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Role of lady macbeth
Imagery and symbolism in Macbeth
Madness in Macbeth
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William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is intense and horrifying, with Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, planning to kill the king so that Macbeth can take his position. Lady Macbeth is the master mind behind all of this. She is in his ear telling him what to do and how to do it. Under all of this pressure from his wife, Macbeth starts to go insane. In the play, Macbeth shows symptoms of bipolar disorder due to his lack of sleep, agitation, and activeness. Macbeth suffers from lack of sleep which is one symptom of bipolar disorder ("Bipolar Disorder Symptoms - Mayo Clinic"). Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth, “you lack the season of all natures, sleep” (3. 4. 140). This shows that she is worried that he is not getting enough sleep and that it is causing him to act strange. Macbeth starts hallucinating, seeing Banquo’s ghost, and screaming and shouting at it and disrupting the banquet. Lady Macbeth tries to save his image by telling the guests, “I pray you speak not. He grows worse and worse, question enrages him. At once good night. Stand not upon the order of your going, but …show more content…
Resolve yourselves apart, I’ll come to you anon.” 1(3. 1. 133-138). This means Fleance is not important so kill him along with his father. Macbeth has been informed of McDuff fleeing the land to go to England and get Malcolm he is furious with this news. He says “the castle of McDuff I will surprise, seize upon fire, give to th’ sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line.” (4. 1. 150-153). Macbeth is saying he want’s everyone in McDuff’s castle killed including his wife and children. Last but not least this is a proven symptom of bipolar disorder "Bipolar Disorder Symptoms - Mayo
Given this information, Lady Macbeth shows many characteristics of bipolar disorder. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth shows signs of having manic episodes. An example is her involvement in the murders; it seems like a good plan for Macbeth to become king, but the major consequences are overlooked. She has abnormal moods, racing thoughts, increased goal-directed activity, and excessive involvement in activities that may have a painful outcome. Lady Macbeth is proud her husband is king; nonetheless, she is also depressed due to the fact that so many people had to be killed. For Lady Macbeth, the ultimate consequence of her actions was death, being she took her own life. (5.5.16). Therefore, it is clear that Lady Macbeth suffered from bipolar
“...Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line” (4.1.170-174). In act four of Macbeth, Macbeth demands Macduff’s entire castle be murdered in full resolve and utter insanity. He becomes the very personality he disdains from the start of Macbeth. However, it cannot be simply chalked up to a shift in heart but, instead, a diagnosable disorder that contributes to his full-fledged lunacy. It is easy to assume that Macbeth was only influenced into his craziness; but upon further inspection Macbeth had, without a doubt, developed Bipolar Disorder. He quickly changed from a virtuous and proud warrior to a liar and thief of the crown once Lady Macbeth had pressured him into killing Duncan. From thereon out, Macbeth quickly made his descent into madness; a combination of manic episodes, delusions,
Before Lady Macbeth helped her husband kill King Duncan, Lady Macbeth suffered from an untreated case of bipolar disorder 2. Bipolar disorder 2 is a mental illness of continued periods of depression with episodes of dramatic mood changes. Bipolar disorder affects the area of the brain that is associated with decision-making and controlling impulsive behavior. Healthy BALANCES states,
Mental illness is a serious societal problem today, and has been for a long time. People who have a mental illness often end up hurting other people mentally and physically. When someone has a mental illness, they might also end up hurting themselves or cause suffering for themselves. Also, it is sometimes difficult for them to understand things clearly, and they might be unsure of things in their life. All of these problems are shown in a person who is mentally ill. Macbeth hears his prophecy from three witches which starts his mental illness, along with Lady Macbeth pressuring him to kill the king. After Macbeth kills the king, things start to get out of hand; Macbeth gets over ambitious and wants to kill more people, whatever it takes. Lady Macbeth asks for her womanhood to be taken so that she will not feel guilty, but ends up feeling more guilty than ever. Subsequently, she kills herself to escape the guilt, and causes her husband great pain. These tragic examples and many others show that mental illness is a societal issue, and it is shown throughout the story of Macbeth.
