Lady Macbeth's Guilt

“If you build the guts to do something, anything, then you better save enough to face the consequences.” - Criss Jami. Any wrongdoing always comes with a consequence. Then it is important to prepare for the aftermath.In the play, Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth plan to kill a king so Macbeth could receive the title of king. Since they both hadn’t expected any consequences, they went ahead with the plan. Macbeth and his wife commit the murder together. As the play progresses, the two criminals begin to feel guilty in different ways for their actions and they let their guilt consume them and this leads to their death. Macbeth’s guilt is influenced by disease and this leads to his decapitation. Lady Macbeth also …show more content…
She tries to use water to help her cope with the guilt from her actions.When the first murder occurs, Lady Macbeth is confident, she believes “A little water clears us of this deed. / How easy is it, then!”(2.2.66-67). Lady Macbeth compares washing her hands, a simple task, to washing blood of her hands. Essentiality, she is trying to say that the action is not great in importance. She gives the impression that she had confidence in the water. Lady Macbeth appears to be more confident than Macbeth when the murder takes place. In fact, she convinces Macbeth to commit the murder. Her confidence during the murder comes from her belief that there will be no consequences to her actions because the water will remove any evidence of the crime left on her hands. She assumes washing her hands to remove the evidence is equivalent to forgetting the deed which has been done. This type of thinking is an example of absurd thinking. As the play progresses Lady Macbeth becomes ill, and the water that made her so confident becomes an unreliable source of relief. Lady Macbeth sleepwalks and dreams of water not being able to aid the removal of the blood on her hands, but the blood won’t come “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!-One, two. Why, then / ‘tis time to do ‘t.”(5.1.25-26)Lady Macbeth is understandably upset at the situation. She questions “Why, then / ‘tis time to do ‘t.”, she is confused to why the water wouldn’t assist to eliminate the blood from her hands considering it had helped before. The literary device, irony is shown here because at the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth presumes water will fix all her problems but, now water doesn’t help, and slowly becomes her problem. Lady Macbeth channels her guilt through the water. The water gives her a false sense of security at the start of the play, making her feel as if proceeding with the killings is okay, and just. Lady Macbeth being an accessory to the homicide of

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