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Mental illnesses in macbeth
Mental illnesses in macbeth
Modern day mental illness diagnosis of lady macbeth
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Lady Macbeth’s disturbing speech to herself while sleepwalking illustrates her clear downward spiral after committing the murders, demonstrating that the intense personal guilt she carries shows her to possess a conscious, and ultimately shows that she is the lesser evil between she and Macbeth.
In this passage, Lady Macbeth is found by the doctor and her servant wandering around, visibly awake, but mentally asleep. The doctor is told to examine her, and watch her exhibit this strange action, where she can be seen sleepwalking and talking to herself. Lady Macbeth proceeds to speak panickedly about the murders committed, scrubbing her hands and, referring to the metaphorical blood, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!”. She is scrubbing her hands
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Lady Macbeth was not as involved in this murder, as it was later in the play, but she knew that her husband ordered it and didn’t try to stop the killing of an innocent family. She says to herself, “The Thane of Fife had a wife”, and then questions where she is now. Even though Lady Macbeth knows exactly where Lady Macduff is and that she is in fact dead, she is almost coming to terms with it and causing herself more inner-torment by asking herself this question. Furthermore, these murders weren’t as much tied to her as Duncan’s was, and yet she still feels the same amount of guilt. At this point, she has even absorbed the guilt that Macbeth is supposed to have for what he did, and Lady Macbeth is starting to see it as what they did, or more accurately, what she let happen. After this, her language starts to become more fragmented and panicked, almost insane-sounding. She starts to state things that have been said by Macbeth, or something she’s said to Macbeth regarding the murders in the past. Lady Macbeth says, after asking about Lady Macduff, “no more o’that, my lord, no more o’that”, thinking that she is talking to Macbeth, and then echoes Macbeth’s past words, “you mar all with this starting”, meaning that you ruin or spoil everything that we’ve done with your nervousness. This shows that Lady Macbeth feels oppressed by Macbeth’s words, telling her to push her guilt down and bury what they did. After all of this, Lady Macbeth is still scrubbing, thinking that she’s smelling the blood on her hands. Even though there is no blood, she thinks that “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten [her] little hand”, and that nothing can actually fix what they did, even though they may try to bury
After the slaughter of his former comrade, Macbeth explains to his wife, “Strange things I have in head that will to hand/Which must be acted ere they may be scanned” (3.4.137-140). This assertion from Macbeth paves the path for his future misdeeds. Lady Macbeth is concerned by her husband’s announcement and responds with, “You lack the season of all natures, sleep” (3.4.141). Lady Macbeth believes that her husband has lost his sanity. She no longer supports Macbeth’s murderous plans, and resents his new impulsivity. Following this conversation, Macbeth continues to kill harmless people, such as Macduff’s wife and children. He implies that he will no longer think about his actions before completing them, which is a deranged approach to life. The change in Macbeth’s behavior reshapes Lady Macbeth’s personality. She realizes that “what’s done cannot be undone” (5.1.57). Lady Macbeth now recognizes the lasting impact of the murders on herself and her husband. Initially Lady Macbeth approves Duncan’s murder, as it leads to her queenship. Her sadism and zeal for power declines after Macbeth’s killing spree. Lady Macbeth’s newfound heart is the outcome of her husband’s wicked
For example, when Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, her deepest regrets and fears can be seen. When she is trying to wash her hands of the blood of all of the people she had killed or helped kill, she says, “The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, / will these hands ne’er be clean”(V.i 37-38)? In this quote, her hands represent her conscience. Lady Macbeth is afraid that after having murdered or been an accomplice in the murder of so many people, her conscience will never be clean again. These new actions transformed her thoughts and feelings from carefree to guilty. Additionally, Lady Macbeth shows pity and regret when she talks about the Thane of Fife’s, or Macduff’s, wife, whom Macbeth had sent murderers to kill. When she says “where is she now”, it becomes clear that she wishes that Lady Macduff was still alive. Lady Macbeth feels sympathy for Macduff’s wife because they are both wives and therefore in the same position. Lady Macbeth might also be afraid that she will be killed next. Like Macbeth, she has her own destiny, which predetermines her identity for her, as she has no power over her actions and therefore her thoughts and feelings. She first sold herself to the witches, and then acted in the rush of the moment and convinced her husband to kill Duncan. Now we see a pathetic Lady Macbeth begging her own conscience for forgiveness. The fact that Macbeth is a play allows readers to see Lady Macbeth’s deepest thoughts and feelings, and a performance of the play can show the true pathos of the unfortunate woman. Additionally, when Macbeth receives the knowledge that he is to become the king, his soliloquy shows how unnerved he is: “My thought, whose murder is yet but fantastical, / Shakes so my single state of man” (I.iii
She is still confident and is trying to stabilize Macbeth’s thoughts. Till this point she is not shown to be guilty of her act but confident. Gradually, as the play progresses we hear about Lady Macbeth’s condition from her maid, who says to a Doctor “Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise/from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her/closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon 't, read it,/ afterwards seal it, and again return to bed, yet all this/while in most fall asleep” (V,I, 3-8). Then Lady Macbeth says while sleep walking “Out, damned spot!
