Comparing the effect of conscience on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Author:Cambridge university press Series Editor:Rex gibson

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are two interesting characters. In this play their conscience plays with them in different parts of the play. In the beginning of the play Macbeth is a man with a clear conscience until his thoughts are gradually corrupted by his wife. When the king enters Macbeth's castle, the day the plan was going to take place Macbeth thinks about the reasons why he shouldn't go on with the plan, he says, "…showed first 75 words of 767 total…

…showed last 75 words of 767 total…which Macbeth suffers from. She then is forced to tell the visitors to go away. Afterwards Macbeth in talking to Lady Macbeth states, "I am in blood, stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er"(Act 3, Scene 4, lines 135). His guilt is pinching him more than ever even through the appearance of Banquo. Macbeth goes from fear to guilt; finally his conscience is starting to destroy him.