Macbeth Guilt Quotes

Is this a dagger which I see before me - Macbeth soliloquy

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1. In Macbeth’s famous third soliloquy before he murders Duncan, he sees the vision of a dagger floating in front of him. It is his first hallucination and sign of madness. The weapon conjured up by Macbeth’s troubled mind symbolizes the murder that is yet to happen and his strong desire to kill Duncan. The dagger speech also captures Macbeth’s fragile mental state, as he wrestles with his conscience and the strain of the guilt that weighs on him. His mind is brought almost to the point of madness by the terrible deed he is about to carry out, the murder of a king.

There’s one did laugh in ‘s sleep, and one cried “Murder!”
That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:
But they did say their prayers, and address’d them
Again to sleep.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. After his murder of Duncan, an increasingly paranoid Macbeth continues to recall his deed and become more regretful of it. During the commission of the crime, he thinks that he heard one of the servants laughing in their sleep and another shouting out “murder” while asleep.
Sleep no more - Macbeth

Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep!” the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. After Duncan’s murder, a troubled Macbeth begins to hear voices in his head. He imagines one speaking to him about his evil deed of murdering sleep – the King was killed while asleep in his bed. The voice predicts that Macbeth himself will never rest peacefully again, foreshadowing his problems sleeping from this moment on. In this passage sleep is personified as a knitter of a “sleave of care,” that soothes our hurt minds and is the most nourishing thing in life. Macbeth’s mind is starting to unravel here because of his guilt.

Still it cried “Sleep no more!” to all the house:
“Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and there Cawdor
Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more.”

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. Macbeth believes that he has reaped divine punishment by not being able to sleep again, because he has murdered the innocent King Duncan in his sleep. He hears an imaginery voice crying to all the house that Macbeth has murdered sleep so he will sleep no more. This is a sign of his guilt and inner turmoil, as he begins to fall apart mentally.

What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. While Shakespeare decided against showing King Duncan being murdered in his bed, he wanted to convey the full horror of this terrible deed. He does this by showing Macbeth with bloody hands. A guilt-racked Macbeth looks down at his murderous hands and laments that all the waters in the ocean could not wash the blood away. His hands would turn the seas crimson, he says, recognizing how his spirit has been corrupted. This deep sense of guilt will follow Macbeth for the rest of the play.

My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. The audience doesn’t see the murder of King Duncan on stage, but Shakespeare employs dramatic genius to convey the horror of the murder to them. He cleverly does this through the use of blood. First Macbeth’s hands are covered in blood. In this passage Lady Macbeth’s are also smeared with it, having covered the faces of Duncan’s servants with blood to make them appear guilty. In contrast to her husband, she shows no remorse or guilt over the spilling of Duncan’s blood. Using a metaphor, she tells Macbeth that she would be ashamed to have a heart as pure as his.

There’s nothing serious in mortality:
All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3. We see dramatic irony as Macbeth puts on a pretence to his audience of mourning for Duncan, the King he has just murdered. Using metaphors, he describes how life is meaningless and “but toys,” and how the “wine of life” is poured away with only the dregs remaining. The last two lines are a metaphor for blood. There is also a strong thread of guilt in Macbeth’s words, as if he knows he has lost his own soul and his life is now meaningless.

Nought’s had, all’s spent,
Where our desire is got without content:
‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. Lady Macbeth says that if you achieve all that you desire, but aren’t happy, then you have nothing and have spent everything. It is better to be the person murdered than to be the murderer and live in fearful joy, she feels. It is clear that Lady Macbeth’s murderous ambition for her husband and herself to be king and queen has brought her only guilt and no peace of mind.

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard; what’s done is done.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. This passage from Lady Macbeth contains one of the first recorded uses of the phrase, “what’s done is done.” She is urging her husband to stop dwelling on the death of Duncan and his guards, keeping to himself and making sad thoughts his companions (example of personification). This shows that Macbeth’s conscience is troubling him over the murders.

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. A troubled Macbeth is so racked with guilt after killing Duncan that he envies the dead King. He observes that the dead can sleep in peace, while his own sleep is disrupted by terrible nightmares. Macbeth foreshadows his own death by saying that it is better to be dead.

