Macbeth Mental Illness Essay

Mental illness in Renaissance England was a very harsh subject. It was a horrid time to be considered mentally ill, for the insane were thrown into prison like asylums meant to protect them. There was little understanding of insanity, causing anyone to be considered abnormal by regular social standards to be cast into an asylum. However, mental illness in women was treated much differently than with men, and even then the medical treatments were cruel and unforgiving. Because of this understanding of mental health during the time period, Lady Macbeth’s mental illness was hugely misdiagnosed and misunderstood.

The Thane of King Duncan, Macbeth hears a prophecy that he himself will become king later on in the future after King Duncan. This then leads to Macbeth being overcome by greed. Since Macbeth greeds to be king so bad, he murders King Duncan and takes his place of the throne. Macbeth starts to live with so much guilt and fear that he commits even more murders to have his power safe. Macbeth is so confident in the prophecies that his life comes to a downfall and he gets killed by the people he did wrong.

Macbeth” is a tragedy written by Shakespeare. The story is played somewhere between 1600 and was performed for King James 1.It is a tragedy about a man’s fall. It could be suggested that macbeth is responsible for the death of king Duncan. According to my point of view, Macbeth didn’t killed Duncan , banquo and macduff 's family because he wanted to be evil because he met the witches .He did everything because of ambition, jealousy , lust for power and because he was power hungry from the beginning. Macbeth made the choices by his own,he wasn’t forced or fated to make any of the choices he made. He killed King Duncan and took the scottish throne for himself. He was so power-hungry that he also wanted to kill Duncan’s son but they ran away and he was proposed as the king. He blamed two

The fact that Macbeth believes the witches’ prophecies are not evil nor good foreshadows how he will go on to kill any other person standing in his way to more power. His ambition blinds his mind to make him even think about ruthlessly committing a murder. This forceful way of gaining power will only lead Macbeth to become a “tyrant” in Scotland and his “fantastical” desires of killing Duncan and receiving the crown will lead Scotland to failure. Under Macbeth’s rule, Scotland seems to be in a terrible condition. With distrust among the people, there is tension all within the country, as Macbeth’s totalitarian regime had rendered the prosperity of Scotland. Macbeth is a tyrant during his rule, manipulating the minds of the people and using murders to clear out anyone that stood in his way, so that he can stay in power. Malcolm worries about the state of Scotland as he exclaims, “I think our country sinks beneath the yoke./ It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash/ Is added to her wounds. I think withal…” (Shakespeare 4.3.49-51). Malcolm notices the true state of Scotland under the rule of Macbeth, as he has forcefully gained his

Lady Macbeth is power hungry for the throne and she will do anything to achieve her goal. Her pleasure of having the thought of killing Duncan is revealed. These murderous thoughts that run through her mind shows how desperate she is to acquire power. Although it is the beginning of the play, her dark ambitions sets a dark tone for her character in the play. This coincidentally adds to the assurance of Macbeth’s prophecy which is that Macbeth will become king, but King Duncan is still alive. Moreover, this realization leads Lady Macbeth to think about murdering King Duncan for her and Macbeth to gain power. In addition to Lady Macbeth’s cruel character, she reveals her desirous thoughts towards the crown. Lady Macbeth continues her speech and mentions her unquenching thirst to take Duncan’s power. “Make thick my blood. Stop the access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace with the effect and it!” (lines 33-37). Again, Lady Macbeth shows her lust for power. Her exceptional amount of greed continues to motivate

Macbeth’s guilt and battle with mental illness begins early within the play: right after the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth, once a loyal sergeant in Duncan’s army, has killed the king in order to possess the throne of Scotland. This act of such extreme measures begins Macbeth’s descent into madness and insomnia. Immediately after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth says, “Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.” (Macbeth, Act II Scene II) Voices within his mind is the first symptom of schizophrenia that Macbeth presents in the play. However, the evidence of schizophrenia within the mind of Lord Macbeth does not end after the murder of Duncan, in fact it gets seemingly worse. Soon after the murder

Similarly, Macbeth 's own mental state initiates a rivalry within itself. The thought of killing Duncan brings Macbeth 's brain into turmoil, causing him to hallucinate. He then questions his own sanity by asking if the imaginary dagger is physical " Or art thou but // A dagger of the mind, a false creation // Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?" (Act2:1:37-39). The imagery used of a brain physically over-heating accentuates the idea that Macbeth is beginning to lose his sanity as his brain can no longer function accordingly due to all the incalescence. Not only does the thought of killing Duncan cause Macbeth to hallucinate but also after having ordered the murder of Banquo, his guilt stricken conscience causes him to see Banquo 's ghost. No one else at the banquet can see the ghost which emphasizes that Macbeth is losing his sanity. Macbeth asks "Which of you have done this" (Act3:4:53) after seeing Banquo 's ghost because he believes one of the guests to be playing a prank on him as he is not aware that his own mind is hallucinating due to all the remorse. Near the end of the play, Macbeth begins to forget the brave and valiant soldier he was as he tells Macduff that he will "not fight with thee" (Act5:8:22) when he is realises that Macduff was foretold to be the one to slay him. His own arrogance then comes into play as he says that he "will not yield" (Act5:8:27) because he refuses to become the laughingstock of the common people. This also shows the reversal

Macbeth shows that he is willing to kill King Duncan because he is interested in the witches prophecy, after they tell him that he will become ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and then the King.

