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Examples Of Mental Decay In Macbeth

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“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 …show more content…

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

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Macbeth And His Schizophrenia Picture this: a world full of witches, prophecies, and bloodshed. Welcome to William Shakespeare's famous tragedy, Macbeth. Some may argue that Macbeth's erratic behavior and hallucinations throughout the play are signs of schizophrenia. However, a closer examination reveals that Macbeth's actions and psychological state are better understood within the framework of guilt, ambition, and moral deterioration. This essay will argue that Macbeth has schizophrenia and show how his character represents the tragic consequences of a flawed individual driven by his ambitions and inner demons.

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In Macbeth, a banquet is being held in honor of the newly crowned king, Macbeth. During this feast Macbeth hallucinates images of his friend, Banquo, whom he hired murderers to kill him. Lady Macbeth tries to evade the attention from Macbeth, but they begin to suspect all is not well with the king. William Shakespeare reveals the guilt Macbeth feels for acting upon his selfish action and how he reacts henceforth. This includes what ensues with Lady Macbeth.

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Approximately 18.1 percent of adults in the U.S experience an anxiety disorder such as PTSD, OCD and other phobias. Therefore, mental illness and guilt can come as a result of committing a violent crime. Such as in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. In the play Lady Macbeth develops a anxiety disorder that closely resembles PTSD after she forces Macbeth to murder King Duncan. She forces Macbeth to murder the king in order for him to fulfill the witches prophecies and become king.

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Macbeth’s guilt and battle with mental illness begins early within the play: right after the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth, once a loyal sergeant in Duncan’s army, has killed the king in order to possess the throne of Scotland. This act of such extreme measures begins Macbeth’s descent into madness and insomnia. Immediately after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth says, “Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.”

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Firstly, Macbeth’s mental deterioration, due to his lust for power presents itself, when he decides to betray his best friend Banquo.

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In a soliloquy he has before killing Duncan, Macbeth hallucinates a floating dagger in front of him, ultimately hinting to the reader that he is mentally unstable as he ponders for the last time whether killing Duncan is the right move. In another speech found later in the play, now as King, Macbeth becomes extremely ruthless, to the point that his wife’s death doesn’t even phase him. Going from a brave hero-like general, to a disturbed and ruthless King, Macbeth’s overall character drastically changes throughout the play.

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The play, Macbeth, shows the among between sanity and insanity and the struggle between reason and delusion. Throughout this whole play, Macbeth slips into a state of lunacy slowing turning into a psychopath. The basis of understanding the play is through the first murder, King Duncan. Macbeth’s other two assassinations are just used as efforts to secure his throne. He begins accepting the evil inside him and succumbing to the temptation to murder and insanity.

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Macbeth would envision a dagger before him asking himself “is (that) a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand”(act.2 scene.i). The dagger was a metaphor for his ambitions and motivation to make himself king with the help of his wife, Lady Macbeth. After King Duncan was killed, Macbeth felt he was evil at that point where he “belief(ed) he (was) to evil to blessed by god”(act.2 scene.ii). The guilt he felt would drive him to the point of madness and brought into question if he was human after that or something that could not be redeemed.

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As the first scenes unfold we immediately get the sense of courage, bravery and nobility from one of the main characters, Macbeth, because he has just taken part in a battle and won. Following the battle he and another character, Banquo, come across three witches that have prophecies for the both of them. Macbeth’s ultimately states he will become thane of Cawdor and Banquo’s states that although he won’t rule, his sons will. The two men are skeptical once they leave, that is until Macbeth’s first part of the prophecy comes true and he is in fact named thane of Cawdor. With this new information that he believes to be true and a sense of hope, we see how the once brave warrior’s actions set up the rest of this gruesome play and his own death.

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Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a play about how greed can demoralize a person. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s minds were corrupted due to their lust for power after hearing the prophecies given to Macbeth by the witches. First or all, Macbeth’s lust for power was apparent when he ordered Banquo and his son’s death. He wanted to ensure his position as king would not be taken, and as the witches stated - Banquo’s sons would be king. The first evidence of Macbeth losing his mind was after he ordered Banquo’s death.

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Macbeth is the Shakespearean play that features the triumphant uprise and the inevitable downfall of its main character. In this play, Macbeth’s downfall can be considered to be the loss of his moral integrity and this is achieved by ambition, despite this, Lady Macbeth and the witches work through his ambition, furthering to assist his inevitable ruin. Ambition alone is the most significant factor that led to Macbeth’s downfall. The witches are only able to influence his actions through Macbeth’s pre-existing and the three witches see that Macbeth has ambition and uses it to control his action. Ambition alone is displayed throughout the play to be the most significant cause for Macbeth’s downfall.

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Macbeth’s state of mind changes dramatically throughout the play. This is revealed through his soliloquy. In his soliloquy, He shows his intention he would like to achieve but its construction shows Macbeth’s mind still very much in confusion. However, most of the time Macbeth shows three different fears considering the consequences of killing king Duncan. At the beginning of Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth is in turmoil about killing Duncan.

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This debate between the pity found in Macbeth’s mental state and the fear he evokes through his actions continues as Macbeth becomes a vicious tyrant. Not only does he kill off more of those around him, including the family of MacDuff, all for the sake of proving his power over those around him, but he rains famine and tragedy across the land. Macbeth’s inhumane actions easily draw fear from the audience as it expresses how uncontrollable and deranged, he has become; Macbeth is truly far from the hero first introduced. Extensively Macbeth begins to trust fewer and fewer individuals, he becomes more paranoid about the things going on around him. Specifically he can’t sleep and fears loosing his power.

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Similarly, Macbeth 's own mental state initiates a rivalry within itself. The thought of killing Duncan brings Macbeth 's brain into turmoil, causing him to hallucinate. He then questions his own sanity by asking if the imaginary dagger is physical " Or art thou but // A dagger of the mind, a false creation // Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?"

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He feels as though it is urging him to fulfil his desire to become king. Page 45, Act II, scene ii, "Your shape is as real as my own dagger, which I now draw from its sheath. You lead to in the direction I was going (i.e, to Duncan 's room)."Macbeth interprets the dagger as a sign that he shall proceed with his wicked crusade. Consequently, seeing the chimera of a dagger before the murder inspired Macbeth to kill and inherit the

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