Sanity And Insanity In Macbeth

Macbeth is so corrupted by power that it drives his mind crazy as he begins to see things that are not real. The first time that Macbeth experiences these hallucinations is before he kills King Duncan. “Is this a dagger which I see before me / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch / thee” (Macbeth 2.1.44-46). Macbeth is seeing a dagger that is not really there, the stress of whether or not to kill Duncan is driving Macbeth insane.

Her idea is to kill the current king Duncan by getting him drunk and murdering him in his sleep. Macbeth hesitates to perform this action, and Lady Macbeth responds to his uncertainty, “when you durst do it, then you were a man;/ And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man.” (I.vii.56-58) This quote proves how Lady Macbeth believes that in order to be a man, Macbeth needs to kill Duncan to show how he is valiant and indomitable therefore elucidating the impression that Lady Macbeth’s definition of a man is being strong and courageous. Macbeth continues to be fearful and replies, “If we should fail [this murder?]” (I.vii.68).

Macbeth had took the two men if they didn’t continue with this mission, they weren’t known as men. Macbeth was too insane to kill another man, but instead he hired two men to proceed the job, This leads to the downfall of Macbeth because it’s affecting him, making him lose his mind more than he is. Shakespeare’s message proves that Macbeth is going overboard with this kingly title. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth had a banquet with the lords and Macbeth had seen Banquo’s ghost at the dinner table, thinking it was full but others thought he was going insane and:/ “were the graced of our Banquo present, who may I rather challenge for unkindness than pity for mischance” (Shakespeare 3.4.47-49).Macbeth was starting to believe Banquo was still present but in reality he wasn’t. The decisions Macbeth is choosing to continue with is affecting the way he’s thinking and living his life.

Macbeths guilty conscience makes him unable to play the ‘true’ role of a villain of the play. Macbeth begins to see ‘false creations’ before murdering Duncan; the image of a floating dagger taunts Macbeth’s senses. Macbeth is devoured in his anxiety he starts to hallucinate the crime before going through with it. Macbeth is unable to dispose thoughts of his guilt and doubt, which prevents him from being stuck at the point where it is too late to turn back, yet the fear of his nature prevents him from turning completely into a ruthless coldblooded

However, this truth remains unknown to Parris, so one has to analyze the situation from his point of view. Disregarding the truth, the first thing Parris worries about is his own name and reputation, instead of his daughter’s wellbeing. Thus, having his estate and daughter involved with witchcraft and unnatural events obviously threatens his rank as a revered. While arguing with Abigail, he says “my ministry’s at stake, my ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life”(Miller, 11), explicitly revealing how he places the importance of his name before Betty’s own sake. Parris is afraid of what others might think of him and avoids facing the congregation in order to evade the topic of witchcraft.

But we can see after he finds out about the truth, he is forced to act because of his morality beliefs. The battle in Hamlet’s tragedy occurs in a dynamic society that is created by opposing forces that contradict with each other and Hamlet is a philosophical prince who blames the court for impunity, injustice, and murder; and all of these problems prevents him from being a part of court’s social life and he becomes depressed. Hamlet’s deep depression effects on his behaviors until he even doesn’t act like prince and becomes mad. His madness effect on his judgment and makes him to become obsessed with the death; even he sees death as the only way to take revenge. We can see that Hamlet explores death in every facet of the play from many different angles and how he develops his definition of death from the materially to morality perspective.

Thy gory locks at me. / Gentlemen, rise. His highness is not well.” (III. IV.

The production revolves around a guilt-ridden man, who falls deep in the rabbit hole of insanity. Perhaps the greatest example of Macbeth’s insanity is his hallucination preceding the murder of Duncan: “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.” (II, i, 33-35). With Macbeth’s accounts of events being cast into doubt, the line between reality and illusion is blurred when Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo in his seat.

When Hamlet says this to Polonius at first he acts like it is a joke but after he says “except my life” three times he starts to realize he has gone crazy, because the craziness he was faking at first is truly how Hamlet feels. This also shows how he is truly thinking about suicide and he is not stable minded,

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?”

Finally, Macbeth 's greediness and committing murder drives him to experience guilt and causes his mental decline. To begin, when he decides to kill Duncan, Macbeth hallucinates and questions “is this a dagger I see before me” (Shakespeare II.i.33). Even before this murderous act, Macbeth is shown to be affected mentally at the thought of killing. After stabbing King Duncan, he starts hearing strange voices in his mind “[he] hears a crying voice, sleep no more”(Shakespeare II.ii.32-33) suggesting that already regrets the murder. Macbeth considers himself a sinner,“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash...”(II.ii.58-59) and the inability to say “ Amen...”(Shakespeare II.II.24).

Before the attack on his home is confirmed, Macbeth tells his servant, “As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have, but in their stead / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath” (5.3.25-27). After killing too many people, Macbeth finds no purpose in honor or having love like a king normally has because he has survived so long without them, so by now he has adapted to these emptinesses. He has come to the conclusion that friends are no longer necessary because they just create more issues and more curses. They give him a false hope of honor, but the honor will not help him now. Macbeth yearns for the honor which he abandons once he decides to follow Lady Macbeth’s advice.

However, he fundamentally makes the choice to murder Duncan. Before Macbeth performs this treasonous act, he behaves as though he is extremely unwilling to do so and his brain begins to play tricks on him. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee,” (Shakespeare 2.I.40-41).

During the second and third acts of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth’s psyche begins to display an inability to heal after he performed the deed of murdering Duncan. It seems that Macbeth has suffered a severe psychological break as he is no longer able to restrain his darker thoughts from materializing into actions. In his lust for power, Macbeth has traded the simplest joys of his former life for those of a haunted man. As time progresses, Macbeth seems more and more willing to sacrifice servants, friends, or even those he considered family in order to secure or increase his status. This leads the audience to the forlorn conclusion that Macbeth has reached a level of madness that surpasses even the sociopathic desires of his wife.

Macbeth’s desperation and the decision of overly trusting the Weird Sisters in Act 4, taking their forecasts too literally as well as letting others’ ideas influence him eventually leads to his downfall as their main goal is to create evil and dominate his mind. This is where Macbeth’s character shifts significantly as he becomes increasingly confident and puts his ambition over conscience. As a result, he is no longer honored and respected by the people of Scotland and he hates to admit that he is not able to govern properly as he wishes the doctor can cure the country. It is evident that others perceive Macbeth from this point on as a madman and devil especially with Caithness and Angus’ descriptions of him being a “dwarfish thief” and unfit for being the king as he claimed it illegally while not realizing the demands upon him. He lacks the greatness, character, and ability to fill the role.