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Lady Macbeth Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Analysis

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In the Renaissance era, William Shakespeare wrote the tragedy Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a character in Shakespeare’s Macbeth that plays the wife of Macbeth. In the beginning, Lady Macbeth was the lady in charge of the marriage and household to become Queen of Scotland. Toward the middle through the end of the play, she suffers of guilt for her part in the crime. Lady Macbeth suffered from a Post-Traumatic stress disorder and paranoid schizophrenia due to these symptoms: hallucinations, intrusive memories, as well as delusions. Post–traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) is a mental health condition that is triggered by a frightening event that someone has witnessed or experienced. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder is insomnia, guilt, reliving traumatic moments, and concentration problems. (Lipinski) Lady Macbeth is reliving a tragedy moment that …show more content…

Out, I say! One: two: why, then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our pow'r to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" (Mac.5.1.29-33) Lady Macbeth is trying to scrub the blood off her hands while in a conscious state. She thinks she has blood on her hands. However, her hands are physically clean, they are actually filthy of murders she causes. These flashbacks of reliving her tragedies of her life are causing her to lose sleep at night. In addition to PTSD, Lady Macbeth is also suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects a person’s ability to think, feel, and behave clearly. Delusions, depressed mood, hallucinations, anger, and anxiety are types of symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. Delusions are when the person’s body does not function properly. Lady Macbeth is having delusions in this scene. Lady Macbeth: That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you

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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.

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She was also calling Duncan and his guards defenseless while in the vulnerable state of sleep. Lady Macbeth is taking advantage of their vulnerable sleep to kill Duncan. When the Lady Macbeth commits the murder of Duncan, guilt fills her mind. Sleep, which should be her most peaceful time of the day, now becomes “a great perturbation in nature,” full of anxiety and torture. Her hallucinations while sleepwalking build her growing insanity, and she has completely lost grip of reality.

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Ari Mattes again gives a great point of view in her statement, “ We watch her cry as the wife and children of Macduff are executed, and note the look of regret in her eyes as Macbeth becomes increasingly mad” (Mattes 1). Showing from the eyes of Lady Macbeth we watch her wreath in pain of sorrow as she witnesses her husband go “mad” from all his actions. The character of Macbeth manifests into a completely different person in the eyes of film maker Justin Kurzel, as the character seems to be suffering from the pains of his tragic past, also known as post traumatic stress disorder. The memories of battles and violent times in the life of Macbeth, from war times to murders he has committed, puts a serious toll on his mental state. Macbeth can be seen dragging many bodies after the aftermath of war, and the killing of Duncan has shown that it has put a scar into the character of Macbeth.

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Lady Macbeth, cruel wife of Macbeth, assisted in the murder of King Duncan and his servants. She is a violently ambitious and manipulative woman, so much so that she thought up and planned the idea to kill King Duncan and convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan and his servants so that he could take Duncan’s place on the throne. Macbeth carried out with the deed, while the feeling of guilt invaded his mind almost compromising the plan, when Lady Macbeth stepped in and completed the plan mercilessly. As she finished the deed that Macbeth couldn’t carry out, (putting the daggers back with the servants), she compliments herself for being so brave and mentally stronger than some men.

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Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (V.i.l 25, 33-34). The blood symbolizes the guilt that Lady Macbeth has after being involved in the murder of Duncan. The Macbeths believe that cleaning their hands with water would make the sin of the murder not be in connection with them.

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Macbeth takes action against another that he believes is going to overthrow him, Macduff. This is another example of the symptom, paranoia, that he faces. Macbeth is shown an apparition that says “beware of Macduff,” this brings about his paranoia that Macduff is going to kill him. Miller and Mason say; “People suffering from schizophrenia may act in ways that are unusual for them. For instance, some people develop very poor judgment or behave in sexually inappropriate ways.

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Bryanna E. McCool Mrs. Dean British Literature 25 January 2018 Mental Illness in Shakespeare’s Macbeth The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, a play wrought with prophecies, deception, guilt, and death, brings light to the symptoms of mental illnesses and their effects on the human brain’s ability to reason, trust, and act in times of pressure. Both Macbeth and his lady are plagued by mental illness, and the effects of their illness only grow as the play evolves. Macbeth’s symptoms of schizophrenia and anxiety, as well as Lady Macbeth’s anxiety as well as hallucinations that eventually push her to suicide prove that not only can mental illness alter the way a person sees a situation, but it can also drive them to harm others and themselves.

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Although Macbeth possesses a plethora of mental health disorders Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is the most dominant of them. The Bipolar Depression (Which closely links attribute to PTSD, although the manic stage of a bipolar disorder is usually not obtained while some are experiencing PTSD) and PTSD traits and symptoms that are slowly built into her character are caused by the delayed stress she experiences after Macbeth murder of king Duncan. After the murders are committed, Lady Macbeth and her husband are immediately consumed with guilt. Many of the victims of PTSD fall into a period of confusion and guilt similar to Macbeth after the murder of his kinship, leader and king. “His wife thinks that 's a foolish thing to say, and when she notices

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Stages of this mental illness touched on by the playwright are the overpowering initial impact, difficulties sleeping, and the suicidal tendencies. In the moments subsequent to the treasonous murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth feels an irrepressible amount of guilt. This occurrence is the root of her depression as she experiences the weight of her crime and needs to be “look[ed] to” (2.3.115) and “exit...helped” (2.3.Stage Directions). Subsequently, the shameful state of mind Lady Macbeth suffers provokes complications with her sleep. The queen’s “heart is sorely charged” (5.1.46) which “keep[s] her from her rest” (5.3.40).

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Lady Macbeth who was once ruthless and unaffected by crime, is now mentally insane from guilt, ultimately taking her own

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Schizophrenia is usually undiagnosed until later in life. Just like PDD, PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder, is a mental disorder that can also affect people of any age. PTSD is caused/ triggered by a traumatic experience or life altering event. With these things in mind, one can easily say that the troubled minds of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can be due to a number of any modern day psychological

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1. Lady Macbeth would be diagnosed with OCD. OCD is a disorder that is defined by obsessions and compulsions that consume more than 1 hour per day or cause clinically significant distress or impairment. Obsessions include recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images. In this case, Lady Macbeth worries that something really bad is going to happen to her or her family, and these thoughts overwhelm her mind throughout the day.

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The feelings of insecurity Macbeth experiences cause his PTSD to soar in

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How does Lady Macbeth change over the course of the play? Over the course of the play the characters of both Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth develop intensively. They share similar ambitions, but it is Lady Macbeth who dares to do unspeakable things to accomplish them. This creates great conflict within Lady Macbeth who does not conform to the traditional female stereotypes of her epoch.

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Celia Beyers Tinti Period 1/5 12 April 2015 Literary Analysis: Macbeth In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he presents the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is shown, as a character that schemes into making rebellious plots. She reveals the desire for wanting to lose her feminine qualities in order to be able to gain more masculine ones.

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