In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth it talks about a hero coming back from a viscous battle, from a group of rebels trying to take over the castle that the king’s lives in. After the hero comes back from a bloody battle he encounters three witches that tell him that he will have three titles one in the past thane of Glamis, one in the present thane of Cawdor, and one in the future king. After the witches tell Macbeth about the prophecy he gets the idea of wanting to be the new king and feels that Duncan should isn’t fit to be the king. After Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have a brief argument on wither Macbeth should kill Duncan. They finally come to a conclusion that they should and they form a plan to kill him. After the king is killed by Macbeth he feels regret, but the person most responsible for king Duncan’s death is Macbeth.

“Macbeth” is a tragic play about a gruesome rise to power and the downfall of it all. Macbeth goes down menacing paths in order to get the power he believes he deserves. Macbeth is easily persuaded by a prophecy promised by three witches, this contributes to him making sinister decisions that are not worthwhile.Macbeth encounters many strange/supernatural experiences, struggles with a constant paranoia and finds himself being stuck in a endless rut fuelled by ambition. By the end, he is trapped in a world he had created himself. In other words, you can try to find a way to escape your guilt but it will always be there tormenting you.

At the start of the play, Macbeth visits the witches with Banquo at the closing of the battle. The witches speak to Macbeth and Banquo and get the idea of a prophecy in Macbeth’s mind. “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis./ All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor./ All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” (1.3.46-48). When the witches get the prophecy in Macbeth’s mind, he believes it will come true and misunderstands the prophecy of the witches. Although the witches make Macbeth believe in the prophecy of becoming the King, Macbeth is responsible for his downfall because they do not recommend Macbeth to kill Duncan. The recommendation of killing Duncan comes across Macbeth’s

Guilt has the potential to crumble even the most powerful of mortals. The Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth reveals the consequence of immoral action: guilt. William Shakespeare portrays the idea that the downfall of one may transpire as a result of this regret. Throughout the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are negatively affected as they are overwhelmed by the realization that they have violated their moral standards; this causes their guilt. The two attempt to conceal the remorse they experience, but despite this, their misdeeds take their toll. The effects most prominent throughout the play are the development of depression, paranoia, and emotional detachment. Ultimately, it becomes obvious that guilt is capable of bringing ruin to any individual.

Picture living in a world where it was impossible to separate imagination from reality; Where seeing did not always mean believing. It would be living in an inconceivable hell, incapable to remember what was real and what was dreams. This is what it is like everyday to live with paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenia is a subset of schizophrenia, in which victims suffer from hallucinations that others are plotting against them. Schizophrenia typically originates from biological factors; however, environmental factors can manipulate someone into falling victim to this horrendous disease. This exact disease is what lead to the downfall of the noble warrior, Macbeth, in the Shakespearian play. There

To illustrate the characters being affected by sanity: “ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams that share us nightly” (3.2). With this being stated one can see Macbeth and his wife already losing sleep and wondering about the dangers that lie ahead. Their sanity is becoming borderline to insanity and just waiting like a ticking time bomb to explode. “Terrible dreams that shake us nightly”: the guilt of killing Duncan was too overbearing that now Macbeth must rely on fate that allows his sanity to loosen and become insane. Sanity is the only thing that Macbeth had control over for a while, before the murder: “will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” (2.2). With this

Macbeth’s ambition is one of the most prominent things that drive Macbeth in the play and truly becomes evident when he hears of the Witches prophecies. When the witches stop talking, he demands to know more. “Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more” (I, III, 73-74). This portrays his excessive curiosity on the subject as well as his craving for more desirable prophecies. This ambitious nature and craving for power is also demonstrated only moments after hearing the witches, when he starts formulating a plan to kill Duncan in order to make the third prophecy come true. “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion[killing Duncan]/Whose horrid image doth unify my hair” (I, III, 144-145). This quote indicates that the force of ambition is so strong within Macbeth that even he himself cannot understand why it is making him think of killing Duncan. Likewise, Macbeth’s ambition to become king is further emphasized after Duncan names his son Malcolm as his successor. Here, Macbeth says that he will have to “oerleap,/For in my way it [Malcolm] it lies” (I, III, 55-57). Macbeth’s ambition is what is causing him to intervene with his prophecy and pursue his goal (rather than leave it to chance). In a way, it is Macbeth’s own “black and deep desires” that make him kill in the first place as the witches never tell him to do so. Furthermore, apart from ambition, it is Macbeth’s own weak will and moral system that causes him to do the actions that result in his downfall. Macbeth’s weak will is undeniable and is illustrated before killing Duncan. “I have of spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but only/Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself/And falls on the other” (I, VII, 25-28). Even after listing all of the reasons why not to kill Duncan and coming to the conclusion that it is only ambition driving him, he still quickly succumbs to Lady Macbeth’s