“Macbeth shall sleep no more!”

The feeling of guilt in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Macbeth is, perhaps, Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy. Though the time and place in which the story takes place is very specific –Scotland, XI century-, Macbeth is –like all the work of Shakespeare- a story of universal proportions. It reveals, through the different characters and their actions, many important aspects of human condition. I am going to focus on how Shakespeare represents the feeling of guilt in the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, his wife.

Through all the play, Macbeth appears as a man who is constantly tortured by his conscience. At the beginning, he is fearful of murdering Duncan, although he realises it is the only way for him to become king of Scotland. “Stars, hide your fires! / Let not light see my black and deep desires” (Act I, scene IV), cries Macbeth. I some ways, he sees the murder of Duncan as something unavoidable, since it has been revealed to him by the three witches. “Is this a dagger, which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand?” (Act II, scene I), says the thane.

Once he has committed the terrible crime, a total darkness seizes the soul of Macbeth, and the feeling of gilt hurts his conscience with deep wound. From that moment on, Macbeth sees himself as a damned being. This feeling is properly expressed when the thane listens the guardians asking God for His blessing. “But wherefore could not I pronounce «Amen»? / I had most need of blessing, and «Amen» / Stuck in my throat” (Act II, scene II). Lady Macbeth persuades her husband not to think in his crime, lest he would go mad. “These deeds must not be thought / After these ways; so, it will make us mad” (Act II, scene II). However, neither of them will be able to avoid this madness.

Shakespeare uses a powerful metaphor to represent the gilt of Macbeth: the sleep. The sleep represents the peace of the innocent conscience. In contrast, the lack of sleep is a synonym for the pain and the unseasiness of the guilty conscience. There something very significant Macbeth says after murdering Duncan: “Methought, I heard a voice cry, «Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep» - the innocent sleep” (Act II, scene II). Further on, he repeats: “Still it cried (…) / «Glamis hath murdere’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor / Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!»” (Act II, scene II). It is interesting how Shakespeares writes about the murderer as someone who is interiorly divided, and thus he expresses this in the words of Macbeth, who refers to himself as three different persons.

The spot of blood is another metaphor used to refer to the guilt both of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” (Act II, scene II), says Macbeth. It is interesting how Lady Macbeth -who refuses at the beginning to accept the wickedness of the crime- cannot keep herself distant and she finally falls in a deep feeling of gilt which drives her mad. She cannot sleep anymore and walks through the corridors rubbing her hands. “What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands”(Act V, scene I), says one man. “Will these hands ne’er be clean? (…)“What’s done cannot be undone” (Act V, scene I), says Lady Macbeth.

Shakespeare shows guilt as something that the criminal cannot avoid. It is, certainly, the worst punishment for the crime committed. If it is not accepted and redeemed, guilt can torture a man for the rest of his life.