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How does Lady Macbeth share her husband’s guilt?

Question

How does Lady Macbeth share her husband’s guilt?

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Solution

Lady Macbeth shares her husband's guilt in several ways throughout Shakespeare's "Macbeth".

  1. Encouragement: Lady Macbeth is the one who encourages Macbeth to kill King Duncan. She questions his manhood and courage, pushing him to commit the murder. This makes her share in his guilt because she is the instigator of the crime.

  2. Planning: Lady Macbeth is not just a passive accomplice, she actively plans the murder of King Duncan. She organizes the details, including getting the guards drunk and laying out the daggers for Macbeth to use. This active participation in the crime further implicates her in the guilt.

  3. Cover-up: After the murder, Lady Macbeth helps Macbeth cover up the crime. She tells him to wash his hands to remove the blood, a symbol of their guilt. She also returns the daggers to the crime scene and smears the guards with blood to frame them for the murder.

  4. Guilt and Madness: As the play progresses, Lady Macbeth's guilt begins to consume her. She starts sleepwalking and hallucinating, seeing blood on her hands that she cannot wash off. This symbolizes her guilt and remorse for the crime she helped commit. Her eventual suicide can be seen as the ultimate admission of her shared guilt.

In conclusion, Lady Macbeth shares her husband's guilt by encouraging, planning, and covering up the murder, and her subsequent descent into madness and death symbolizes the heavy burden of this guilt.

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