is
extremely hesitant to killin the first place, spurred onto the deed by his wife who calls him a
coward and attacks his manhood: When you durst do it, then you were a man (1.7). On his way to
the murder, his guilt of what he is about to do makes itself abundantly clear when he sees a
physical dagger leading him to Duncans room:
Is this a
dagger which I see before me,
The handle towards my hand? (2.1)
Immediately after the murder, he accidentally admits to the whole
thing. When Lennox starts talking about the dead guards outside of Duncans room,says: Oh, yet
I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them (2.3). Only through a long, rambling speech can
he save face by making it seem as though he killed the guards out of revenge for their supposed
murder of Duncan.
The most pronounced example of Macbeth showing guilt within
the play, however, is after the murder of his best friendwhen he sees his ghost at a dinner
party. He raves and rails at the ghost, to the bewilderment of his wife and guests, taunting it
and shouting at it:
Thou canst not say I did it. Never
shake
Thy gory locks at me! (3.4)
Macbeth is
steadily driven toward madness and is paranoid throughout the rest of the play due to his guilta
downward spiral that ends in his own death.
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