Examples Of Mental Decay In Macbeth

“All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! / All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! / All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3. 49-51) the protagonist Macbeth, in Macbeth by William Shakespeare, is a nobleman prophesied to become king. Macbeth believes in order to become king he must take destiny into his own hands and kill King Duncan. Macbeth is very close friends with King Duncan, “but when he is tempted by the three witches he starts his deteriorating mental path into evil(“Examine Macbeth’s…”).” This begins Macbeth’s downward spiral of mental decay starting with his first hallucination. Before Macbeth is about to assassinate King Duncan he hallucinates about a imaginary dagger. The dagger is covered in

Each death in the play affects Macbeth, but the death of the king is the most problematic causing his endless loss of mental sanity. Meanwhile, the deaths of Banquo and Macduff’s family were indicative of the severity of Macbeth's lust for power (Becker). In Seth Clark’s essay, “Confusion Now Hath Made His Masterpiece”: (Re)Considering The Maddening Of Macbeth,” he states, “Arguably Macbeth’s problem at this point is his inability to stop killing.” Macbeth is unable to stop killing even though he does not a reason to kill. The killings represent his eagerness to kill in order to keep the crown. All of this with the “combination of lack of sleep and hunger for power skew Macbeth’s reasoning (Becker).” Overall, as the play progresses, Macbeth’s mental deterioration does with it. The hallucinations, of the dagger, Banquo’s ghost and voices all show Macbeth’s downward spiral. He started the play as an honorable man, but by the end, he becomes a broken man whose guilt eats him alive (Becker). Macbeth loses his mind in exchange for power, not allowing his guilt to enjoy his victories. All the hallucinations presented in Macbeth by William Shakespeare allow the reader to grasp the understanding of Macbeth’s gradual mental