She told of how the emotions and thoughts which Lady Macbeth held in were shown to have been the culprits behind the mental disease (“The Psychoanalysis of Lady Macbeth” shakespeare-online.com). Coriat described somnambulism as being “not sleep, but an abnormal mental state, distinct from the ordinary mental state of the subject,” (“The Psychoanalysis of Lady Macbeth” shakespeare-online.com). The thoughts and emotions suppressed by Lady Macbeth are the obvious reasons she suffered this disease, as talked about by Coriat. Lady Macbeth was, to the knowledge of the reader, sane in the mind until she and Macbeth committed the murder of Duncan. There was no evidence within Macbeth that she might have been mentally deranged before Duncan’s
Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a very ambitious character, which is part of the reason that led to his downfall. Macbeth let his ambition get to him and it was pretty much like a mental illness. In the play Shakespeare focuses on unchecked desire of power. Lady Macbeth stated that, “art without
The hired assassins have killed Banquo and Macbeth has his second hallucination. “This is the very painting of your fear,” Macbeth has just seen the ghost of Banquo and Lady Macbeth is trying to shake him out of his feeling of guilt and fear(3.4.1348). “This is the air drawn dagger which, you said, led you to Duncan,” Lady Macbeth is trying to calm Macbeth down and reassure him that Banquo is not there; his hallucination is not real (3.4.1349-1350). This hallucination is caused by fear, guilt, and ambition. “If I stand here, I saw him,” Macbeth being so adamant about seeing Banquo, tells us that Macbeth feels threatened by Banquo’s existence(3.4.1364).
Many of the symptoms that Lady Macbeth presents in the literature book trace back to a person with post-traumatic stress disorder. In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth (act II scene ii). Lady Macbeth starts talking to herself and gets paranoid with everything she hears. She also gets flash backs about her child that died.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both show signs of what would today be diagnosed as symptoms of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is defined as "a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought, and conduct." There are three major symptoms of the disorder; not being able to distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality, incoherent conversations, and withdrawal physically and emotionally. The most common and most well known symptom of schizophrenia is when people cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not. Schizophrenics often suffer from delusions and hallucinations. A delusion is a false belief or idea and a hallucination is seeing, hearing, or sensing something that is not really there. Some people diagnosed with the illness may speak with disjointed conversations. They often utter vague statements that are strung together in an incoherent way. Lastly, some schizophrenics withdraw emotionally, for example, their outlook on life is deadened and they show little or no warmth, and also physically, such as their movements become jerky and robot-like.
Macbeth is told that Banquo is dead, but Fleance has escaped and Macbeth says that Fleance is like a serpent and will not be a problem just yet but will eventually become one. Macbeth then see Banquo’s ghost at the table and stops dead in his tracks, with horror on his face he begins talking to the ghost. Lady Macbeth covers the scene with saying that Macbeth has delusions. The ghost leaves and then the table makes a toast to Banquo and the ghost reenters causing Macbeth to scream at the ghost to leave, his wife, once again covers his outbursts with saying that he has delusions and they bid the lord farewell. Macbeth says that he will go see the weird sisters and says that he is not in his right senses. The three witches meet with Hecate,
But on the hallway above them Lady Macbeth runs by and goes to the king’s room. Banquo mentions that he is having trouble sleeping. Banquo says to Macbeth that he had a dream about the Weird sisters, Macbeth, on the other hand, says that he does not think about them.
.... His insanity was a result of ambition taken much too far, ambition mutated and converted into evil by internal as well as social conflict; Macbeth’s wife did nothing to prevent Macbeth’s sickness and actually helped the problem develop. From his ambition came actions that filled his mind with conflict, dread, suspicion and guilt. It could be said that Macbeth was insane from the beginning, from the moment that the witches appeared to him in the third scene of the play or even from when he carved out his bloody passage in battle. Whether Macbeth was insane his whole life or just from the moment he first saw the imaginary dagger, it is indisputable that his visions and hallucinations only helped to supplement his lunacy.
Many things can cause insanity within a character. However, the cause of Macbeth’s psychosis is the ambition he had to be king and the weakness within his character. In the
Night falls upon the castle and everyone has been seated in the dining hall. A light layer of mist fell across the face of Macbeth which was already covered in sweat and drained of color. Macbeth turns to the individuals sitting to the left and right, trying to look normal with the same eyes that last saw Banquo alive. “Sir? Seems as if you’ve seen a ghost.” Said someone to his left that seemed to travel in one ear and out the other. “Sir, are you alright?” said someone to his right that did the same as the one from the left. He looked right, left, then forward at Lady Macbeth. “I think I may have just caught a case of the jitters” said Macbeth, addressing all at the table.
He loses his mind and goes crazy killing everyone to keep the power he has gained. After killing King Duncan and making it look like the guards did it, people start suspecting Macbeth of the murder. The first to go is his best friend Banquo, he sends out murderers to go and kill Banquo and his son Fleance, Fleance however escapes and gets away. “My lord…/ did for him” (3.4.17). “Thou art the…/ art the nonpareil” (3.4.18-20). In the two excerpts above Macbeth and the murderer, he sent to kill Banquo, are discussing the deed and if it was done. During his feast, the ghost of Banquo appears and scares Macbeth, everyone stares in confusion as he yells at nothing but air. Everyone in the room looks at Macbeth like he has gone mad, his wife tries to defend him, saying that he has a mental illness that causes him to do this. After a while of Macbeth’s craziness, Lady Macbeth asks everyone to leave. “I pray you…/go at once”