Topic > The role of women in Shakespeare's Macbeth - 741

One night, while Lady Macbeth was sleepwalking, she began to make regretful comments about the deaths that had occurred because she knows that she was the one who caused them. It was then that his guilty conscience began to make itself felt and because of this he began to feel bad about everything he had done. 'The Lord of Fife had a wife. Where is he now? How, these hands will never be clean? Enough, my lord, enough. You ruin everything with this beginning (5.1.44-47). This quote shows that Lady Macbeth was starting to feel guilty about her actions because she asks when will her hands ever be clean which means she still can't forget all the people she killed. As she said this, she kept rubbing her hands together as if trying to clean them and wash away the guilt that was overwhelming her. Another example in this section that shows her guilt was when Lady Macbeth started hallucinating and saw blood on her hands. «There's still the smell of blood. All the scents of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!” (5.1.53-55). This quote describes how Lady Macbeth begins to see blood on her hands and completely loses her mind. Due to this hallucination, it is clear that his guilt is getting out of control and that he also has a lot of remorse for all the deaths that have taken place.