Themes Part 2: Guilt, the Supernatural & Appearance vs Reality

This lesson covers three more themes that run through Macbeth: guilt and conscience, the role of the supernatural, and the tension between appearance and reality. These themes are closely interconnected — guilt manifests as hallucinations (supernatural), and the entire play is built on the gap between what things seem and what they are.

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Guilt and Conscience

Guilt is one of the most powerful forces in Macbeth. It pursues both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth relentlessly, manifesting as hallucinations, insomnia, paranoia, and madness.

How guilt manifests in the play

Character	Manifestation of guilt	Act.Scene	Key quote
Macbeth	Hallucinated dagger	2.1	"Is this a dagger which I see before me"
Macbeth	Cannot say "Amen"	2.2	"I could not say 'Amen'"
Macbeth	Hears a voice cry "Sleep no more"	2.2	"Macbeth does murder sleep"
Macbeth	Cannot wash blood from hands	2.2	"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?"
Macbeth	Sees Banquo's ghost	3.4	"Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake / Thy gory locks at me"
Lady Macbeth	Sleepwalking and handwashing	5.1	"Out, damned spot!"
Lady Macbeth	Cannot remove the smell of blood	5.1	"All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand"

The blood motif

Blood is the play's central symbol of guilt. It develops across the play:

Act 1: Blood = honour     ("brave Macbeth... his brandished steel / Which smoked with bloody execution")
Act 2: Blood = guilt      ("Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?")
Act 3: Blood = inevitability ("I am in blood / Stepped in so far")
Act 5: Blood = madness     ("Out, damned spot! Out, I say!")

Examiner's tip: Tracking how a symbol develops across the play is a hallmark of grade 8–9 responses. The shift from blood as a symbol of honour (Act 1) to blood as a symbol of inescapable guilt (Act 5) mirrors Macbeth's moral decline.

Sleep and guilt

Sleep in the play represents innocence and peace of mind. Macbeth destroys this when he murders the sleeping Duncan:

"Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep' — the innocent sleep, / Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care" (2.2)

Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking (5.1) is the ultimate irony — she cannot sleep peacefully because her guilty conscience invades even her unconscious mind.

Macbeth vs Lady Macbeth: Contrasting responses to guilt

Aspect	Macbeth	Lady Macbeth
When guilt appears	Immediately after the murder	Delayed — emerges much later
How it manifests	Hallucinations, paranoia, aggression	Sleepwalking, obsessive handwashing
Response to guilt	Tries to outrun it through more violence	Cannot cope — breaks down completely
Outcome	Dies fighting	Dies by apparent suicide

Examiner's tip: Note the ironic reversal — in Act 2, Macbeth is consumed by guilt while Lady Macbeth dismisses it ("A little water clears us of this deed"). By Act 5, their positions have reversed: Macbeth has hardened into numbness, while Lady Macbeth is destroyed by the guilt she once mocked.

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The Supernatural

The supernatural pervades Macbeth — from the Witches' prophecies to Macbeth's hallucinations to the unnatural events that follow Duncan's murder.

Supernatural elements in the play

Element	Act.Scene	Significance
The Witches	1.1, 1.3, 3.5, 4.1	Agents of chaos; deliver prophecies; embody evil
The hallucinated dagger	2.1	Macbeth's guilty conscience or supernatural omen
The voice crying "Sleep no more"	2.2	Conscience or divine punishment
Banquo's ghost	3.4	Guilt made visible; only Macbeth can see it
The apparitions	4.1	Equivocal prophecies that give false confidence
Unnatural events	2.4	Darkness, owls killing falcons, horses eating each other

The Witches: Fate vs free will

This is one of the most important debates in the play:

Position	Argument
The Witches control Macbeth	They seek him out; their prophecies shape every major decision he makes
Macbeth has free will	He chooses to act; Banquo hears the same prophecy but does not murder
The Witches are catalysts	They reveal what is already inside Macbeth — his ambition
It is deliberately ambiguous	Shakespeare does not resolve the question — this is the point

"If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me / Without my stir" (1.3)

Macbeth initially considers that he might become king without acting — but he does not wait. His impatience reveals that the Witches' prophecy did not create his ambition; it merely ignited it.

The supernatural and Jacobean context