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Essay / The role of women in Shakespeare's Macbeth - 741
One night, while Lady Macbeth was sleepwalking, she began to make regretful remarks about the deaths that had occurred because she knew that it was she who caused them had caused. That's when her guilty conscience started to kick in and because of that, she started to feel bad for everything she had done. “The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands never be clean? Nothing more of that, my lord, nothing more of that. You ruin everything with this departure (5.1.44-47). This quote shows that Lady Macbeth was beginning to feel guilty for her actions because she asks when her hands will ever be washed, meaning that she still cannot forget all the people she has killed. As she said this, she kept rubbing her hands as if she was trying to clean them and erase the guilt that was overwhelming her. Another example in this section that shows his guilt is when Lady Macbeth began to hallucinate and see blood on her hands. “There’s the smell of blood again. All the perfumes of Arabia will not soften this little hand. O, O, O! » (5.1.53-55). This quote describes how Lady Macbeth begins to see blood on her hands and completely loses her mind. Because of this hallucination, it's clear that her guilt is spiraling out of control and she also has a ton of remorse for all the deaths that took place.