ipl-logo

Mental Mind In Macbeth

988 Words4 Pages

Sigmund Freud had a theory that there are three main parts of your brain that control your everyday decisions. Your id, ego, and your superego. All of these things in your mind, but some people have larger areas than others. In this case, in the tragic play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, one part of Macbeth’s mind controls his mental state. Macbeth’s id within his mind controls his mental state because his wants and desires turned him into an evil person. Macbeth’s first decision to kill the king filled his want to be king and please his wife and it put him in a bad mental state. Macbeth’s want to live without fear led him to kill yet another person and put him in an even worse mental state. And Macbeth’s id controls his mental state much …show more content…

At the beginning of the play, Macbeth id led him to kill Duncan and starting off his new change of mental state. In 1.3 Macbeth is speaking to himself and saying, “My thought, whose murder yet / is but fantastical, / Shakes so my single state of man / That function is smothered in / surmise, / And nothing is but what is not” (1.3.152-155). This quote helps prove the Macbeth had the idea of murder before Lady Macbeth even brought it up, so his id had say in this decision. Even though Lady Macbeth 's id pushes him to execute the murder, Macbeth had say in it. If Macbeth’s id and mind was completely against the murder, he wouldn 't have thought about it so many different times, he would have just shut it down. Since his id was not totally against the murder, he partly wanted to kill Duncan to be satisfied with the spot of the king, and to satisfy his wife. He was not forced into killing Duncan, Lady Macbeth just got his id running and thinking about what he could have. This was the start of his change in mental state because after the murder he was so incredibly guilty. “I am afraid to think what I have done. / Look on ’t again I dare not” (2.2.66-67). In summary, because of Macbeth’s id, he murdered the king which leads him into a bad mental …show more content…

Finally, some people may think Macbeth’s ego and superego have in impact on his mental state, but it is all mainly his id because Macbeth barely has an ego or superego. In the CommonLit article, it explains what both the ego and superego is, “Freud said that ‘The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions’” (CommonLit Staff). “For example, the superego would tell a child not to hit another child because that would be morally wrong” (CommonLit Staff). In this theory, someone 's ego is their common sense and superego is morality. These two things don’t control Macbeth 's mental state because, they can’t. His ego and superego don 't have an impact because he has very small amounts of common sense and morality. WE can see that Macbeth has no morality when he kills the king, his best friend, his best friends son, Macduff 's family, and more. We can also see he has no common sense when he brings to not think things through towards the end of the play, causing him to be a tyrant. According to CommonLit, “the id ‘knows no judgments of value: no good and evil, no morality’” (CommonLit Staff). This is exactly what Macbeth has, and he has a large portion of his id. So, Macbeth’s ego and superego don’t have a large impact and effect on Macbeth 's mental state, because he has a very small ego

Show More
Related
873 Words | 4 Pages

Control is a recurring theme in the play "Macbeth" as it warns the audience of the reprecussions of trying to control your fate. The first key event where control features in a significant way is the witches prophecies. They tell Macbeth that he will become Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland which establishes the importance of fate. Shakespeare conveys the witches as agents of evil that are deceptive and dangerous, "oftentimes to win us to our harm/the instruments of darkness tell us truths," showing that they use truth itself to influence a horrible outcome (Macbeth 's tragic demise.) Their message is compelling and attractive and we can clearly see their effect on Macbeth as it greatly contrasts to that of Banquo.

Read More
1724 Words | 7 Pages

After killing Duncan, Macbeth’s mental state changes completely. The difference between the moment before the murder and the moment after is that Macbeth’s lack of determination. He feels personally responsible for the murder and wishes it never happened. Thus, he is afraid to look at the dead body and face what he has done (2.2.54-56). His regret of the murder shows the transformation of Macbeth’s attitude: he lets his remorse overpower him to the point of madness.

Read More
1113 Words | 5 Pages

Greed for power leads corrupt leaders to pursue power through ruthless and violent ways, putting their countries in an unstable state. Macbeth commits murders and violent acts to earn his absolute power, but his corrupt mindset of yearning power leads to instability in the Scotland. After hearing from the witches, Macbeth admits that, “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical/ Shakes so my single state of man/ That function is smother'd in surmise /and nothing is but what is not.”

