Intriguing Question - guilt

[Wickwire]

Is Lady Macbeth guiltier than Macbeth himself for the murder of Duncan?
I think so, what's everyone else think?

[crisaor]

Hi Wickwire.

It all depends on how you look at it. Lady Macbeth encouraged his husband to commit the crime, so if she hadn't done that, the crime wouldn't have happened. Or, if Macbeth had gone against his wife's advise, he wouldn't fall from grace.
Personally, I think it's a mistake to try to assign any degree of guilt to any of the characters. The Fates are the only "characters" in the play, the only ones who have a degree of free will, and this is of course very limited, given their function. It's they who determine the way the other characters will act. Macbeth, Macduff, and all the others act like the Fates tells us they will act.

[IWilKikU]

guilt is a funny thing in this play. Everyone makes Lady M. out to be THE bad guy in this play but take a look at Macbeth planning murder before we even see lady M. "The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down esle o'rleap for in my way it lies.", "Why do I yeild to that horrid image that doth unfix my hair?", "My thought, who's murther is yet fantastical,". Here's what Jean Anouilh has to say about guilt in a tragedy: "In a tragedy, nothing is in doubt and everyone's destiny is known. That makes for tranquillity. Thereis a sort of fellow-feeling among characters in a tragedy: he who kills is as innocent as he who gets killed: it's all a matter of what part you are playing."