Macbeth– Practice 2
Starting with this extract, how does Shakespeare present ideas about guilt and remorse in the play?
Write about:
how Shakespeare presents ideas about guilt and remorse in this extract
how Shakespeare presents ideas about guilt and remorse in the play as a whole
Extract from Act 2 Scene 2
Lady Macbeth
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures. 'Tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt.
Exit. Knocking within
MACBETH
Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Re-enter LADY MACBETH
Lady Macbeth
My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Knocking within
I hear a knocking
At the south entry: retire we to our chamber;
A little water clears us of this deed.
How easy is it, then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.