The Bloody Hands Of Guilt: The Cause of Macbeth's Downfall

Every living person on this planet has been shadowed by the feeling of guilt and remorse once in their life. Whether this cause stems from something as minor as lying to someone, or something as major as being nearly single handedly responsible for the death of many, William Shakespeare understood this as a feeling all humans go through. Shakespeare implemented underlying messages in one of the world’s most famous tragedies, Macbeth, to help the audience understand many aspects of guilt, and to help prevent us from falling victim to it.

Lady Macbeth’s Guilt

One character in Macbeth who falls susceptible to guilt is Lady Macbeth. It’s prophesied in the beginning of the play that Macbeth will soon become king, and when Lady Macbeth hears of this, she is struck by ambition to do whatever it takes to become queen, even if it means being responsible for the murder of their beloved king. After King Duncan as well as other innocent citizens such as Macbeth’s friend Banquo and Banquo’s family have been killed, Lady Macbeth begins to realize she’s at fault for the death of these uninvolved people.

Now, the guilt starts to set in. Lady Macbeth says “The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?- What, will these hands ne’er be clean?–No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with

this starting” (Act V Scene I). Dating all the way back to Shakespeare’s day, it’s said that when someone is murdered, the murderer has “blood on their hands”.

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This “blood” is a metaphor for guilt, and all the emotional baggage that comes along with taking someone else’s life. Lady Macbeth is constantly washing her hands, trying to cleanse herself of the blood and guilt she knows she has spilled. She’s bent over the fact that so many wrong doings, such as the death of an innocent family have taken place due to her unwillingness to let her ambitions go.

Lady Macbeth’s Suicide

So what does this mean for us? Well, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Lady Macbeth ends up taking her own life due to the overwhelming pressure of all the treason and wrong-doings that have taken place. Clearly, committing suicide is frowned upon by any standard, so let’s learn from the mistakes Lady Macbeth made in order to better ourselves. There was a multitude of things Lady Macbeth could have done in her situation to not have ended up dead by her own hand, and this is the main idea Shakespeare wanted us as an audience to understand. Whether it’s finding a different, more legitimate method of getting what you want, or giving up on your ambition all together, don’t make decisions that will ultimately lead to your demise.

Shakespeare has a very strong use of symbolism in this quote. Being that suicide is the act of taking your own life, the irony is that the characters unknowingly make decisions that lead to their own death; making the irrational and impulsive decisions the true suicide of those who fell victim to the constant guilt eating at them. This message is very important to me and relevant to many of those around us as I’ve lost a close family member to suicide. It’s important to understand as many causes and aspects of such a huge topic so that we can prevent ourselves as well as people we’re close with from making the same mistakes Lady Macbeth made.

Macbeth’s Guilt

Guilt does not only haunt Lady Macbeth, but her husband Macbeth is also engulfed in guilt. Another lesson Shakespeare wanted the audience to understand is how guilt can lead to irrational and otherwise unwise decisions. Those decisions then lead to your own demise. Irrationality stemmed from guilt is shown when Macbeth says “I am in blood stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er: strange things I have in head, that will to hand; which must be acted ere they may be scann’d” (Act III, Scene IV). Macbeth has started to feel the guilt settle in for have murdered King Duncan and his friend Banquo. He explains that he’s so far up the ladder of death, that he must carry out more killings to have his way before he has a chance to think about his choices and feel bad about them. This is Macbeth’s attempt to discard all guilt felt for those who have died at his hand, but he is not able to wipe the image of the dead from his mind. These decisions to kill lead Macbeth to another bad decision, to the point where he’s responsible for the death of not only the king, but his friends as well. We can learn from Macbeth’s decisions and choices that the sooner you identify a bad path of unwise choices, the easier it is to stop yourself before it becomes too late.

Overall, the theme of guilt and it’s overwhelming force is a very prominent theme in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It’s shown in Lady Macbeth’s constant drive to clean the blood off of her hands that eventually push her to take her own life, as well as Macbeth’s irrational choices that cloud his mind until he dies tragically. It’s very important for us, to this day, to understand guilt in all its’ aspects so that we do not make the same mistakes Macbeth and his (almost) queen did.