Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is a tragedy of betrayal, hunger for power, and gruesome acts of murder. A seed of greed for the throne is planted in Macbeth’s mind, when the three weird witches foretell that Macbeth will be the king of Scotland and he will overthrow the current king, Duncan. And so, the thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, and his manipulative wife, Lady Macbeth, plan the first of many murders and probably the most significant, the murder of King Duncan. The planned murder operates smoothly, and Macbeth goes on to become the fitful owner of the seat of power. Then, Macbeth, with the advice of his wife, goes onto to kill the people who pose as a threat to his seat of power. As the gruesome play progresses, Macbeth and his wife encounter an opponent which cannot be defeated, their own guilty consciences. Proof, certain quotes and the characters’ actions, of their guilty consciences throughout the play help illustrate the true weight of Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s position of guilt and sin. The significance of their guilty consciences is immense, for that is the cause of their downfall later in the play.
The voice that says the quote: “Sleep no more” (II.2.39), is in fact Macbeth’s guilty conscience. This is a very simple quote with a hidden message, underneath its surface. Having just killed King Duncan for the prime position of power, Macbeth begins to have a troubled conscience that keeps nagging him gently that he did wrong, and revenge is sure to come. Macbeth’s conscience, form this quote, clearly implies that Macbeth will not have a peaceful state of mind, because he will be much too worried about being found out about his evil doings and murderous acts. This quote not only pertains to Macbeth’s guilty conscience, but also to his everyday life. His life, now being occupied with countless murders, will eventually come to a pint in which hallucination of his killed victims will control Macbeth. In addition, the quote: “I had most need of a blessing” (2.2.30), further acts as proof that Macbeth has a guilty conscience. Macbeth is dearly in need of God’s blessing because of what he does with the murders. Only by saying that specific quote, might trigger the idea that someone is trying to save themselves form sin by using religion, and to dismiss the idea of doing and having done wrong.
Lady Macbeth is the one who is mostly affected by her guilty conscience, for it untimely leads to her death at the end of the play. Toward the end of the play, in the scene in which Lady Macbeth makes her last appearance, the old doctor and the maidservant, quietly observe the nighttime wanderings and mutterings of Lady Macbeth. The maidservant accounts to the doctor that recently, during the dead of the night, Lady Macbeth, still in a state of deep slumber, gets up on her own while still asleep, and goes about worrying in a very frantic manner. She mainly relates things involving her husband’s murders and saying quotes like, “Yet who would have though the old man to have had so much blood in him?” (5.1.40), “…. Banquo’s buried. He cannot come out of his grave” (5.1.65) and “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (5.1.55). All these quotes refer to her guilty conscience. The first quote about the “old man having so much blood in him”, refers to the elderly King Duncan’s murder, performed by Macbeth. How can one so old contain a significant amount of blood? The second quote, about Banquo being buried, is the most revealing. It obviously implies that Lady Macbeth is trying to reassure herself the Banquo is buried underground and will not come to haunt, for she was not the one who murdered him, but rather it was her husband. And no dead person can come out of his grave. He cannot harm her or get revenge. And lastly, the quote about the perfumes of Arabia, illustrates how the exotic and overpoweringly-sweet perfumes of blood cannot take away the scent of guilt, blood, and murder away from her hand. All these frantic, anxious, and guilty thought eventually takes its toll on Lady Macbeth, and she ends up committing suicide.
Macbeth downfall due to his guilty conscience comes at the end. As anyone who has read the play knows, Macduff, who’s wife and children were brutally killed by Macbeth, itches to avenge his fallen family. As he continuingly continues his murders, Macbeth is constantly remained at the back of his mind about the witches grim foreshadowing, that when the Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane, Macbeth will be overthrown and killed. Then at the end Macduff and Macbeth duel with swords, and Macbeth is eventually slain. His physical state of being was excellent. But his mental state was not. Having already been weakened by his guilty conscience and the constant reminders of the pitiful cries and helplessness of those he killed, Macbeth was in no state to properly think his attacks on Macduff. Macbeth ends up losing very quickly into the duel. Lady Macbeth also suffers from her very weak mental state. Constantly her, mind is filled with anxieties about the people that were murdered by her husband. And her mind also fills with thoughts of possible haunting of the killed patrons. This becomes too much to handle, and Lady Macbeth commits suicide due to the constant anxiety and probing of her guilty conscience.
As seen from this play, a guilty conscience can be a very deadly and mind-probing enemy in a person who has committed wrong. The enemies might not in fact be the police, the law, or the government, but in fact it can be yourself. A guilty conscience has a very unique way of operating. As soon as one does wrong, his or her guilty conscience immediately starts overpowering one with remorse caused by feeling responsible for some offense. The right thing to do would be to head its advice, and immediately repent, so that one can have a clean spiritual sense of being. The wrong thing to do would be to continually ignorer it. One’s guilty conscience would untimely become so powerful that every day he or she wakes up will be filled with guilt and that person might even start to make one feel responsible for wrong that he or she might have not committed. So, if one has done wrong, the most dangerous enemy might not be the police or the government, it can be yourself. The guilty conscience is an enemy within, that strikes quietly, but instantly and can result in depression or even suicide.
