KNOWLEDGE

Macbeth

practice question 2

The question itself is shown below or you can download it as a PDF.

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.

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Macbeth - Practice 1

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Macbeth - Practice 3