Essay On Mental Illness In Macbeth - 1182 Words

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the trial of The People of Scotland vs. Macbeth, the prosecution will claim a tale of a power-hungry man who let ambition get the best of him. They will present physical evidence of him with the dagger, him conspiring with his wife, and him hiring men to kill. However, the evidence presented today by the defense will tell the true story: a man overtaken by mental illness. Macbeth displays the classic signs of narcissistic personality disorder: elevated sense of entitlement and delusions about power. While Macbeth did commit the murders, he was insane, and therefor did not commit the murders with criminal intent. The extent of his mental disorder has manifested in hallucinations and the gradual unraveling of his†¦show more content†¦Macbeth may talk of big plans to assassinate Duncan, but at the root he is still a good person. His description predicts the eventual effect of his actions: total and complete loss of rational self, and slippage into full- blown psychosis. Following this point, Macbeth should not be held accountable for his crimes, as he goes completely insane. A characteristic of narcissistic personality disorder is heavy hallucinations, caused by a fantasy the person has imagined for themselves. Even before he murders Duncan, Macbeth’s delusion of him becoming king manifests through hallucinations involving murder imagery. As he walks towards Duncan’s room, a floating dagger, only visible by him, leads him there. The mirage he has placed himself in, where he is king of Scotland, has caused his subconscious to produce delusions, â€Å"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† (2.1.44-45). Macbeth acknowledges that the dagger is not real, and yet he still attempts to clutch it, fully invested in his fantasy. He describes later as â€Å"A dagger of the mind†, as if the very delusions he is undergoing are ripping his mind apart (2.1.50). However, through the phrases ‘of the mind’ and ‘I have thee not†™ connote that he knows the visionsShow MoreRelatedMacbeth Mental Illness Essay746 Words   |  3 Pages In the beginning of the play, Macbeth was in a great state of mind, he won the war for the people of Scotland, and was seen as a hero. On the way home from war, Macbeth meets three witches who prophesied that he will become The King of Scotland, which led to the ultimate downfall of his mental health. Throughout the rest of the play, you start to see him struggle with insomnia, hyperarousal, hallucinations, paranormal schizophrenia, and anxiety which we see throughout the play, that graduallyRead MoreSexual Frustration as the Root of Evil Essay1222 Words   |  5 Pagespeople develop neuroses as a result of frustration. Freud’s essays on this topic postulate that sexual repression may result in aggressive behavior. These two elements emerge in the characters in Macbeth. In Freud’s book, Civilization and its discontents, he takes the premise even farther by correlating severe sexual frustration with the onset of psychoses. In regard to Macbeth, I believe that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth portray this spiral into psychosis as a result of theirRead MoreMacbeth Essay819 Words   |  4 PagesMacbeth Essay In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth undergoes many psychological tribulations. There is no doubt that he is insane, but the specifics of his conditions help explain the peculiarities of the play. Macbeth’s character was perhaps the culmination of all the psychological disorders known at Shakespeare’s day. He experienced disorders such as split personality, schizophrenia, and post traumatic stress. These disorders could be caused by stress on the battlefield and a poor spousalRead MoreThe Tragedy Of Macbeth By William Shakespeare1582 Words   |  7 Pagesto you and told you would be king would you trust them? Macbeth did and ultimately it led to his tragic demise. The tragedy of Macbeth was written by famous poet William Shakespeare in the earl sixteen hundredth. The play dramatizes the destructive physical and mental effects of radical ambition for people who seek authority for the benefit of an individual. Macbeth’s theme of ambition, lust for powe r, faith, and gullibility makes Macbeth his own antagonist, which is directly correlated to his deathRead MoreShakespeares Novel Macbeth1577 Words   |  7 Pagesif no one felt guilt? If no one ever caught caught for their crimes? In Shakespeares novel, Macbeth, the main characters commit crimes driven by their ambition. After committing the first crime Macbeth, the main antagonist is overwhelmed with guilt. His wife, Lady Macbeth plotted the first crime and was the main force pushing Macbeth to kill. In the end Macbeth is charged with the truth and Lady Macbeth kills herself both brought down equally from guilt. Guilt and fear of being found out causesRead MoreLady Macbeth1937 Words   |  8 PagesLady Macbeth Essay I am going to do an essay on a play called Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare. The play is a tragedy, believed to have been written in 1611-12. The play is about a man named Macbeth whom, at first is a kind, tender man who later gets tempted by three foul witches to commit a murder in order to become king. Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth is thrilled by the prophecies given by the witches and is eager for Macbeth to commit the murder. Macbeth disagrees with his wife greatlyRead MoreWas Lady Macbeth Evil? Essay2956 Words   |  12 PagesLady Macbeth is the penultimate person in the play, especially at the beginning, next to Macbeth himself. And though she does not survive to the end, her influence on Macbeth lasts throughout. She is most influential person in Macbeth ´s downfall, next to the witches. However, her relationship with him goes far deeper then that of the witches. It is my belief that the witches act only as a trigger to start the events in the play, and that Lady Macbeth herself was the driving force behindRead MoreMacbeth Dreams Visions and Hallucinations Rereading2477 Words   |  10 PagesThe influence of Dreams, Visions and Hallucinations in Macbeth and other Literary Texts â€Å"The realities of the world affected me as visions, and as visions only, while the wild ideas of the land of dreams became, in turn,—not the material of my every-day existence--but in very deed that existence utterly and solely in itself.† ---- Edgar Allan Poe Uncanny encounters with visions and hallucinations blur the presumed constraints of time and space. The ‘phantasms’ or sensory impressionsRead MoreTragic Drama According to AC Bradleys Theory of Shakespeare and a Comparison of Arthur Miller and August Wilsons Concept of Tragedy2899 Words   |  12 Pageswe become fascinated. Bradley emphasizes on viewing the literary techniques used not as the basic constituents but as the expression of tragedy. Some of the major characters in Shakespeares renowned tragedies are Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth. Most of these characters are individual sufferers as in reality; a single man faces the paradoxes of life. In every work of Shakespeare, irrespective of the individually unique traits, we find a shattered hope or a failed ambition as a reason forRead Moreshakespeare influences16068 Words   |  65 PagesQUESTION 5. SIGNIFICANCE AND RATIONALE 6. ANALYSIS 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. ABSTRACT This thesis analysis the textual and symbolic similarities between Shakespeare s tragedies Macbeth and Hamlet and William Faulkner s the sound and the furry and Absalom, Absalom!. Faulkner absorbed essential characteristics of Shakespearean tragedies and utilized them consciously and unconsciously in the creation of his own tragic figures. Comparison