Macbeths Guilt Essay -- Macbeth essays

Characters in the Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth scarcely feel guilt - with 2 exceptions Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In this essay lets consider their guilt-problem. In his book, On the Design of Shakespearean catastrophe, H. S. Wilson comments regarding the guilt of the protagonist It is a subtler thing which constitutes the chief fascination that the run across exercises upon us - this fear Macbeth feels, a fear not fully defined, for him or for us, a terrible anxiety that is a sense of guilt without becoming (recognizably, at least) a sense of sin. It is not a sense of sin because he refuses to recognize such a category and, in his stubbornness, his savage defiance, it drives him on to to a greater extent and more terrible acts. (74) Blanche Coles states in Shakespeares Four Giants that, regarding guilt in the play Briefly stated, and with elaborations to follow, Macbeth is the story of a kindly, upright homophile who was incited and goaded, by the woman he deeply loved, into co mmitting a murder and then, because of his sensitive nature, was unable to bear the heavy burden of guilt that descended upon him as a result of that murder. (37) A.C. Bradley in Shakespearean Tragedy demonstrates the guilt of Macbeth from the very beginning Precisely how far his mind was guilty may be a question but no innocent man would have started, as he did, with a start of fear at the mere prophecy of a crown, or have conceived thereupon immediately the thought of murder. any this thought was not new to him, or he had cherished at least some vaguer dishonourable dream, the instantaneous recurrence of which, at the moment of his hearing of prophecy, revealed to him an inward and terrifying guilt. (316) In Memoranda R... ...1957. 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 Press, 1997. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. http//chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin. Siddons, Sarah. Memoranda Remarks on the Character 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.