What is guilt? Is it the feeling you get when you do something wrong or is it a feeling you only get when you know what you're doing is wrong and there's nothing you can do to undo what you've done? In Shakespeare's Macbeth, guilt is not something that is taken lightly. Guilt is felt by virtually every main character throughout the play and is not something to be taken lightly. In Macbeth, other feelings, such as ambition, overshadow the guilt, but when the guilt becomes excessive, unexpected actions occur that cannot be avoided. Macbeth is one of the characters in which ambition takes on a higher rank than guilt. Before killing Duncan, Macbeth senses that something is wrong and begins to think about the implications of his actions. As Lyman and Scott said in their essay, "Macbeth's Journey to Nothingness," "Macbeth's terrible self-discovery is that his ambitions are independent of the actions and consequences associated with achieving and maintaining his goals" ( 115). Macbeth realizes that if he can separate guilt and thoughts of consequences from his actions, he will be able to simultaneously be ambitious and achieve his goals. Macbeth does not realize that this undertaking is too complicated for a human being and will end up marking his end. As Macbeth is about to kill Duncan, he sees the dagger floating in the air aimed at Duncan. He is afraid of this unnatural event and says, “It is the bloody affair that thus informs my eyes” (II.i.55-56). Although Macbeth is so guilt-ridden that he sees imaginary daggers floating before him, he still feels too empowered by the witches' prophecies to seriously stop and think about what he is doing before he does anything. of paper……and liquor, which makes you 'stay and not stay'” (122). At first, Lady Macbeth is able to resist and takes on the male role of schemer while Macbeth carries out his plots. By the end of the show, she has been reduced to a guilty woman, unable to bear and deal with what she has done. Lady Macbeth also tried to hide her guilt without success, and it inexplicably reappeared. In Macbeth, guilt is able to hide under many different feelings. It masks itself with ambition, fear, blood and false confidence. Even if the sense of guilt is not always felt at the time of the crime, it soon reappears and becomes increasingly difficult to mask. Eventually, it becomes too difficult to ignore and the person can no longer manage their feelings and the guilt becomes a punishment. Eventually, the guilt always becomes unbearable.