Lady Macbeth cannot escape her nature or her guilt, but that she is trying to suppress it and it is simply dormant. Even when she rubs the red of the blood off, her skin is still red from the rubbing, and therefore the mark of her involvement is not gone. Later, her guilt further manifests itself in her subconscious when she is sleepwalking. It is suggested later that her guilt drove her to commit suicide. Macbeth's guilt drives him not to attack himself, but others. Almost trying to rationalize his actions, Macbeth projects on others, expecting the people around him to betray him. His paranoid fears that the witches' prophecy that Banquo's heirs will be kings will come true cause Macbeth to hire killers to murder Banquo, and his guilt over that is shown when he sees Banquo's ghost at the feast. Any other thoughts on how guilt affects the viewing of Macbeth?
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In response to this post, I wanted to focus on Lady Macbeth, since she is the solid, most influential character in this play, and perhaps the most important (at least in my opinion). Through the experiences of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare demonstrates that self-destructive guilt cannot be made unpleasant by recourse to action or by even the most determined effort to expunge the pangs of conscience by active engagement in denial and transference. In the course of the Scottish tragedy, Macbeth repeatedly misinterprets the guilt that he suffers as being simply a specimen of fear. Consequently, his characteristic way of dealing with his guilt is to face it directly by committing still more misdeeds, and this, of course, only generates further shame, tangling his lifestyle webs and ruining what he has in his life as well as affecting Lady Macbeth. Once again, Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's moat prominent characters, a “femme fatale” if you will. She has strong, sly forces. And yet, upon examination of the character as she speaks in the play, one is drawn to the conclusion that there is more of the woman and wife than of the witch about her. The reader first meets Lady Macbeth as she reads the news of the witches’ salutations and prophecies. With a grim determination she resolves to make the promises of the black sisters come true. But I do not think this is where she experiences most of her guilt. We all know that the very first murder in this story was committed on Duncan and was planned by both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth although Macbeth did the actual crime. Lady Macbeth just talked about committing the crime, but she never actually went through with it nor would she ever, and that is all that counts. Talking about committing the incident is very different from actually doing it. Lady Macbeth did a little more than just talk about it though. She also urged Macbeth into doing it and that is what makes her part of this crime, but she is not as guilty as Macbeth. He really didn't have to listen to what his wife said. This all could be part of my biased opinion towards the character of Lady Macbeth though…
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