First came the pride, an overwhelming sense of achievement, an accomplishment due to great ambition, but slowly and enduringly surged a world of guilt and confusion, the conscience which I once thought diminished, began to grow, soon defeating the title and its rewards. Slowly the unforgotten memories from that merciless night overcame me and I succumbed to the incessant and horrific images, the bloody dagger, a lifeless corpse. I wash, I scrub, I tear at the flesh on my hands, trying desperately to cleanse myself of the blood. But the filthy witness remains, stained, never to be removed.
She achieved the highest level of political power and was still not content; she is seen suffering the wrath of her convictions and is unable to attain true happiness. When she is no longer able to contain her sanity, Lady Macbeth begins sleepwalking and speaking of her past crimes: “Here 's the smell of the blood still: / all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little / hand.” 5.1.52-54. It can be surmised that the guilt is consuming Lady Macbeth to the point of her longer being able to contain it. Within her dream she is attempting to cleanse her hands of the blood with foreign perfumes, which is symbolic for her attempts to purge herself of the crimes she has remorsefully perpetrated. Near the end of the play, Seyton announces, “The queen, my lord, is dead.” 5.5.16. Lady Macbeth committed suicide in response to her dissolving mental state and her mingled fear of both past and future. She fears that what she has done can never be reversed nor repented, as she stated earlier in the play: “...What’s done, is done.” 3.2.12. However, it can be assumed that she also is in fear of her afterlife and the unsalvageable state of her grief-wracked soul. In conclusion, Lady Macbeth sincerely rued her iniquitous acts and was unable to reach a resolutionary
The theme of guilt is seen through both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. For example, after Macbeth kills Duncan he says, “ I am in blood/ stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.” In this quote Macbeth reflects on the fact that he has now killed King Duncan and is now stuck because the guilt he feels had prevented him from moving forwards and he can no longer change what has happened in the past. At this point Macbeth realises that he made the decision to kill Duncan and now must live with the consequences. This quote expresses Macbeth’s guilty conscience and how he is beginning to feel both regret and remorse. Moreover, Lady Macbeth’s guilty conscience can be seen when she begins to hallucinate. During Lady Macbeth’s hallucinations, she begins to see spots of blood on her hands from Duncan’s bloody daggers and begins to yell, “Out, Damned spot! Out I say,” while frantically rubbing her hands clean. These hallucinations become a common occurrence throughout the play and can be seen as a motif for the guilt she now feels. This scene is important as the readers now see Lady Macbeth’s transformation from a dominant confident woman to a woman who is now being ripped apart by her guilty
This is extremely apparent during Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene, in which her most private thoughts are revealed. Shakespeare puts Lady Macbeth in a vulnerable scenario and uses dialogue to uncover the guilt she is feeling over the murders of King Duncan and Banquo. During the scene, Lady Macbeth cries, “wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale! I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried. He cannot come out on’s grave” (v. i. 62-63). This blatantly tells the audience the source of her anxiety, a component of the play that Shakespeare adds purposely to show Lady Macbeth’s true character. In Derr’s production, Rigel Harris, the actress who plays Lady Macbeth, enhances this portrayal of inner guilt by appearing obviously agitated on stage. In her state of delirium, she fidgets and rubs her hands together, walks zombie-like across the stage, and appears to be in complete distress. Even the way Harris presents the character –the way she talks and emphasizes certain words adds to the dramatic feel of Lady Macbeth’s psychological episode. Instead of simply reading the dialogue, Harris forces the audience to listen: “out, damned spot! out, I say, one –two –why then, ‘tis time to do’t” (v. i. 35-36). These series of cries from Lady Macbeth animate the stress she feels, an aim of Shakespeare’s play that
Lady Macbeth has finally reached the end of her sanity, she starts to do some really odd things during the night.
