teps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout" (Act 2 Scn1 Ln 56-58).Macbeth’s concern at this point has been somewhat attenuated and indeed subdued well enough to allow him to commit the deed. However, his speech after the fact confirms that he has not accepted the murder completely and now is beginning to have second thoughts about what he has done. Indeed, he is "afraid to think what I have done, Look on’t again I dare not." (2:2 50-51) What he expresses is not necessarily regret about killing Duncan, but indeed fear at the very strong possibility that it will catch up to him. Fear now has reduced him to inability and throughout his ranting becomes dependent on Lady Macbeth to clean his hands and steer him away from the knocking. She remarks to him "Your constancy has left you unattended" (2:2 67-68) and has to shepherd him back to their quarters.Curiously, it is Macbeth’s capacity for fear and to a lesser degree regret over what he has done which makes him ultimately human. He is a flawed villain because he fails to really achieve true wickedness. In her piece General Macbeth, Mary McCarthy disagrees with the notion that Macbeth is wracked with guilt and indeed writes that the perception of him as a "conscience-tormented man is a platitude as false as Macbeth himself. Macbeth has no conscience" (McCarthy 160). She argues that his main concern is to avoid serious self-recrimination about his past actions and "to get a good night’s sleep" (ibid). While it may sound somewhat cynical to think of the character in this way, it certainly is possible.A lot of the ambivalence in this play comes precisely because of how Macbeth can be construed as being genuinely sorry and remorseful for anything he’s done or whether he’s merely concerned and upset about what it has cost him. The emotional toll of killing Duncan was very high for him as his reaction showed, and likewise the toll...
