Taylor Svete

British Literature/ Mrs. Smith

Macbeth quote responses Act V

10/27/09

“What, will these hand ne’er be clean?”

(Scene I, line 44)

While Lady Macbeth sleeps, her subconscious shows through, revealing the depth of the

regret she feels about Duncan’s murder. She tries to wash her hands of the blood and guilt but no

matter how much she tries it never fully cleanses her soul of guilt. Will these feelings of guilt

eventually push her over the edge of insanity? Or have they already? In her sleep she reveals to

only the doctor and gentlewoman what she has done and along with revealing the action, she

reveals her deepest feelings of regret and guilt.

“Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,/ Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,/

Raze out the written troubles of the brain,/ And with some sweet oblivious antidote/ Cleanse the

stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff/ Which weighs upon the heart?”

(Scene iii, lines 40-45)

Macbeth wants the doctor to cleanse his wife’s mind, as well as his own mind, of

the deed they have done. He wishes that the doctor had a magical antidote that could cure them

of guilt and regret, but the doctor says that this kind of disease can only be cured by the sufferer

alone. How will Lady Macbeth choose to end her guilt-full suffering? Macbeth wants his wife to
be happy, yet he does not go to see her himself. Their relationship has changed and they have

become much more distant.

“Life’s but a walking shadow…it is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/

Signifying nothing.”

(Scene v, lines 24-28)

Macbeth regrets that his life has been nothing but steps towards death, full of

sound and fury which, he realizes now, mean absolutely nothing. As he nears what he knows is

the end, he regrets everything he did to make it to the top. He is where he wanted to be but his

whole life has fallen to shambles. His wife has committed suicide and he is alone facing his own

revolutionary army and the English troops of Malcom and Macduff’s.