Damning Guilt in Macbeth Essay -- Free Macbeth Essays

Both principal(prenominal) characters in the Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth meet unfortunate ends, with this due in part at least to the huge burden of vice which they must carry through most of the drama. In Fools of Time Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye sees a relationship between Macbeths guilt and his hallucinations The future hour is the moment of guilt, and it imposes on one, until it is reached, the intolerable strain of remaining innocent. . . . Macbeths capacity for seeing things that whitethorn or may not be there is almost limitless, and the manner of the mousetrap play to Claudius, though more easily explained, has the same spectacular point as the appearance of Banquos ghost. (90) Fanny Kemble in brothel keeper Macbeth asserts that madam Macbeth was unconscious of her guilt, which nevertheless killed her A very able article, published whatever years ago in the National Review, on the character of madam Macbeth, insists much upon an opinion that she died of remorse, as some palliation of her crimes, and mitigation of our abuse of them. That she died of wickedness would be, I think, a juster verdict. Remorse is consciousness of guilt . . . and that I think Lady Macbeth never had though the unrecognized pressure of her abundant guilt killed her. (116-17) In Memoranda Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons mentions the guilt and ambition of Lady Macbeth and their effect Re I have given nurse (1.7.54ff.) Even here, horrific as she is, she shews herself made by ambition, but not by nature, a perfectly savage creature. The very use of such(prenominal) a tender allusion in the midst of her dreadful language, persuades one uniquely that she has really felt the maternal ye... ...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 information Sha kespeare 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.