Theme Of Mental Illness In Macbeth
A simple plot to overthrow King Duncan and secure the kingdom for themselves and their lineage turned into a mental race the Macbeths couldn’t win. Plagued from the start, the stresses and anxiety were too much for the couple to handle- falling down a steady slope into madness neither could escape the mental illnesses creeping into their lives and were oblivious to the reality of the situations and their reactions to them. The stress and fear of getting caught killing King Duncan was the first line of sanity to snap in Macbeth leading him into paranoid schizophrenia, whereas the guilt and weight of the king’s death lead Lady Macbeth into a fatal fight with PTSD. Macbeth was originally held in high regard by the king and his court, “For brave
…show more content…
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,/the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee./ I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”(Act 2.1) The dagger isn’t really there and it seemingly guides him to Duncan’s bedside where he promptly stabs him, From then on out Macbeth falls more and more into paranoia thinking everybody is out to get him, this paranoia leads him to distrust his right hand man and through fear has him killed, while Fleance had escaped unintendedly. After killing Banquo his delusions get worse to the point where he sees and yells at his ghost at dinner and his wife plays it off as him being sick. “Here had we now our country’s honour roof’d,/Were the graced person of …show more content…
out, I say!” (Act 5.1). and is in an aggravated state talking about Banquo’s ghost, reliving the experiences of it all, “Here’s the smell of the blood to still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!”( Act 5.1) The traumatic experiences that followed her and Macbeth were too much for her psyche to handle and pushing away the guilt, being the stronger one out of the two pushed her too far, throughout the play she repeatedly exhibits signs and symptoms of PTSD ultimately ending up in depression and her suicide; hyperarousal in the form of not sleeping- the doctor she consulted with tells Macbeth, “ As she is troubled with thick-coming
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,/the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee./ I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”(Act 2.1) The dagger isn’t really there and it seemingly guides him to Duncan’s bedside where he promptly stabs him, From then on out Macbeth falls more and more into paranoia thinking everybody is out to get him, this paranoia leads him to distrust his right hand man and through fear has him killed, while Fleance had escaped unintendedly. After killing Banquo his delusions get worse to the point where he sees and yells at his ghost at dinner and his wife plays it off as him being sick. “Here had we now our country’s honour roof’d,/Were the graced person of …show more content…
out, I say!” (Act 5.1). and is in an aggravated state talking about Banquo’s ghost, reliving the experiences of it all, “Here’s the smell of the blood to still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!”( Act 5.1) The traumatic experiences that followed her and Macbeth were too much for her psyche to handle and pushing away the guilt, being the stronger one out of the two pushed her too far, throughout the play she repeatedly exhibits signs and symptoms of PTSD ultimately ending up in depression and her suicide; hyperarousal in the form of not sleeping- the doctor she consulted with tells Macbeth, “ As she is troubled with thick-coming