Macbeth’s Schizophrenia According to the National Institute of Mental Health, a schizophrenic person cannot distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality. Consequently, they oft suffer from delusions and hallucinations. A delusion is considered as a false idea while a hallucination is considered as a false image or vision. Furthermore, schizophrenics may also exhibit symptoms of psychosis. Both of these only exist to the schizophrenic person and they truly believe what they are experiencing is real. Macbeth is suffering from Schizophrenia. Throughout Macbeth, Macbeth struggles with delusions and hallucinations as early as the introduction of the three witches who reveal to him the prophecy of his fate(i.iii). As the play continues,
Macbeth’s tragic downfall into insanity could be modernly diagnosed as the mental disorder schizophrenia. Many of the actions carried out by Macbeth during the play lead the reader to believe that Macbeth is crazy. However, by today’s medical standards, Macbeth falls into several of the categories under the diagnosis 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."
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.
The Supernatural in William Shakespeare's Macbeth In Macbeth the supernatural is used to entertain and terrify the audience. Supernatural things are those that do not belong in the natural world. In Elizabethan times, people were so terrified of the supernatural because they believed that there was a natural order which effectively governed the universe, and when this order was misaligned things would start to go very wrong. For instance, were a Thane to kill a king and then become king, he would have changed the natural order and thus strange things would happen, and in Macbeth they did – horses started eating each other and weather became very irregular. Today we are not terrified in the same way by the supernatural.
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.
Macbeth displays the characteristics of an insane character because of his foolish acts and poor mental state when he visualizes the floating dagger, speaks to a ghost, becomes obsessed with killing others and with the idea of being invincible. When Macbeth begins talking to a ghost, his insanity becomes very apparent to the reader. From another one of the witches prophesies, Macbeth is threatened by Banquo because his sons are to be king one day as well. Macbeth begins to see Banquo’s and makes foolish comments. He says, “[Macbeth] The table’s full.
Medline plus tells us that 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 [Medlineplus.com]. Schizophrenics often suffer from delusions and hallucinations. A delusion is a belief that is not true and a hallucination is seeing, hearing, or sensing something that is not really there [Schizophrenia.com]. Macbeth is considered a schizophrenic because he possesses all of the symptoms said above.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth alludes, both in real life and in fiction, to mental disease being a corrupting influence on personalities. Many Shakespearean plays include dark topics such as depression and suicide but Macbeth takes the cake by being a melting pot of sins: murder, suicide, guilt, political corruption, and even witchcraft. But no topic is more realistically played than Macbeth’s slow drive into insanity and self destruction.
Schizophrenia is mental disorder that inhibits the abilities “to think clearly, to distinguish reality from fantasy, to manage emotions, make decisions, and relate to others” (Duckworth). One defining symptom of schizophrenia lies in recurring delusions of grandeur. The afflicted patient’s “beliefs are not based in reality and usually involve misinterpretation of perception or experience” (Mayo Clinic Staff). It could be argued that Macbeth suffers from delusions that he rightful king of Scotland. Unlike Banquo, Macbeth, in his fantasy-like state, takes the witches prophecy too strongly to heart and thus acts upon it. Additionally, when the witches foretell that “none of woman born/ Shall harm Macbeth” (4.1. 91-92), Macbeth succumbs to an unrealistic delusion of invincibility, which inevitably proves to be fatal. As with Macbeth, Lady Macbeth also appears to suffer these delusions with her husband as king of Scotland. She is the ...
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.
Even though Macbeth is influenced by Lady Macbeth and the witches throughout the play his hamartia causes him to do things that he might not have done. When Macbeth received his prophecy from the witches about becoming king, it causes him to believe that it will come true. In all actuality the prophecy causes him to commit murder so he canu become king but at the same time the witches knew this would happen. Macbeth is driven mad when he tries to make the witches prophecy come true. When he commits the murder of Duncan the madness begins, and from that point on he is in a state of paranoia.
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the character Macbeth descends into madness. Macbeth’s descent into madness first started with the witch’s prediction. If he had never met the witches none of this trouble would have occurred.
Everyone has a slightly different interpretation of the supernatural but the interpretation which we can start with is Shakespeare’s. Everyone of Shakespeare’s time found the supernatural fascinating. Shakespeare interpreted the supernatural as witches, magic, unnatural and evil and he expressed his beliefs in the play, “Macbeth” very clearly, as he portrayed the three deformed women with control over the weather and the ability to predict the future. These three evil witches with magical powers were the creation of Shakespeare’s interpretation of the supernatural. Shakespeare’s contemporaries believed in the supernatural very strongly and a majority of them were frightened of it, including the king of that time, King James I of England.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth’s visions and hallucinations play a significant role and contribute to the development of his character. In the play Macbeth, a man is driven to murder his king and his companions after receiving a fairly ambiguous prophecy told by three witches. Although the witches triggered the series of events that later aid Macbeth’s descent into complete insanity, Macbeth is portrayed from the very beginning as a fierce and violent soldier. As the play goes on, several internal conflicts inside of Macbeth become clear. After he performs several bloody tasks, the madness inside of Macbeth is unmistakably visible to everyone around him. As a result of this insanity, he sees visions and hallucinations. Each time Macbeth hallucinates, he plunges further into insanity that is essentially caused by misguided ambition, dread and guilt. Macbeth has three key hallucinations that play a considerably important role in the development of his character: a dagger, the ghost of Banquo, and four apparitions while visiting the prophesying witches.
In the Shakespearean era, there was an eruption of superstition and alleged witchcraft. The people of that time had strong hatred for the ‘devil worshiping’ witches and had various trials and tests to determine their fate. Shakespeare used this as inspiration for his play ‘Macbeth’
The supernatural was a popular element in many of the plays written in Shakespeare's time (including Hamlet) and everyone of Shakespeare's time found the supernatural fascinating. Even King James I took a special interest in supernatural and written a book, Daemonologie, on witchcraft. It must be remembered that, in Shakespeare's day, supernatural referred to things that were "above Nature"; things which existed, but not part of the normal human life and unexplainable. The play Macbeth involves many supernatural actions that act as a catalyst for suspense and thrill, insight into character, foreshadowing of future events as well as making connections with the theme.