The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, explores the darkest corners of the human psyche. It artfully takes its audience to a place that allows one to examine what a human being is truly capable of once tempted by the allure of power. In the play, Scottish noble Macbeth and his wife inevitably fall prey to their own self corruption. Initiated by prophesies made by three mysterious witches, the Macbeths set their sights on the throne. When the curtains open on the plot to murder King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is the driving force. Her criminal mind and desire for ruthlessness have led many a critic to define her as evil. Closer examination, however, reveals that she is a multifaceted character; other sides to her persona include: genuine good will towards her husband, coy manipulation, and feminine tenderness.
He no longer is the innocent soldier he once way, he now has “unclean hands”. Lady Macbeth however, assumes his innocence. She claims she cannot murder Duncan herself because Duncan looks to much like her sleeping father. She is all words and no actions. Macbeth is devoid of any human emotions as the play goes on, and Lady Macbeth assumes the emotional role. Lady Macbeth begins to have dreams in which she cannot get the blood off her hands, and ultimately commits suicide from guilt of her actions. This breakdown of Lady Macbeth really highlights how inhuman the murder of Duncan has made Macbeth.
She was a strong character at the beginning of the play, but towards the end of the scene scared and weak. Lady Macbeth admits in her sleep while she was sleepwalking, she help Macbeth kill Duncan by say: “Out, Damned spot! Out I Say! One, Two” (V.1.35). She had a blood stained in her hand that she was trying to get out.
Lady Macbeth begins with an unrecognizable conscience. She explains to Macbeth that if she said she would kill her own child, she would rather do the deed than break her word to do so. As the play continues, however, Lady Macbeth begins to develop a conscience. After placing the daggers for Duncan's murder, she makes an excuse for not killing Duncan herself: "Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done't" (2.2.12-13). These words introduce her conscience. Towards the end of the play, Lady Macbeth falls into a sleepless state, and this sleeplessness represents her guilt for her role in Duncan's death,...
She is completely consumed by guilt and slowly slips away into madness. In the planning stages of the murder Lady Macbeth felt much more strongly than Macbeth about the necessity to kill Duncan, and now in the aftermath she feels the guilt much more strongly than Macbeth. At one point in the play she is completely lost in her guilt; she sleepwalks around the castle saying "Out, damned spot. Out. She speaks of the bloodstains she now sees for her part in this murder.
She sleepwalks, writes, and tries to wash her hands again and again, but she cannot get the blood out because it is not there-it is all in her head. Lady Macbeth starts to worry the Gentlewoman so she called the Doctor. The Gentlewoman starts to describe lady macbeth disturbing actons. The Doctor and Gentlewoman wait for Lady Macbeth she enters the room by sleepwalking and begins to say “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two.
The scene opens with the gentlewoman talking to the doctor about lady Macbeth's sleepwalking. While they are talking, lady Macbeth appears walking while she is sleeping. She stops and rubs her hands together as if she is struggling to clean them. She starts to reenact the murder of Duncan. Lady Macbeth's sleep walking shows her mind which is overloaded with guilt. She is tortured by the memory of the crime and she tries to get rid of it, but in vain.