William Shakespeare's play Macbeth tells the story of a power hungry couple, set in 11th century Scotland, who will stop at nothing to achieve their ultimate goal of becoming King and Queen of Scotland. Throughout the play, Shakespeare emphasizes the theme that power corrupts. Shakespeare expresses this motif through the deterioration of the manipulative Lady Macbeth, by showing that power can go as far as to corrupting a person so much that they end up losing their mind. To get power Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that guilt can be easily washed away, but once Lady Macbeth obtains the power, the guilt which accompanies the power ends up driving her insane.
             In an attempt to gain power, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that like the blood on their hands, guilt is easy to wash away. Lady Macbeth is an ambitious and manipulative character who's lust for power is well documented by Shakespeare. When the opportunity arises for Lady Macbeth and her husband Macbeth to become King and Queen of Scotland, Lady Macbeth grabs the opportunity and runs with it. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband into joining her plot to kill the current king of Scotland, Duncan. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth her plan which calls for Macbeth to kill Duncan, while she gets Duncan's two guards drunk. After Macbeth is done with his bloody deed, they will frame the guards by smearing Duncan's blood on them. That night, the ambitious couple decides to execute the plan just as discussed. After Lady Macbeth gets the two guards drunk, she waits for Macbeth to return from killing Duncan. When Macbeth returns from killing Duncan, Lady Macbeth finds him in a state of shock and disbelief. In order to comfort Macbeth, she tells him that "A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it, then!" (2.2, 86-87) By saying this, she implies to him that just like the blood that covers their hands, the guilt can be washed away just as easily. Lady Macbeth soon finds out t...