These lines from Act V, Scene I of Shakespeare's
Macbeth are certainly indicative of the guilt-infected mind of Lady
Macbeth. In addition, they touch upon the"tragedy of blood" as well as the motif
of engulfing phantasmagoria. For, just as nightmare follows Macbeth, in this scene it
now consumes Lady Macbeth.
Whereas earlier in the play it
has been Lady Macbeth who wields the psychological power, scolding her husband for his
unmanliness and discounting the seriousness of their deeds by saying "A little water
clears us of this deed" (2.2), in this scene she has now internalized their bloody deeds
and, thus, becomes mad with the overpowering horror of these deeds and its consequent
guilt. Hearing what she has said, the doctor comprehends that Lady Macbeth needs
spiritual forgiveness--"More needs she the divine than the physician"--and that
there have been terrible and unnatural deeds
committed.
This scene from Macbeth exemplifies what
renowned critic Harold Bloom has expressed as the greatest quality of this play, its
powerful internalization:
Of the aesthetic greatness of
Macbeth there can be no question....and yet it is my personal
favorite of all the high tragedies. Shakespeare's final strength is radical
internalization.
Indeed, it
is this "radical internalization" of the tormented Lady Macbeth that magnifies the
horrific energy and the phantasmal element of Shakespeare's work in which "nothing is
but what is not." For, in Act V, Scene I, Lady Macbeth, herself, becomes "what is
not" as consumed with guilt, she commits suicide.
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