Macbeth Guilt Analysis

One of the great artists of all time, William Shakespeare, had a famous saying, “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man thinks himself to be the fool.” As cliché as this sounds, William Shakespeare consistently wrote about topics that he was not very familiar with himself, and therefore whenever he wrote on these subjects the reader can always tell that Shakespeare tries to be as vague as possible while still getting his point across. In the book Macbeth, there are many sciences, political perspectives, and social characteristics that Shakespeare was not familiar with, yet still wrote about frequently. One specific topic that fits the previous criteria is the field of psychology. Shakespeare’s characters seem to possess the symptoms …show more content…
The reason Macbeth is so mentally torn is because of his usually straight moral compass and because of his history of loyalty to the King. According to Audrey Marlene author of “Guilty Feelings", Macbeth seems to be feeling retrospective guilt. This type of guilt usually lasts for years, and can cause serious damage to the psyche. In addition, ones past actions and the daunting fact that one could have made the choice to stop the tragedy, triggers this guilt. This lesson can be directly applied to Macbeth and watching how his actions affect his mental stability in Act 2 Scene …show more content…
The idea that fear comes from the fear of the returning action is key in the understanding of why Macbeth is so jumpy all of a sudden. The theory is that because Macbeth has committed such and unspeakable act, killing a good man in cold blood who also was his guest, Macbeth is suddenly questioning his own safety. Every noise he hears could be someone out to slay him for the same greedy purpose that Macbeth had to kill King Duncan. The second sense relates to the hand’s sense of touch. A human being will relation their own hands to their own bodies based on what they feel. If one feels a certain stimulus on the hand, he/she knows to relate the hand with their body because he/she felt the stimulus. When vigorously stabbing a man in his sleep on can definitely see and feel what is going on. The grip of the knife, the warm wet gallons of blood, and the force of the blows are all stimuli felt by the wielder of the weapon. Macbeth is saying that he did not notice his own hands were the ones completing the deed. He never had been in the position and when feeling all these new stimuli he could not recognize his own hands. Finally, the last sense would be the sense of sight, programmed by the eyes. Think back and create a vivid picture of the stabbing of King Duncan. This must be the most traumatic experience of them all as