Read More
115 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
975 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
936 Words | 4 Pages

After the Macbeth kills Duncan, he has committed his first real murder. Though he has killed before, this is the first time he has ever killed someone he was supposed to be loyal to, the first time morality was not on his side. After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth is overcome with guilt causing him to lose his sense of what is real, of the real limits and properties of the world around him. To him his king’s blood spills in endless amounts from his hands. ““Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?

Read More
619 Words | 3 Pages

There are many people in the world that experience mental problems and therefore affecting their personality. Not everyone though is as bad as Macbeth when it comes to mental deterioration. Macbeth is a very self-centered man and it leads him to change the person he once was. Although it is not seen much in the beginning of Shakespeare's play “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, Macbeth’s mental state deteriorates as the play progresses, which can be seen when he is guilty of murdering King Duncan, being taunted by the ghost of Banquo, and his speech to the witches.

Read More
745 Words | 3 Pages

Human beings do not have a total control over their thoughts and emotions. The human mind can easily be influenced by changes in terms of social status, greediness, and ambition. The play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare and the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith are types of artworks where these changes or events can unleash the worst characteristics of people, and a battle for control ensues, between the good side and the dark forces within. To begin with, firstly, at the beginning of the play, Macbeth appears as a brave soldier and a warrior hero, whose fame on the battlefield led him to get a great honor from the king.

Read More
1134 Words | 5 Pages

Mental Stability in Macbeth As Erma Bombeck once said, “Guilt: is the gift that keeps on giving” (“A Quote by Erma Bombeck”). In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, guilt plays an enormous role in the development of Macbeth’s descent into madness. Macbeth is about Macbeth being persuaded by Lady Macbeth into committing heinous crimes, and it all started when Macbeth tells her about premonitions three witches gave him. In pursuit of making those premonitions come true, Macbeth kills King Duncan, which scares his children, Malcolm and Donalbain out of the country, allowing Macbeth to become King.

Read More
931 Words | 4 Pages

William Shakespeare, playwright of Macbeth, shows the importance that power and corruption can hold on a person’s humanity. In order to prove the true effect of personal gains, he uses the main character, Macbeth, to show how evil people are willing to become. Personal power has the ability to be essential to greatness, but at the same time is able to destroy a person’s true nature. Believe it or not, Macbeth once was a man of honor. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was loyal to King Duncan, a strong military leader, and a respected husband.

Read More
414 Words | 2 Pages

Macbeth’s state of mind changes dramatically throughout the play. This is revealed through his soliloquy. In his soliloquy, He shows his intention he would like to achieve but its construction shows Macbeth’s mind still very much in confusion. However, most of the time Macbeth shows three different fears considering the consequences of killing king Duncan. At the beginning of Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth is in turmoil about killing Duncan.

Read More
1145 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
1288 Words | 6 Pages

Macbeth had become everything that he had ever wanted to be which was the king of Scotland and when the witches told him that someone else was going to take his crown he went to extremes to try to keep them from doing that which was eventually what lead to him dying. The witches had told Macbeth that the sons of Banquo would take his crown so he decided to have Banquo and his son killed Macbeth said, “Our fears in Banquo stick deep/ And in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared”(3.1.49-51). Macbeth did everything he could to protect his crown, but that is eventually what lead to his downfall and his death. He killed his best friend Banquo which was when his ambition had gone to far and was the beginning of his decline.

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

This led to him going insane. Macbeth didn 't have to do this, he had already been promoted and had a better job than he had had beforehand. he was very well off and did not need the responsibilities of a king. he could have moved on and lived his life but, he killed the king. This event in the movie was portrayed with much more emotion than expected.

Read More
426 Words | 2 Pages

To let something else control you, you first must give up all control of your own. By killing Duncan in a self-fulfilling prophecy, he hands some of his self-control over to the witches and the prophecy itself. However, Macbeth’s ambition extends farther than just present power. “Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown / And put a barren scepter in my grip” (3.1.66-67). Macbeth is worried about his lineage.

Read More

More about Mental Mind In Macbeth

Related Topics

Open Document