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Guilt and Conscience Analysis

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Guilt and Conscience Analysis

Use evidence from the extract in your answers. The questions focus on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after Duncan’s murder and during the sleepwalking scene.

A conscience under pressure

From Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2 (adapted extract): MACBETH: I have done the deed. Did you hear a noise? LADY MACBETH: I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did you speak? MACBETH: When? LADY MACBETH: Just now. MACBETH: As I came down? LADY MACBETH: Yes. MACBETH: This is a sorry sight. LADY MACBETH: A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. MACBETH: One cried, “God bless us!” and “Amen” the other; as they had seen me with these hangman’s hands. Listening to their fear, I could not say “Amen”. LADY MACBETH: Do not think about it so deeply. MACBETH: But why could I not say “Amen”? I most needed blessing, and the word stuck in my throat. MACBETH: I thought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.” Sleep that untangles the knotted worries of the day, the balm of hurt minds, nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast. LADY MACBETH: What do you mean? MACBETH: “Sleep no more!” The voice seemed to condemn me. My mind will never rest. From Act 5, Scene 1 (adapted extract): DOCTOR: What is she doing now? Look how she rubs her hands. GENTLEWOMAN: She acts as if she is washing her hands. I have seen her do this for a long time. LADY MACBETH: Here is the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. DOCTOR: What a troubled mind. Her heart carries a heavy burden. LADY MACBETH: Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One, two—why, then it is time to do it. Hell is dark. DOCTOR: This disease is beyond my skill. She needs a priest more than a doctor. The original play is in Early Modern English; this classroom extract adapts some wording for clarity. The short quotations are Shakespeare’s.

Track the change

Compare Macbeth’s immediate reaction with Lady Macbeth’s later breakdown.

1.In Act 2, Macbeth says, “Macbeth does murder sleep.” Which interpretation best explains this personification?

Macbeth believes he has destroyed his own chance of peaceful rest.
Macbeth thinks sleep is a real person who witnessed the murder.
Macbeth is pleased that he can stay awake to plan his next action.
Macbeth is describing the ordinary noise of the night.

2.Macbeth says the word “Amen” stuck in his throat. What does this detail suggest about his state of mind and his relationship with morality?

3.Match each quotation to the idea it most strongly conveys.

“Out, damned spot!”
“Sleep no more!”
“All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

The scale of guilt exceeds any physical attempt to cleanse it
Guilt imagined as a stain that cannot be removed
A mind that condemns itself and cannot find rest

4.Explain one important contrast between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s responses to guilt in the two extracts. Support your answer with one quotation from each.

5.True or false? In Act 5, Lady Macbeth’s repeated hand-washing suggests that guilt has been resolved and forgotten.

TrueFalse

6.The extract links guilt with sleep, blood, smell and religious language. Choose two of these images and explain how each helps Shakespeare present conscience as powerful.

7.Why might Shakespeare show Lady Macbeth’s guilt through sleepwalking rather than a calm confession? Give one plausible interpretation of this dramatic choice.

8.Write an analytical paragraph answering: How does Shakespeare present guilt and conscience in these extracts? Use at least two short quotations, analyse a language choice, and compare the characters or the two moments.