In the Renaissance era, William Shakespeare wrote the tragedy Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a character in Shakespeare’s Macbeth that plays the wife of Macbeth. In the beginning, Lady Macbeth was the lady in charge of the marriage and household to become Queen of Scotland. Toward the middle through the end of the play, she suffers of guilt for her part in the crime. Lady Macbeth suffered from a Post-Traumatic stress disorder and paranoid schizophrenia due to these symptoms: hallucinations, intrusive memories, as well as delusions. Post–traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) is a mental health condition that is triggered by a frightening event that someone has witnessed or experienced. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder is insomnia, guilt, reliving traumatic moments, and concentration problems. (Lipinski) Lady Macbeth is reliving a tragedy moment that …show more content…
Out, I say! One: two: why, then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our pow'r to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" (Mac.5.1.29-33) Lady Macbeth is trying to scrub the blood off her hands while in a conscious state. She thinks she has blood on her hands. However, her hands are physically clean, they are actually filthy of murders she causes. These flashbacks of reliving her tragedies of her life are causing her to lose sleep at night. In addition to PTSD, Lady Macbeth is also suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects a person’s ability to think, feel, and behave clearly. Delusions, depressed mood, hallucinations, anger, and anxiety are types of symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. Delusions are when the person’s body does not function properly. Lady Macbeth is having delusions in this scene. Lady Macbeth: That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you
In William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, the character of Macbeth is easily influenced by his wife and starts to spiral in his attempt to gain ambition. This is evident as he begins to behave in unexpected ways, seeing things, and negative thinking. This actively demonstrates that he is easily capable of changing drastically throughout this play by going through traumatic situations including his wife that calls him a coward if wasn’t be able to do so. In judgment of his character he would be diagnosed with schizophrenia for multipipe reasons. As being seen, Macbeth exhibits symptoms of schizophrenia to include: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, and negative thoughts.
Macbeth takes action against another that he believes is going to overthrow him, Macduff. This is another example of the symptom, paranoia, that he faces. Macbeth is shown an apparition that says “beware of Macduff,” this brings about his paranoia that Macduff is going to kill him. Miller and Mason say; “People suffering from schizophrenia may act in ways that are unusual for them. For instance, some people develop very poor judgment or behave in sexually inappropriate ways.
How does Lady Macbeth change over the course of the play? Over the course of the play the characters of both Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth develop intensively. They share similar ambitions, but it is Lady Macbeth who dares to do unspeakable things to accomplish them. This creates great conflict within Lady Macbeth who does not conform to the traditional female stereotypes of her epoch.
After each of these events, Macbeth’s sanity takes a hit and he begins to hallucinate
Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (V.i.l 25, 33-34). The blood symbolizes the guilt that Lady Macbeth has after being involved in the murder of Duncan. The Macbeths believe that cleaning their hands with water would make the sin of the murder not be in connection with them.
One of Shakespeare’s superlative examples of a troubled mind is located in Macbeth. The impertinent character Lady Macbeth exhibited many symptoms of depression and antisocial personality disorder. While mental illness is generally developed through an accumulation of several events, as it was in Lady Macbeth’s case, it was definitely more profound after the murder of King Duncan. Prior to killing the king, Lady Macbeth unveiled sociopathic behavior through her negligence of others.
The feelings of insecurity Macbeth experiences cause his PTSD to soar in
As the Macbeth’s portray the opposite of social constructs and expectations in the play, they eventually fall into their belonged stereotype after Lady Macbeth slowly starts to spiral downhill. Once Macbeth feels as though someone is in the way of him becoming King, he instantly creates a plan to murder them like Lady Macbeth did with Duncan. As they eventually take up each others common behavior, Lady Macbeth drives herself to insanity due to her womanly feelings. “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 a most fast sleep.” , she is seen sleepwalking and participating in strange activities due to the insanity driven from guilt (5.1.4-6).
She was also calling Duncan and his guards defenseless while in the vulnerable state of sleep. Lady Macbeth is taking advantage of their vulnerable sleep to kill Duncan. When the Lady Macbeth commits the murder of Duncan, guilt fills her mind. Sleep, which should be her most peaceful time of the day, now becomes “a great perturbation in nature,” full of anxiety and torture. Her hallucinations while sleepwalking build her growing insanity, and she has completely lost grip of reality.
(Macbeth, Act II Scene II) Voices within his mind is the first symptom of schizophrenia that Macbeth presents in the play. However, the evidence of schizophrenia within the mind of Lord Macbeth does not end after the murder of Duncan, in fact it gets seemingly worse. Soon after the murder
Stages of this mental illness touched on by the playwright are the overpowering initial impact, difficulties sleeping, and the suicidal tendencies. In the moments subsequent to the treasonous murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth feels an irrepressible amount of guilt. This occurrence is the root of her depression as she experiences the weight of her crime and needs to be “look[ed] to” (2.3.115) and “exit...helped” (2.3.Stage Directions). Subsequently, the shameful state of mind Lady Macbeth suffers provokes complications with her sleep. The queen’s “heart is sorely charged” (5.1.46) which “keep[s] her from her rest” (5.3.40).
Although Macbeth possesses a plethora of mental health disorders Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is the most dominant of them. The Bipolar Depression (Which closely links attribute to PTSD, although the manic stage of a bipolar disorder is usually not obtained while some are experiencing PTSD) and PTSD traits and symptoms that are slowly built into her character are caused by the delayed stress she experiences after Macbeth murder of king Duncan. After the murders are committed, Lady Macbeth and her husband are immediately consumed with guilt. Many of the victims of PTSD fall into a period of confusion and guilt similar to Macbeth after the murder of his kinship, leader and king. “His wife thinks that 's a foolish thing to say, and when she notices
Lady Macbeth, cruel wife of Macbeth, assisted in the murder of King Duncan and his servants. She is a violently ambitious and manipulative woman, so much so that she thought up and planned the idea to kill King Duncan and convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan and his servants so that he could take Duncan’s place on the throne. Macbeth carried out with the deed, while the feeling of guilt invaded his mind almost compromising the plan, when Lady Macbeth stepped in and completed the plan mercilessly. As she finished the deed that Macbeth couldn’t carry out, (putting the daggers back with the servants), she compliments herself for being so brave and mentally stronger than some men.
The character is suffering and this depiction of Macbeth is believed to have a modern mental illness. Macbeth’s past definitely can support the idea of his disturbed state of mind as we watch the character change throughout the film.
Celia Beyers Tinti Period 1/5 12 April 2015 Literary Analysis: Macbeth In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he presents the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is shown, as a character that schemes into making rebellious plots. She reveals the desire for wanting to lose her feminine qualities in order to be able to gain more masculine ones.