Macbeth: Lady Macbeth Uses Others As A Shield For Guilt In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth unconsciously uses Macbeth and others as a shield for guilt. When she wants something but doesn't have the guts to perform the task herself, she calls upon anyone but herself to do it. She thinks that this will erase her conscience of any guilt it has on it, but the shield is faulty. The first and most obvious of all places where this shield is placed is in the first two acts where Lady Macbeth is trying to convince her husband to kill King Duncan and become King of Scotland. She persuades by attacking Macbeth's