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. 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 …show more content…
It begins in Act V, Scene I, when Lady Macbeth sleep walks. The Gentlewoman declares that "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.” While sleep walking is considered to be a mental illness entirely in itself, it’s also a common symptom of depression. It is most likely that this was brought on as a result of her murdering the king. Further on, her husband brings her to a doctor, wishing to cure her of her mental illness, as he believes the cure is as easy as administering a generic medicine, or removing a bad memory from one’s brain. The doctor states that mental illness is “beyond [his] practice,” suggesting that Macbeth let his wife simply die in her