Examples Of Disturbed Mind In Macbeth

The disturbed mind is one of the larger topics in the story Macbeth. There are countless violent and dark things that happen in the story, and they get deeper and more disturbing as you get farther along. The entire play as you read along is shockingly demented and twisted. You can tell the main characters’ minds change drastically over the course of the play and in the end, they get what is coming to them. We read as each character's mind slowly slips away from them. The others in the story who were once friends become enemies, the main characters start to see them as a threat to the throne instead of someone they can trust. Why do the horrible things these characters do affect them so deeply, and cause them to turn into the opposite of who

So, Lady Macbeth summons evil upon them and the house to assist them in carrying out the deed. “Come you spirits, that tend on moral thoughts, unsex me here and fill me to the crown to the toe-top full of direst cruelty.” (Act 1) This relates to the theme of the disturbed mind in the case that greed brings people to do things they never would think to do in the past, an article written by Michael W. Austin Ph.D., explains how greed affects the mind. “The anxiety and restlessness we feel when we long for some possession, and the false assurance that upon gaining it we’ll be put at ease and satisfied places us in a literally vicious circle” (Michael W. Austin Ph.D.) The “Vicious circle” he talks about relates excessively to the baseline of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth want something so bad that they plan to take a life to gain it. And once the one thing goes away, they do it again because they think that whatever they are trying to gain will make them happy, or rich. This spurs the mental disturbance and unrest that we see Macbeth and even unexpectedly Lady Macbeth falls into a little later in the

Paranoia is essentially the definition of mental unrest. As we see in Act 2 of our story, “or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation proceeding me from the heat oppressed mind.” (Act 2) Macbeth is experiencing a hallucination of the dagger that he plans to kill King Duncan with. The paranoia of being caught is eating him alive, bringing his mind to its breaking point. At this point in the play Macbeth is shown to us as unsure of himself and he seemingly lacks the confidence to carry out the plan. This results in what we see as deeply rooted fear that in the end turns into complete paranoia. “Hallucinations are sensory experiences that do not result from external circumstances; paranoids are fears of harm from others.” (Lucy) The fear of “Harm from others” as mentioned in the article is what Macbeth and Lady Macbeth fear the most. So, to protect themselves from others' harm, they are the ones who harm others in the end. What causes this? The paranoia that the two develop from the unspeakable acts they have committed. They believe that everyone is suspecting of what they have done, they think that they are seen as suspects. But, in reality, we know that no one is looking at them. Macbeth even turns to killing his best friend Banquo simply because he believes that he is onto him. Lady Macbeth has her own experience with this “wash your hands, put on your nightgown, look not so pale, I tell