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Essay on how macbeth character changes
Essay on how macbeth character changes
Essay on how macbeth character changes
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Mental deterioration is when the mind breaks down and can cause forgetfulness, hallucination, memory lapses and destructive thoughts, In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, when Macbeth murders King Duncan, his mental state starts to deteriorate as he seeks help from inanimate objects and experiences vivid hallucinations. Blood symbolism emphasizes Macbeth’s mental deterioration as he seeks help from lifeless objects. Macbeth asks inanimate objects instead of people to help him to remove his guilt because he worries people will perceive him as insane. The guilt Macbeth feels when he plans Banquo’s murder causes him to have realistic hallucinations and he is unable to differentiate between reality and falseness around him. Although Macbeth …show more content…
Macbeth’s mental deterioration is highlighted through the use of blood symbolism because he calls on the natural forces to help eliminate his guilt. When Macbeth kills King Duncan he says to himself, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand?” but Macbeth quickly realizes the greatness of the murder and says, “No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/ Making the green one red.” (II. ii. 57-60). Shakespeare uses metaphors describe how evident Macbeth’s guilt is. The metaphor reveals that Macbeth wonders if his mind will become clean from guilt. Shakespeare uses imagery to highlight how great Macbeth’s guilt is. Since oceans are vast, Macbeth’s question proves how much guilt he has because he needs a lot of water to attempt to rinse his deed. Shakespeare also uses diction to emphasize how evident Macbeth’s guilt is. As Macbeth experienced, mental deterioration can cause a change in personality. Shakespeare chooses the colours red and green because they are opposite of each other on the colour wheel just like Macbeth’s personality before his knowledge of the prophecy and after the murder of King
No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.’ Here Shakespeare uses the language technique of allusion in conjunction with symbolism to express how much Macbeth is overwhelmed with guilt from murdering King Duncan. The first question Macbeth asks to himself is him wondering if the guilt inside him will ever leave, and the second part is him realising that the murder was so bad - that guilt will never be rid from his conscious. We see this again later in the play after Macbeth is responsible for more murders: “… I am in blood Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more. Returning were as tedious as go o’er” The blood spoken about is used in both a literal and symbolic sense.
It is common for people to react harshly after committing murderous crimes. In other pieces of literature, authors often show main characters losing their minds after committing heinous deeds. For example, the main character in Edgar Allan Poe’s A Telltale Heart, is driven mad by the supposed beating heart of the old man he murdered. Poe makes it clear that the man is most definitely dead, and the beating of his heart is heard by only the main character. This is similar to Banquo’s ghost, as it is only visible to Macbeth. The sight causes those around him to question his sanity, just as it caused the main character in A Telltale Heart to confess to a crime. In conclusion, Macbeth’s criminal actions throughout the play inevitably resulted in his mental deterioration, similar to those in other pieces of
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.
Throughout William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, has a lot on his hands as the king of Scotland… especially blood. In fact, blood imagery and the use of violence were large parts of Shakespeare’s style of writing. By examining the blood imagery in Macbeth, one can determine that the loss of blood of others symbolizes illness and Macbeth’s health, mentally and physically declining. This presents the idea that the more he kills, the closer he comes to the ultimate illness, death.
Macbeth’s mental deterioration can be traced through Macbeth's actions leading up to his death. Beginning with Macbeth seeing the floating dagger, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.I have thee not,
A disturbed character is presented in Macbeth and the poems Havisham and Medusa, more specifically it is the female characters who shown to be disturbed. The disturbed character is presented by Shakespeare in his portrayal of the blood thirsty and ambitious Lady Macbeth. In Carol Ann Duffy's poetry, she shows that the disturbed mind of a female character is still a thrilling topic for readers in her poems ‘Havisham’ and ‘Medusa’.
After a long and hard battle, the Sergeant says to King Duncan, “For brave Macbeth,-well he deserves that name,- disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, which smok’d with bloody execution , like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage till he fac’d the slave;” (1.2.16) . This quote shows that Macbeth is viewed as a valiant soldier and a capable leader. However, it does not take long for the real Macbeth to be revealed- a blindly ambitious man, easily manipulated by the prospect of a higher status. His quest for power is what drives his insanity, and after having been deemed the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth’s ambition can immediately be seen. In a soliloquy, Macbeth says, “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings; my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastica, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is but what is not” (1.3.140). Macbeth has just gained more power, and his immediate thought is of how to gain an even higher status as king. He imagines how to kill Duncan, and then is troubled by his thoughts, telling himself it is wrong. This inner struggle between Macbeth’s ambition and his hesitation to kill Duncan is the first sure sign of his mental deterioration. Although Macbeth does kill Duncan, he questions whether or not he should to do so, which is far different from how Macbeth feels about murder later in the play. Macbeth becomes king, and this power leads
There are many things you could say about Macbeth but being sane was most definitely not one of them. He became a killing machine in such a short amount of time because he was never meant to be a leader. Macbeth listened to everyone else around him instead of trusting himself in decision making. He was set with many psychological issues. Not only did he commit the many murders that he did, but he was faced with issues afterwards and so did his wife. In the beginning he seems to be loyal to his king as his number one soldier until he meets the three “weird sisters”. After meeting the three sisters I would say everything changed.
