Mental Illness In Macbeth

In the story of Macbeth by William Shakespeare the main character and the play’s namesake, Macbeth, is a heroic warrior for Medieval Scotland. There is a war raging and Macbeth is a fearless leader of the Scottish army. As battles rage, another leader or Thane, Macduff, conquers the territory of Cawdor which King Duncan of Scotland mistakenly gives to Macbeth. Macbeth becomes fixated on land and power so he accepts the territory rightfully Macduff’s. This makes Macduff very angry, but he can’t speak out against his king. Throughout the story Macbeth goes on a spree of doing anything to become more powerful, fraternizing with witches, murdering, and climbing to the top. However, this is not without its problems and though he tries to cover it

This hallucination is seen as another foreshadow. As he kills Duncan he hears a voice “sleep no more, / Macbeth does murder sleep... Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor / Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more” (Act II Scene II). This is a type of Auditory hallucination often in patients with mental disorders. “Auditory: The false perception of sound, music, noises, or voices. Hearing voices when there is no auditory stimulus is the most common type of auditory hallucination in mental disorders. The voice may be heard either inside or outside one's head and is generally considered more severe when coming from outside one's head” (Hallucinations). In this instance this voice sets up the affect it has on Macbeth. This voice’s prediction comes true; because of Macbeth’s guilt he has trouble sleeping, and barely sleeps throughout the rest of the play, only increasing his madness and delusions. Macbeth has figuratively killed his own sleep with Duncan. This auditory hallucination is also a sign that something inside of Macbeth has been severed, sending him deeper into the role of madness and murder. This signifies the switch in Macbeth from being a hardened warrior to being a man with no morals, sucked into a life of obsession and careless murder. He even goes on to kill his former friend Banquo, and the family of Macduff, Banquo’s son Fleance only narrowly

While the guests are being seated Macbeth is called to the door by one of the murderers hired to kill Banquo and Fleance. He relays the news that Banquo has been slain but Fleance fled. This is both good and bad news to Macbeth because Banquo is gone, but there is still a chance that the prophecy could stem from Fleance. As he joins his party once again he sees someone in his seat. This is another place where interpretations differ. The man in the chair in Banquo’s ghost. In some performances there is actually a character here that only Macbeth looks at or reacts to, like he’s invisible to the rest of the cast. Other showings leave the chair empty and have Macbeth react and act like there is someone there. This has the same effect as the dagger, simply for the audience's interpretation. The main idea in this scene is that Macbeth’s guilt has reached the point of overflowing into the real world. He freaks out and starts screaming at the apparition, scaring his guests and almost blurting out that he had Banquo killed until Lady Macbeth throws everyone out. This event is just another that proves the deterioration of Macbeth’s sanity. He is getting worse and worse as the story progresses and things only get