O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. The scorpions are metaphorical symbols of both Macbeth’s guilt and his evil desire to murder Banquo and Fleance, having already killed Duncan and framed innocent people for it. At this point he is consumed by confusion and fear. Banquo was once his best friend, but while he and his son are still alive he fears his throne is not safe because of the Witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will be kings.

Thou canst not say I did it; never shake
Thy gory locks at me.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. A horrified and unnerved Macbeth speaks to the ghost of Banquo that he sees sitting in his seat at the coronation banquet. The bloody apparition, visible to no one else, is a hallucination of Macbeth’s mind and a sign of his guilt and growing mental instability brought on by the murders of Duncan and Banquo. He tells the ghost that no one can say he murdered Banquo. He seems to deceive himself into believing that since he didn’t carry out the deed but only ordered it he is somehow innocent. The ghost’s “gory locks” is a reference to the twenty gashes to Banquo’s head delivered by his murderer. Macbeth is losing his mind at this point.

Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well: if much you note him,
You shall offend him and extend his passion:
Feed, and regard him not.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. Lady Macbeth tries to restore calm and order to Macbeth’s kingship and post-coronation feast, after he hallucinates about a ghost which nobody else can see. She attempts to reassure their guests by telling them to take their seats and ignore her husband’s outburst. She wants to conceal the reality, that Macbeth became king by murdering Duncan and then killed Banquo and his “fit” is a manifestation of his guilty conscience.

Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ the olden time,
Ere human statute purged the gentle weal;
Ay, and since too, murders have been perform’d
Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools: this is more strange
Than such a murder is.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. Macbeth observes that from ancient times blood has been spilled and people have committed murder, despite human laws against it. But now the dead won’t stay dead, he says. An increasingly paranoid Macbeth believes that Banquo has risen from the dead, despite twenty gashes to the head, and has taken his seat at the banquet. The passage speaks to Macbeth’s guilt and deteriorating mental state.

Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. When Banquo’s ghost re-appears at the feast at Macbeth’s home, a paranoid Macbeth orders him to go away. He is trying to reassure himself that Banquo cannot be alive. Macbeth’s feeling of guilt at ordering his friend’s murder is so overwhelming that he cannot distinguish between reality and imagination, which has conjured up the ghost. A tormented Macbeth is losing his grip on sanity.

What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: or be alive again,
And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. Macbeth is filled with fear at seeing the dead Banquo sitting in his place at the banquet table. This is his guilty conscience unbalancing his mental state. While Macbeth is not frightened at the most terrifying beasts, like the Russian bear or rhinoceros or tiger, he admits to being terrified by the presence of the ghost of his friend Banquo.

It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
Augurs and understood relations have
By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret’st man of blood.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. Macbeth recalls an old saying about the murdered dead having their revenge. Haunted by guilt, he fears that his shedding of Banquo’s blood will lead to his own death. His murder of his friend may be discovered by supernatural means, he believes. Macbeth is aware that stones have moved, trees have spoken, birds have told secrets. All of these things have identified murderers like Macbeth – “the secret’st man of blood.” This is foreshadowing of Macbeth’s own violent death.

I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. Macbeth realizes that he has gone so far on the path of evil, that there is now no returning from it. He has been involved in so much murder that it is just as easy to carry on killing as to turn back. He has now become a tyrant. He compares his path to power to a river of blood that he wading through. This metaphor symbolizes Macbeth’s guilt.

Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use:
We are yet but young in deed.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. In speaking these lines to Lady Macbeth, Macbeth shows how comfortable he has become with committing murder. He has already killed King Duncan and has had his friend Banquo killed. He implies and foreshadows that he will commit more murders to serve his ambition, when he tells his wife that they are “yet but young in deed.” The man who said he would never sleep again after killing Duncan, now seems untroubled by guilt and more emboldened after the murder of Banquo. He suggests to Lady Macbeth that they go to sleep and dismisses his earlier hallucination of Banquo’s ghost as inexperience. It is clear that Macbeth’s tolerence levels for evil and violence have risen. He has matured from being the reluctant murderer of Duncan, who needed to be motivated by his wife, to a fully-fledged monster. There is a certain irony in Macbeth’s description of himself as “young in deed.” He is certainly not inexperiences in crime, having already killed Duncan, his grooms, and Banquo.
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