After killing King Duncan to inherit the throne, Macbeth experiences feelings of extreme guilt for his actions, stating, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incardine,” (2.2.77-79). Macbeth compares his guilt to blood, suggesting that his guilt for committing this action is eternal and all consuming, as is the figurative eternal blood capable of turning the ocean red. This implies that interfering with the natural chain of being will result in all consuming feelings of remorse for committing such an egregious deed. Later in the play, Macbeth kills Banquo to ensure his position as king will remain uninterrupted, again interfering with fate and the natural chain of being. As a result of this crime, Macbeth becomes fearful for his safety, proclaiming, “It will have blood; they say blood will have blood,” (3.4.151). This statement means that committing murder will result in the murderer being killed as reciprocation. The threat of being killed as punishment for killing is amplified because of the importance of Macbeth’s victims and their position on the natural chain of being. The use of blood imagery draws attention to and highlights the importance of this line by correlating Macbeth’s disturbing thoughts to a universally
Shakespeare employs the powerful symbol of blood to augment the tragic nature of Macbeth, while dually adding dramatic effect to the play. Blood’s recurring symbolism throughout the play constantly reminds the audience of the Macbeth’s irreconcilable guilt. Blood’s symbolism in the murder of Duncan transforms an act of treachery into a ghastly betrayal. The symbolic appearance of blood throughout the intermediate parts of the play maintains the depth of the Macbeth’s unforgiveable guilt. The use of blood as a symbol in the conclusion of the play asserts the perpetuity of the Macbeth’s guilt. Shakespeare’s inclusion of blood as a major symbol in Macbeth creates a compelling tragedy in which the audience is able to comprehend the magnitude of the Macbeth’s irreconcilable guilt.
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.
This is caused by his nervousness of going through the plan, and pleasing his wife that he begins to see things. Afterwards Macbeth then assassinates his best friend, Banquo and begins seeing his ghost. Partly because of his connection with that person, he felt guilt and sorrow. This again is another symptom of mental illness occurring towards a person.
Macbeth now begins to realize the severity of his crime, and the consequences that he will face. For instance, when Macbeth tries to wash Duncan's ‘blood’ off his hands, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No; this hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red." (2.2 71-75 Shakespeare) This passage illustrates the act of murder has completely changed how the audience portrays Macbeth's character. No longer does the blood symbolize an image of ambition and heroism; it now symbolizes guilt, remorse, and an entry into the gates of hell from which no one can return. The gates of hell which he cannot return from symbolize that once the murder of Duncan has been committed he cannot undo his actions. This murder of Duncan shows the true colours of Macbeth and how he can go and kill his good friend just because he was pressured by his Lady Macbeth. In this passage Macbeth is saying that not even all the water in the ocean will wash the blood off his hands, he is beginning to realize the affects of his actions, and that he has done something truly evil. Like her husband, the once ambitious Lady Macbeth comes to realizes the significance of involving herself in the murder of Duncan, and the severe consequences it will bring. Lady Macbeth is being haunted by nightmares, hallucinations’, she also sleepwalks through her corridor
During Shakespeare's time people believed in the Great Chain of Being, in which people were ranked in social positions and that God put them where they are. They believed that if it was broken, bad things would happen. Within this context, the Great Chain of Being was broken in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. The main character, Macbeth, is to blame for the tragedies that happened during the story because it was his choice and his mental illness that pushed him to do what he did.
In this act blood imagery is used to symbolize the ongoing feeling of guilt. “What hands are here…they pluck out mine eyes. With all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand…making the green one red” (2, 2, 60-64). The blood seen on Macbeth’s hands strongly represents Macbeth’s inability to remove the murder from his conscious, and “all great Neptune’s Ocean wash this blood clean from my hands” (2, 2, 60-64), Symbolizes the large amount of guilt that Macbeth feels after he kills Duncan. Finally the change in blood color from green to red symbolizes that the guilt Macbeth feels will always remain there to haunt him as the horrific crime is present in his mind. Blood imagery in this act rather than representing heroism represents the large amount of guilt. Guilt that is