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Essay On Lady Macbeth's Paranoia

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Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s relationship is a complex one. As equals, they make up for one another’s weaknesses and are bound together by their mutual affection and ambition. Lady Macbeth with her cunningness and will power, combined with Macbeth’s brutality make this couple an unstoppable duo. However, as the play progresses their relationship becomes strained and filled with secrets as they attempt to overcome their individual challenges, leading them down separate paths. Eventually, the couple is overcome with fear and driven down the path of insanity, and no longer share affection for each other as a consequence of their corrupt ambition that leads to regicide. Initially, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are presented as equals which make up …show more content…

What, quite unmanned in folly?” Macbeth’s erratic behavior in the Banquet Scene, is a sign of his growing paranoia. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s relationship has begun to deteriorate as they attempt to overcome the constant fear that has begun to consume them. By the last act of the play, all equality and love between the two is lost and replaced with mania. In the Sleepwalking Scene, Lady Macbeth’s paranoia is exposed through her obsessive hand washing and shouting: “Out, damned spot, out, I say!” Unable to escape the guilt which entraps her, Lady Macbeth is reliving the night of Duncan’s murder. The “damned spot” which Lady Macbeth refers to is the blood left by the murder of Macbeth, a symbol of guilt. This scene is ironic as in Act 2 Scene 2, Lady Macbeth stated: “A little water clears us of this deed” Despite saying that by simply washing their hands, the murder would be forgotten, she is now repetitively rubbing her hands but unable to remove thoughts of the murder. Additionally, in the 17th century, sleep was a symbol for conscience and sleepwalking was a sign of a disturbed mind and indeed, in Act 5 Scene 5, driven by madness, she commits suicide. In the Elizabethan Era, it was commonly believed that anyone who committed suicide, would not be granted passage to the afterlife. Lady Macbeth’s suicide suggests to the audience her certainty of being denied the afterlife after murdering

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yet who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him” (5.1.36). Lady Macbeth feels as if she can not be mentally cleansed until her hands are. Lady Macbeth's failure to relieve the guilt causes her to commit suicide. “The queen, my lord, is dead… she should have died hereafter” (5.5.20). Lady Macbeth had too much guilt to deal with which is why she needed to be in peace.

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At the end, overcome by guilt and despair Lady Macbeth commits suicide. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both are driven by their ambitions; ambitions that lead them to their downfall. They get what they want by any means necessary.

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