ipl-logo

Examples Of Mental Disorder In Lady Macbeth

1340 Words6 Pages

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.
In the beginning of the passage Lady Macbeth states, “ Yet here’s a spot. Out damned spot, out, I say” (5.1.33,37). The spot Lady Macbeth is referencing is the blood that is stained on her and Macbeth's hands. The blood left on their hands is torturing Lady Macbeth as she is starting to feel remorseful as she is subconsciously reliving the horrific violent crime. In reliving the horrific murder she is starting to develop a mental illness which later leads to her suicide. That mental illness closely resembles PTSD as she is having flashbacks of the murder she pushed Macbeth to commit while she is asleep. …show more content…

This shows Lady Macbeth's feeling of remorse while she relives the violent murder in her sleep. In the words “the old man to have so much blood in him”(5.1.41-42) she is not only referencing King Duncan's murder but all of the murders that Macbeth committed. This also shows how she is questioning why she pushed him to commit the murder. As well as questioning the fact that she had no idea that he would become so paranoid and start on a murder spree. Lady Macbeth believed that it was a one murder deal. Only the murder of Duncan in order for Macbeth to become king and fulfill the witches prophecies. However, even just that one murder leads to her

Show More
Related
469 Words | 2 Pages

She first began to reveal her sociopathic tendencies in Act I, Scene VI when she lied, without remorse, to King Duncan -- flattering him as she plotted to end his life. This scene exposes two key indications of antisocial personality disorder in the character: pathological lying and disregard for the effect her actions have on others. As the act continues, Lady Macbeth further justifies her ASPD when she states (in Scene VII) that she would willingly kill her own child -- “I would, while [the child] was smiling in my face, have plucked my

Read More
579 Words | 3 Pages

His PTSD may have been brought on by either his exploits on the battlefield, killing Duncan and Banquo, or both. Macbeth fits all four categories for symptoms of PTSD. First, he relieves his experiences again through seeing Banquo’s ghost in a hallucination. His response when he sees it is, “Avaunt and quit my sight! Let the / earth hide thee”

Read More
848 Words | 4 Pages

This passage clearly exemplifies how blood can be deceiving being seen in a heroic light only later to be a dark burden on the Macbeth’s. Lastly, Shakespeare shows the reader how blood deceives lady Macbeth by being able to be cleaned off easily at first but then weighing her down with the guilt and responsibility of her actions. Lady Macbeth later realizes bloodshed’s misleading nature and eventually goes insane trying to cleanse her soul saying, “Out damned spot, out, I say! One.

Read More
1304 Words | 6 Pages

However, the sleepwalking and Lady Macbeth believing her hands still have blood on them signifies that they will be forever punished for the crime they committed. She feels disillusionment and is unable to cope with the guilt that haunts her which ultimately results in Lady Macbeth killing

Read More
457 Words | 2 Pages

Secondly, later on after Lady Macbeth and Macbeth pull off the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and begins to aggressively rub her hands, saying she is trying to get a spot of blood off. She then proceeds to talk in her sleep saying, “Who would have / thought the old man to have had so much blood” (Shakespeare 5.1.33-34). Lady Macbeth’s guilt is being symbolized by the hallucinations of blood on her hands during her sleep. She is so overwhelmed with guilt, that she has to keep secret, that her subconscious is causing her to go crazy and talk about it in her sleep. Lastly, after the murderer, that Macbeth sent, tells Macbeth that he finished off Banquo, Macbeth must entertain guests for a dinner party.

Read More
474 Words | 2 Pages

This portrays that their murders have caused them to advance to insanity. The guilt consumes her just like Macbeth. Macbeth character growth to progress a sociopath as his actions feed through fear caused by the guilt. He says, “I am in blood \ Stepped in so far that, [if I continue], \ returning were [the same as to continue murder]” (III.

Read More
767 Words | 4 Pages

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.”

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

From Macbeth feeling “drowned in blood”, to Lady Macbeth not being able to wash her hands, shows how guilt will always come from making bad decisions. One wrong choice can ruin a person's life

Read More
936 Words | 4 Pages

A Guilty Conscience: How Guilt Drives the Powerful to Insanity Guilt is the cause of the destruction of many, particularly in Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Macbeth. As Macbeth and Lady Macbeth continue to murder for the sake of power, they embark on opposite journeys but their guilt ultimately drives them both to insanity. Macbeth goes from being driven mad with guilt, to his instability causing him to murder recklessly. His wife goes from expressing no compassion or guilt to her guilt overcoming her and driving her to madness.

Read More
1134 Words | 5 Pages

Mental Stability in Macbeth As Erma Bombeck once said, “Guilt: is the gift that keeps on giving” (“A Quote by Erma Bombeck”). In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, guilt plays an enormous role in the development of Macbeth’s descent into madness. Macbeth is about Macbeth being persuaded by Lady Macbeth into committing heinous crimes, and it all started when Macbeth tells her about premonitions three witches gave him. In pursuit of making those premonitions come true, Macbeth kills King Duncan, which scares his children, Malcolm and Donalbain out of the country, allowing Macbeth to become King.

Read More
1054 Words | 5 Pages

As a result of her inability to escape the nightmare of immense guilt in sleeping or in wakefulness, Lady Macbeth crosses into the state of eternal sleep, death. In conclusion, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth demonstrates that a guilty conscience is a mind-probing enemy that can strike quietly and become a deadly, overpowering force that can subdue anyone with remorse. Through Lady Macbeth’s character transformation, the effects of a guilty conscience can thoroughly be seen. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is an ambitious character that can repress her guilt to perform evil to a high extent.

Read More
842 Words | 4 Pages

Lady Macbeth changes from a heartless woman with no remorse to a guilt-ridden accomplice. She claims beforehand that her hands are covered with the blood of Duncan showing her part in the crime, but she feels no guilt. Now, the guilt has caught up and fully taken control of her. The guilt of the murder leaves her sleepwalking and shows just how much control it has over her. Shakespeare again uses the change in a characters mindset to show the intense impact of

Read More
509 Words | 3 Pages

She is only focused on completing her goal of murdering King Duncan so her husband can usurp the throne. She realizes that her husband’s personality is rather meek, and that he would not go through with murdering King Duncan because of a quality that he has, his humanity, which she considers his greatest weakness. Deliberating with herself, she thinks of Macbeth and his potential in regard to what could come to pass: “Yet do I fear thy nature, / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way” (Shakespeare l.v.16-18).

Read More
780 Words | 4 Pages

Lady Macbeth is power hungry for the throne and she will do anything to achieve her goal. Her pleasure of having the thought of killing Duncan is revealed. These murderous thoughts that run through her mind shows how desperate she is to acquire power. Although it is the beginning of the play, her dark ambitions sets a dark tone for her character in the play. This coincidentally adds to the assurance of Macbeth’s prophecy which is that Macbeth will become king, but King Duncan is still alive.

Read More
1367 Words | 6 Pages

Macbeth went through so much pressure to do the crime he later regretted and suffered and battles with himself and his paranoia. Lady Macbeth only saw the effects of blood visually she did not see how the blood stain was eating Macbeth from the inside. Once again Lady Macbeth is pushing Macbeth to forget about what happened and move on, the murder does not affect Lady Macbeth but the way Macbeth is acting shows that he was never ready to commit this

Read More

More about Examples Of Mental Disorder In Lady Macbeth

Related Topics

Open Document