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Symbolic Remorse Regretful for the pain and death she has caused, Lady Macbeth symbolizes the epitome of universal guilt progression. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth craves power, to the point that she said she would "have plucked [her] nipple from [her baby's] boneless gums, and dashed the brains out" (1.7.56-58). It is easy to see that Lady Macbeth is crazed in her pursuit of power. She doesn't just want power; she has a violent desire for it, to the point where she would murder a child. Her exaggerated ambition gives her the outward appearance of determination and strength, something that is highlighted again when she is forced to finish the deed and kill Duncan's guards, telling Macbeth that he is "Infirm of purpose!” and to “Give [her] the daggers" (2.2.54-56). It would appear that Lady Macbeth feels nothing but a hunger for success, as she berates her husband for not having the guts to finish the job. And it would seem that she feels no conscience as she smears the blood of the murdered on her hands. Yet we see that her mind is not as ready to wash the blood away as she would hope. The guilt sinks in as deep as the bloodstains on her hands, and in dreams her worry is brought to the surface. She wonders aloud "what, will these hands ne'er be clean" (5.1.33-34), as she furiously attempts to scrub the guilt away. This is a far cry from the bold, aspiring Lady Macbeth of the past. She is beginning to understand the atrocities that her hands have created, and with furthering anxiety it is dawning on her that her hands will "ne'er be clean". Her facade of courage stripped away, her nervous habits begin to demand the attention of others. The doctor, realizing that she is slipping into a state of agitation, orders to "remove from her the means of all annoyance" (5.1.62-63), basically to make sure that she doesn't kill herself. Lady Macbeth, the ambitious and independent, is gone; Lady Macbeth, the depressed and troubled, stands in her place. The reaction was delayed, but the impact of her guilt was magnified. Her heinous transgression results in her progressive descent into remorse, ending with her suicide. Just as Lady Macbeth’s barbaric crimes were the catalysts for her guilt progression, all crimes lead to the standard progression of guilt in all of mankind.