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Macbeth Psychopath Analysis

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The Downfall of Macbeth
By: Josh V “Do you know the difference between neurotics and psychotics? Neurotics build castles in the sky; psychotics move into them.” -Tanya Thompson, Assuming Names.The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised is a diagnostic tool used to diagnose psychopathy. The list consists of twenty different Psychopathic traits which are used as a rating scale to determine prison sentences. Macbeth is the epitome of a psychopath. He presents with many symptoms of psychopathy including his inability to empathize with the ramifications of his actions due to his emotional poverty and lack of empathy, his grandiose self worth and his state of delusion. While Macbeth’s ambition is a key factor in his downfall, his nature as a psychopath …show more content…

At the beginning of the play we see Lady Macbeth and Macbeth represented as having a Bonny and Clyde style relationship: Partners in crime. However, throughout the play we see Macbeth drift further and further away from Lady Macbeth until he is completely isolated. At the ending of Act I, It is Lady Macbeth who prompts her husband to kill the King and act on the witches prophecy. She works alongside Macbeth and convinces Macbeth that she will kill Duncan herself.: Lady Macbeth is unable to deal with the moral implications of murder and therefore has her husband kill the king. We further see Lady Macbeth dissociate herself from her husband in act III, during the murder of Banquo and in act IV, after the murder of Macduff’s family, which she disagreed with entirely: Lady Macbeth, without the support of her husband and dealing with the overwhelming burden of guilt, promptly commits suicide. Unlike Lady Macbeth, Macbeth is able to dissociate himself from his actions due to his nature as a psychopath. In response to his wife’s death, one would assume that Macbeth would be grief stricken and depressed. However, He is indifferent, stoic if you will. Macbeth admits that he is no longer able to empathize with the death of his wife: “To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day… Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing” …show more content…

This ideal is strongly visible in Macbeth, especially after he receives the prophecies of the witches. In Act I, scene iii, the witches tell macbeth their three prophecies: “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!” (I.iii.49-51). These three prophecies cause macbeth to become extremely egotistical which is amplified by his ambition. This Grandiose self worth ultimately leads to him murdering duncan and his best friend Banquo. Towards the end of act III, Macbeth’s ego begins to diminish so he returns to the witches once again. There he is given three new prophecies from the witches: "Beware Macduff/ Beware the Thane of Fife. … none of woman born/Shall harm Macbeth … Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until/Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill /Shall come against him” (IV.i.71-93) These three fresh prophecies set the stage for Macbeth’s death in act V. During the final battle Macbeth does not fear any of the soldiers as all of them are “women born”. He doesn’t react as one normally would when he sees the forest of Birnam move toward dunsinane because of his inflated ego. Even in his fight against Macduff he chooses to spare his life for he still believes that no man can harm him. In the end, if Macbeth’s ego had not consumed, he would have realized his mistakes with macduff and killed

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Macbeth is no longer an honest, innocent husband, as he was in the beginning. Macbeth has completed his transition from an honest and caring leader, into a cold, heartless individual, which is shown when he voices: “She should have died hereafter / There would have been a time for such a word.” (V.v.17-18) Macbeth is informed about his wife’s suicide, and shows absolutely no remorse, which shows how heartless he has become.

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As the story unfolds, it is evident that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are in an abusive relationship. Lady Macbeth seems to be the one that has the top say and final decision in the relationship. Macbeth, however, seems to coward under Lady Macbeth in most situations. He seems to be a lot more sympathetic that his wife, especially when he decided no to go through with killing the king.

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His descent into tyranny and paranoia has alienated those who were once loyal to him. The realization that his power rests on a fragile foundation becomes evident when Macbeth receives the news of Lady Macbeth's death. His reaction is a poignant reflection of his emotional detachment and his realization that his ambition has cost him dearly. He mournfully remarks, "She should have died hereafter", illustrating the hollowness of his victory and the loss of his only source of

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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, written by William Shakespeare, is a play that mainly focuses on one common theme of insanity. Macbeth gradually becomes plagued by intense guilt as his desire for power drives him to attain his goals by any means necessary, including committing murder. He kills Duncan in cold blood in order to become King, has Banquo killed by three murderers because he wishes to maintain his position as King, and finally, he has Macduff’s family slaughtered. Each of these occurrences takes place because of Macbeth’s will to be King, or they are a result of his guilt. Nonetheless, they are all completed of his free will, which is what causes him to deteriorate mentally.

