In my former life as an actor, there was one play whose name many actors refused to say out loud

because they thought that to do so would bring bad luck.

They referred to it as the Scottish play.

But its actual name, turn the volume down now if you're a superstitious actor, is Macbeth.

It is a terrifying play, but not because of the supposed bad luck it brings, and not because

it contains witchcraft and multiple murders, but because it shows that once you are guilty

of something, guilt is seemingly impossible to get rid of.

The story is simple enough.

Lady Macbeth wants her husband to take the throne,

so together they plot to kill the king.

There's a famous scene where, after the murder of the king,

Lady Macbeth sleepwalks.

And as she sleepwalks, she rubs her hands together compulsively over and over, as if she's trying to wash them.

She sees blood on her hands, and no matter what she does, she cannot get them clean.

Because, of course, this isn't literal blood on her hands.

It's a symbol of her guilt, her deep, moral, uncleanness before God.

Blood, you can deal with, you can get that off with soap and water, but not guilt.

And she realizes to her horror that nothing she can ever do will ever get rid of it. It's unreachable by human hand,

and she realizes that one day when she stands before her creator, there will be a reckoning for

what she has done.

Even the thought of that day is so horrific to her that she already feels herself to be in hell.

The question Shakespeare wants us to ask ourselves is this.

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