Guilt Essay Plan Flashcards
(1 cards)
Order of essay
Intro - S’s exploration of psychology through the lens of the soliloquy
P1 - ‘Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible/To feeling as to sight’ - emblem of his guilt through the noun, ‘vision’ - not physical but psychological
‘Tarquin’s ravishing strides’ - epitomises the strange appeal of violence, as a source of healing for the Divine conflict that will be inflicted on his mind
‘thy blade’ - haunted by graphic and violent imagery, embodies the growing schism in his psychology which builds a field of paranoid violence as a manifestation of guilt and control
appears to him in necromancy as if a psychological balm to reduce his consequence when he commits regicide
‘bell invites me’ - abdicates his guilt here to inanimate objects - refuses to claim it, seeks a source of transmission for his guilt and a vessel in which to rid himself
P2 - ‘Macbeth does murder sleep’
‘innocent’ ‘knits’ ‘care’ ‘balm’ - Macbeth has murdered his feminine senses and psychology - craves the restoration of sleep and Divine peace, this absence is a psychological disturbance - guilt does not appear to him as a healing, remorseful property - he destroys this chance by embodying masculinity in the place of a logical psyche
emphasised when in Act 3 Scene 4,
‘bear’ ‘tiger’ ‘armed rhinoceros’ - semantic field of violence which he begs from Banquo’s ghost, in place of the necromancy which epitomises the cruelty and deceit of Macbeth which we see now is a vulnerability
sympathise with the universal desire to detach from sin - S warns it is better to act exactly as we should and feel no guilt
it is suggested if he did not feel guilt, he could have served as a King
could perceive this as Shakespeare indicating Macbeth’s hamartia was actually guilt - suggests it is better to act as we should and feel no guilt
nature metaphor -
alternatively, this destruction of his female self as a metaphor for Lady Macbeth - he used her for his own means, now the guilt transmits to the condemnation of her soul as Macbeth spirals into a violent and tragic moral decline.
P3 - Act 5 Scene 1
‘take fourth, fold it, write upon’t, read it, afterwards seal it’ - cyclical structure which references the letter Macbeth sent to Lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 5 - where he said ‘my dearest partner in greatness’ - contrasted by ‘she should have died hereafter’ - shift in tone reiterates marital decay, it is implied Lady Macbeth is not guilty, but mourns the decay of her marriage, and is resentful for the power she was promised and did not receive
‘light by her continually’ - religious imagery and adverb, ‘continually’ implies a rigid and intentional dedication to remorse, making it feel almost staged
‘what’s done cannot be undone’ - reinforced by this tone of finality - action is to empower herself mentally with an attempt at spiriual reconciliation, however guilt is not a positive force which heals her morality. It is a conformity she indulges in at one final grasp at the reward of power.
P4- ‘My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still’
‘dispute it like a man’
unhealthy - not a positive force
P5 - conclusion