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In the midst of an oncoming war, it is announced that Macbeth shall “hang those that talk of fear” (5.3.37). The instinctive response of fear has become forbidden as a consequence of Macbeth’s cold-blooded attitude. Similarly, he demonstrates this new demeanor when hearing the news of his wife’s death. The intrinsic human response of despair after the loss of a loved one is absent in Macbeth as he believes “she should have died hereafter”. Lady Macbeth’s husband has become so consumed by his remorse that he could not muster enough humanity to shed a tear for his beloved’s passing.

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William Shakespeare portrayed the character Lady Macbeth to be extremely ruthless, malicious and manipulative. Thus, being the reason she could easily convince Macbeth to do her will, yet still put on such a convincing performance in front of those who knew nothing of her and her husband’s actions. Lady Macbeth shows her complexity constantly throughout the story when she shares her view-point on masculinity by demasculinizing her own husband, when she strategically plans the murder of the King Duncan, and finally when she finally goes crazy because of the guilt she possesses for not only her own actions but also turning her own husband into a

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In Act 1 Scene 3, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis... Thane of Cawdor...king thereafter.” This witch’s prophecy foreshadows that Macbeth is going to be king. Desperately wanting to be king, this motive drives him to killing his closest friends, King Duncan and Banquo, thus developing the central idea.

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Shakespeare engineered a most impressionable character in Macbeth who easily succumbs to the extensive magnitude of opposing constraints. This character is Macbeth, who is the protagonist in the play and husband to a conniving wife, who in the end is the sole cause for Macbeth 's undoing. Conflicting forces in the play compel internal conflicts within Macbeth to thrive on his contentment and sanity as he his torn asunder between devotion, aspiration, morality and his very own being. He has developed a great sense of loyalty from being a brave soldier; however, his ambition soon challenges this allegiance. As his sincerity begins to deteriorate, his own sanity starts to disintegrate until the point where he cannot differentiate between reality

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Walking in the night he heard the screams of women and said “I have almost forgot the taste of fear” (V.v.9). The shriek of women at the late of night would frighten most all of us, but not macbeth. He has been around so many wicked acts and it does not faze him. After getting news of his wife’s death he told the messenger “She should of died hereafter” (V.v.17). Although he does feel sorrow over her, he blames her death as an inconvenience.

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He realizes he has “fallen from grace”, the world would be against him since he had destroyed the Elizabethan order. He does not see any meaning in life and therefore detaching himself from his emotions to turn himself into a vicious murderer. Macbeth’s despair over the loss of meaning in his life is reinforced in his Act 5 Scene 5 soliloquy, where he says life “is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/ Signifying nothing” (Act 5 Scene 5 lines 25-27). Macbeth comes to a point of realization that all his efforts to gain the throne are like the “sound and fury” of the tale, just acts crafted for the sake of the show without any actual outcome in the end. In exchange for kingship, he loses his “milk of human kindness” and his wife.

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In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth, in many cases, is portrayed as being evil. However, his character is not truly the evil force driving the actions of the play. His wife, Lady Macbeth, as well as the witches and their misleading prophecies, are the real driving forces of Macbeth’s unspeakable actions. Macbeth is driven mad by the evil around him, causing him to turn to the violent behavior displayed throughout the many murders of the play.

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At first these thoughts remain hidden, but when the witches approach him with their predictions his desires reform his character. The witches wait for Macbeth and tell him series of predictions. The specific prediction, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.51) causes Macbeth’s desire to become more intensified. Their prediction that he would become king brings a change in his character.

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Macbeth’s ambition is one of the most prominent things that drive Macbeth in the play and truly becomes evident when he hears of the Witches prophecies. When the witches stop talking, he demands to know more. “Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more” (I, III, 73-74). This portrays his excessive curiosity on the subject as well as his craving for more desirable prophecies. This ambitious nature and craving for power is also demonstrated only moments after hearing the witches, when he starts formulating a plan to kill Duncan in order to make the third prophecy come true.

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