3
Act 5, Scene 1
Act 5, Scene 2
Act 5, Scene 5
Macbeth looks at his bloody hands. The true guilt begins at this point in the play, Macbeth is so consumed with what he has done, he can't focus on anything other than what has happened.
Lady Macbeth's guilt is finally getting to her, too. She sleepwalks and tries to wash the blood from her hands. This routine and her sleep talking are manifestations and proof of her guilt.
Malcolm and the thanes who have sided with him have heard that Macbeth is going mad, and they assume that his madness is a result of the guilt for his crimes.
Lady Macbeth has died, she committed suicide. It is her guilt that is believed to be the cause of her death. Inevitebly, her conscience got the better of her in the end.
"Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee;
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw."
--Macbeth, Act II, scene I, 44-53
In this quotation, Macbeth is hallucinating about the dagger he will use to kill macbeth. His hallucinations are some of the first signs of guilt that we see affect Macbeth. After this hallucination Macbeth really questions whether he wants to kill King Duncan or not; hence, guilt taking over.