This quote contradicts what we learn about Macbeth at the beginning of the play. At the beginning of the play we see that macbeth enjoys killing as he shakes the hand of the dead macdonald and waves goodbye to him indicating a sign of humour. All this proves that macbeth revels in killing.
However here Lady Macbeth says that Macbeth is too full of human kindness to kill Duncan. This means that lady Macbeths perception of Macbeth is completely wrong which is one of the reasons why the assessement of herself is wrong
Lady Macbeth says "and you shall put this nights great business into my dispatch" and then later actually pulls out of it because duncan reminded her of her father even after callung on the spirits to "unsex me here" She also talks about blood just being painted fears. She doest take into account the imagination and guilt that comes after. However at the end of the play we find out she is consumed by guilt. So much infact that she ends up committing suicide
Here macbeth is saying that, yes his ambition is strong however it is not strong enough for him to make that leap in killing duncan. He thinks that if only ambition drives him to kill King Duncan then he is going to fail. The one who causes macbeth to take that leap is Lady Macbeth, she is the one that comes to him and delivers the plan that macbeth deeply desired
Macbeth manouvers his wife into creating this plan and backing his ideas, In the letter written to Lady Macbeth he calls her "my dearest partner" In the patriarchal society this is abnormal to call the woman a partner, a equal when women were so devalued in those days.
Macbeth sees this dagger because he is in love with killing as it excites him. We know this because of the way he killed macdonald at the beginning of the play in such an up close and personal way. The killing is the thrill for macbeth
Later in the play his love of murder is seen to be his downfall after the murder of banquo
This quote tells us that this deed has confirmed to macbeth things he would rather not admit about himself. This prevents Macbeth from being a hero in his own life as he has gone against the great chain of being and killed the king givng into his innate desires to kill. He now sees himself as a villian. Now that he has given into his ambition he can longer have a positive veiw of himself
In a way he is a typical greek tragic hero however in greek mythology the hero gets an idea of what that fate is going to be and does everything they can to avoid it. But Macbeth is the opposite he attemps to reach that fate. He knows if he waits he will become king but he doesnt wait, he takes the power into his own hands.
Shakespeare uses the theme of guilt as divine punishment that haunts Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as a result of their ambition and drive for power. Macbeth's first signs of guilt demonstrate his loyalty however the guilt plagues him and turns this into paranoia. Lady Macbeth's guilt shows her remorse and penitence at the end of the play.
Macbeth's guilt first appears before the killing of King Duncan in Act 2 scene 1 when he begins to hallucinate a dagger, in this scene he exclaims, "Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle pointed towards my hand? Come let me clutch thee"
The "dagger" symbolises the guilt he feels even before committing regicide and killing King Duncan. This guilt shows he knows the magnitude of his actions by going against the divine right of kings and is about to kill the chosen one which would cause God to invoke his wrath upon him marking his peripeteia. This guilt then continues to envelop Macbeth through the rest of the play. After killing the king Macbeth is horrified at his actions as he knows he has committed an unforgivable sin he questions himself saying, "Will all of great Neptune oceans wash this blood off my hands". This quote shows how Macbeth feels underserving of the Christian faith and has lost his belief hence why he refers to the god of the sea Neptune instead of the Christian God. This also foreshadows the eventual guilt that builds up in Lady Macbeth in Act 5 scene 1 when she wonders whether his hands will ever be clean. Shakespeare is trying to show the Jacobean society's noblemen that if they plot or decide to commit regicide, the divine punishment of guilt will follow them. He does this to please King James.
During the beginning of the novel, Lady Macbeth is quite remorseless towards her actions and this is shown in the way that she mocks Macbeth after seeing the state of shock he is in after killing the king. She says, " the sleeping of the dead are just as pictures" Implying that she thinks that the dead is just a scary image Macbeth shouldn't be scared of. However, by Act 5 scene 1there is a dramatic change in the demeanour of Lady Macbeth. She begins to hallucinate seeing spots of blood on her hand and she screams, "Out, damned spot, out I say" The supernatural hallucination of the blood spots on her hands shows that she is losing touch with the real world and questioning her sanity. She then mirrors Macbeth as he echoes his words by saying, "Will these hands ne, er be clean" This shows how during the beginning of the play she was a controlling and demanding woman however the guilt has completely eroded her and causes her to be insane and fearful by Act 5 scene 1. Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth to tell the Jacobean audience that relying on the supernatural will lead to your own downfall by guilt aswell as becoming a shadow of your former self.
Even though both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth achieve their goal of becoming powerful the guilt encasing them causes them to lose sense of reality and their marriage begins to crumble. The guilt affects Macbeth and Lady Macbeth differently. Macbeth's guilt turns into paranoia seen when he is talking with Banquo's ghost and says "Don't shake thy gory locks at me" This supernatural hallucination of Banquo shows that the guilt Macbeth feels turns into paranoia. This paranoia causes Macbeth to turn his guilt outwards onto the people and go on a violent killing spree. In contrast, Lady Macbeth realises the gravity of her actions and says," Whats done cannot be undone" Her guilt is turned inwards feeling as if she only has herself to blame. Unable to accept what she has done, she realises she can no longer live like this and commits suicide in an attempt to be free. Shakespeare uses the two tragic characters to convey the corruption of ambition and how it can lead down a path of eternal guilt in an attempt to disway the people of the Jacobean society from attempting another gunpowder plot.