Tommy Mann

One of Shakespeare’s more notable antagonists is Lady Macbeth, the Queen of Scotland who is the brains behind her husband’s rule. She acquires power for herself by prodding Macbeth to become a tyrant. As the drama unfolds, she becomes overwhelmed with remorse for her crimes. She begins to lose her mind because of her guilt, and she constantly imagines the blood of her victims on her hands. In the end, she takes her own life offstage.    But before her part in the play is over, Lady Macbeth, desperately trying to wash the imagined blood from her hands, declares in exasperation, “All the perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten this little hand!”   Lady Macbeth is no different than any sinner trying to remove their sin. We can scrub and scrub, but the sin does not wash away. So we add something—we try good works, church attendance, giving to charity, volunteering—but we still see the blood of our victims on our hands. We cannot wash away our guilt, even with all the good works on ...