Macbeth, The Odyssey, Beowulf and Gulliver's travels Essay

Macbeth, The Odyssey, Beowulf and Gullivers travels - Essay ExampleTo promote Macbeth into action, Lady Macbeth indicates she is the stronger character because I have given suck, and know / How tender tis to love the babe that milks me / I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have plucked the nipple from his boneless gums / And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn (I, vii, 54-58). Although guilt forces him to go through with the murder of the king, Macbeth becomes a victim to a new shape of guilt following the murder that far surpasses anything he had experienced before it.When Macbeth willingly participates in murder, this quickly escalates to massacres of perceived enemies and the propagation of lies and deceits as a means of maintaining the perception others have of him. As Macbeth confesses to his wife his fears regarding his unfitness to say Amen (II, ii) following his first murder, she consoles him and warns him against the future both share, These deeds must not be d esign / After these ways so, it will make us mad (II, ii, 32-33). Despite this warning, though, neither character seems equal of escaping the inevitable deterioration of the soul that their actions have brought upon them. Because of this guilt, Macbeth begins seeing ghosts of friends he has murdered on the suspicion that they mightiness accuse him of Duncans murder and Lady Macbeth goes insane in an attempt to cleanse herself of the guilt that has infected her soul.Like Macbeth, a great portion of Odysseus tale is brought about as a response to guilt. He has fought well and bravely before Troy and, at the beginning of his story, is preparing to return home to his wife genus Penelope and the young son he has yet to meet. However, in willingly joining in battle on Troy, which was strongly associated with ideas of family and home, Odysseus has committed a crime that must be atoned for. Zeus makes this clear in