The Journey of Guilt Within Macbeth Have any readers ever experienced guilt similar to that found in the pages of Shakeare's tragic play, Macbeth? I think not. This article is an exploration of the many instances of guilt in the drama. In "Memoranda: Observations on the Character of Lady Macbeth", Sarah Siddons mentions Lady Macbeth's guilt and ambition and their effect:[Regarding "I have given disgust" (1.7.54ff.)] Again, horrible as she is, she shows herself to be made by ambition, but not by nature, a perfectly wild creature. The very use of such a tender allusion amidst her frightening language, persuades unmistakably that she truly felt the maternal desire of a mother towards her child, and that she considered this action the most enormous that ever required force of man. nerves for its perpetration. His language with Macbeth is the most powerfully eloquent language guilt can use. (56)Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare explain how guilt affects Lady Macbeth:Lady Macbeth is of a finer and more delicate nature. Having fixed her sights on the end - her husband's attainment of Duncan's crown - she accepts the inevitable means; he steels himself for terrible night work with artificial stimulants; however he cannot strike the sleeping king who resembles his father. Having supported the weaker husband, his strength fails; and in her sleep, when her will cannot control her thoughts, she is pitifully afflicted by the memory of a bloodstain on her little hand. (792) In Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye sees a relationship between Macbeth's guilt and his hallucinations: The future moment is the moment of guilt and imposes, until it is reached, the intolerable tension of remaining innocent . [. . .] We note that those who are forced to ruminate on the past and await the future live in a world where what is not present is present, in other words in a world of hallucinations. Macbeth's ability to see things that may or may not be there is almost limitless, and the appearance of the mousetrap to Claudius, although more easily explained, has the same dramatic significance as the appearance of Banquo's ghost. (90)Fanny Kemble in "Lady Macbeth" states that Lady Macbeth was unaware of her guilt, which nevertheless killed her: