The Pent-up Guilt in Macbeth Essay -- Macbeth essays

The Pent-up Guilt in Macbeth There is hardly any sense in William Shakespeares tragedy Macbeth that outweighs that of guilt. Both bird Macbeth and Macbeth are seriously compromised by the impact of this emotion. Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare explain how guilt impacts Lady Macbeth Having sustained her weaker husband, her own strength gives way and in sleep, when her will cannot control her thoughts, she is piteously afflicted by the memory of one stain of blood upon her piddling hand. (792) In Fools of Time Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye sees a relationship between Macbeths guilt and his hallucinations The future moment is the moment of guilt, and it imposes on one, until it is reached, the intolerable strain of be innocent. . . . Macbeths capacity for seeing things that may or may not be there is almost limitless, and the appearance of the mousetrap play to Claudius, though more intimately explained, ha s the same dramatic point as the appearance of Banquos ghost. (90) Fanny Kemble in Lady Macbeth asserts that Lady Macbeth was unconscious of her guilt, which nevertheless killed her A very able article, create some years ago in the National Review, on the character of Lady Macbeth, insists much upon an opinion that she died of remorse, as some palliation of her crimes, and mitigation of our offense of them. That she died of wickedness would be, I think, a juster verdict. Remorse is consciousness of guilt . . . and that I think Lady Macbeth never had though the unrecognized pressure of her great guilt killed her. (116-17) In Memoranda Remarks on the Charact... ...Frye, Northrop. Fools of Time Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada University of Toronto Press, 1967. Kemble, Fanny. Lady Macbeth. Macmillans Magazine, 17 (February 1868), p. 354-61. Rpt. in Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK Manchester University Pres s, 1997. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. http//chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin. Siddons, Sarah. Memoranda Remarks on the sheath of Lady Macbeth. The Life of Mrs. Siddons. Thomas Campbell. London Effingham Wilson, 1834. Rpt. in Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK Manchester University Press, 1997. Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada University of Toronto Press, 1957.