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Madness And The Influence Of Macbeth's Madness

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"Whence is that knocking? How is't with me when every noise appals me? What hands are here?Ha! They pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red." (2.2 75-80) This line previews madness as a trait that appears frequently throughout Shakespeare's Macbeth. It is shown in characters actions and words. This particular quote is representing Macbeth's guilty conscience. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand" is evidence that King Duncan's blood will always be on Macbeth's hands. The Madness Macbeth shows near the end of the play wasn't always his fate. Macbeth descends into madness with the influence of the Witches, Lady Macbeth, and the idea of good vs. evil in his own mind.
A major influence of Macbeth's Madness were the three witches and their prophecies.
The witches prophecies pressured Macbeth into making the wrong decisions because of seemingly rewarding results. The witches first prophecy promises Macbeth the throne, …show more content…

Macbeth was constantly making decisions that affected his future and because he needed help making them, was misled by what he thought were trusted sources. The witches, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth himself all show some form of madness throughout the play. The witches are mad because of their obsession of causing misfortune for no reason. Lady Macbeth becomes a power-hungry murder that in the end causes their guilty consciousness to lead them to their deaths. Overall, madness was frequently found in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, presented not only by characters as a trait but also as conflicts/. Likewise, Merriam Webster defines the word madness as "a state of frenzied or chaotic activity" or "Extremely foolish behavior" representing how madness can not only be used as a trait, but also as an

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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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For example, when the witches notify Macbeth that he will gain a new title, they are simply telling him of the fact and are not prompting him to act upon it (Rahman and Tajuddin 138). In spite of that, he instantly conjures up an image in his head of himself killing King Duncan in order to get the position of the King, and subtly questions if his thoughts are against his own morals (Mac I.iii.130-137). This thought is not the witches’ fault, but if they never told Macbeth of his imminent future, he would not think this way. Macbeth’s murderous thought of Duncan lets readers see that Macbeth has a lust for power, which ultimately leads to the tragedy (Kesur 5561). In addition, the witches’ apparitions also play a slight part in Macbeth’s decision making.

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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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No this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red. ”(II.ii.79-81) He sees water, which was once pure like his conscience, now forever polluted by the blood resulting from his evil deed. This image acknowledges that Macbeth knows with killing Duncan there is no coming back from what he has done. This guilt and panic causes him to disconnect with reality and hallucinate infinite amounts of blood.

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This shows that the murdering of Duncan had dirtied his hands because he had Duncan’s blood on his hand. He said that the blood cannot be washed off even the by the ocean. This language symbolizes that sin could not be purified easily and it would follow Macbeth forever. Nature also changed, after Duncan was murdered. According to the text, “’Tis said they eat each other” (2.4.18).

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Macbeth is the Shakespearean play that features the triumphant uprise and the inevitable downfall of its main character. In this play, Macbeth’s downfall can be considered to be the loss of his moral integrity and this is achieved by ambition, despite this, Lady Macbeth and the witches work through his ambition, furthering to assist his inevitable ruin. Ambition alone is the most significant factor that led to Macbeth’s downfall. The witches are only able to influence his actions through Macbeth’s pre-existing and the three witches see that Macbeth has ambition and uses it to control his action. Ambition alone is displayed throughout the play to be the most significant cause for Macbeth’s downfall.

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