Examples Of Schizophrenia In Macbeth

Improved Essays
Macbeth is a Scottish noble that is brave and a rather heroic military man. Although Macbeth appears loyal, people aren’t always who you think they might be. It is believed that Macbeth suffers from paranoia schizophrenia, one of the most harmful of all mental disorders. He displays multiple paranoia schizophrenia symptoms including hallucinations, delusions, anxiety, fear, violence and patronizing behavior. Macbeth loses touch with reality and is convinced of things that aren’t true. His emotions are like a roller coaster in that he experiences all types of feelings including joy and turmoil over the anticipation that he may become King. The constant rivalry between his ambition and his conscious ultimately destroys his moral limits. Macbeth …show more content…
or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? (Act II Scene I). This causes Macbeth to talk to himself about the dagger. He is upset by it and thinks the dagger is causing him to commit the crimes. He also hallucinates when he hears voices; he thinks the voices are calling out “murdered sleep.” Macbeth was also hallucinating when he saw the ghost of Banquo in his chair. Macbeth also exhibits symptoms of delusions and anxiety. These manifestations can go hand in hand because they both cause you to believe something that is not true. Macbeth starts to live in anxiety and terror, unable to rest or trust his nobles. Macbeth begins to get antagonized by the three witches’ prophecies. His anxiety is worsened by their prophecy coming true when he became the Thane of Cawdor. His honorable fighting for Duncan against the invading forces and his noted bravery on the battlefield is the reason he became Thane of Cawdor.
“This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good.: if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of
…show more content…
53-54). Macbeth is having a hard time with his fear of Banquo; he realizes that this is one fear that he may never overcome. Therefore, he exemplifies more violence by ordering that Banquo be assassinated. Macbeth is worried that his soul will go to hell due to his actions, but he continues to act out of fear. He becomes solely fueled by his fear regarding the witches. However, he becomes dependent upon the witches; they drive him to go on a murdering streak. As Macbeth’s violent nature rises with each murder they become easier for him to commit. He is unable to rule without becoming a tyrant. Although he is never completely comfortable as a criminal, Macbeth continues to kill anyone who stands in his way of power. He started out having to have temptation to kill; and eventually kills with ease without

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Lady Macbeth Diagnosis Lady Macbeth in the story Macbeth has been suffering from variant physiological problems like Bipolar and paranoid schizophrenia. Lady Macbeth was showing signs of a physiological damages before Macbeth Became king . Lady Macbeth has suffered a lot throughout the story physiologically she shows signs of Bipolar due to her rapid change of speech with characters in the story, she also is showing paranoid schizophrenia with suicidal thoughts. Lady Macbeth suffers from bipolar disorder due to the symptoms shown within her differentiation in speech.…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is always loyal to the king. He is seen as a respected general. Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to do his first evil deed by questing Macbeth's masculinity. Macbeth suffers from fear and guilt after his evil deeds. At that point Macbeth gets to be neurotic, experiencing hallucinations and restlessness.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Macbeth himself is type of person who wants to be in control of everything and will do anything in his power to have it like that. He wants to be king so bad that he is willing to plan a murder with his wife so he can get his way. Some of the words that represent Macbeth are guilt, desire, and ambition. He carries a lot of guilt around with him after he decides that it would be a good idea to plan someone's death just so he can become king. If you want something that bad then you can always find a different way to get it besides killing someone and taking their life.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Macbeth Narcissism Analysis

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 5 Works Cited

    Macbeth’s psychopathic actions can be exemplified through the merciless killings that took place throughout the play, such as the murder of Duncan, and the fact that Macbeth (though he never committed the murders) had to do with the murders of Banquo and Macduff’s wife and son. Finally, his narcissistic behaviours can be found throughout the play through his egocentricity. Such as his capability of taking advantage of others, having no regard for other humans emotions and his mentality of being “superior to others”. Certainly Macbeth is a very unstable man, throughout the play Macbeth, he is seen as having a mental state that is deteriorating every scene.…

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 5 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally” (Smith). Schizophrenics experience symptoms such as extremely disorganized behavior, hallucinations, as well as delusions. The schizophrenic symptoms stated above are the very exact symptoms that Macbeth experiences. Hallucinations, disorganized behavior, as well as delusions are symptoms that can be seen throughout the play and connect very well with the schizophrenic mental disorder. Also, schizophrenia is a very broad topic and there are many mini subdivisions of schizophrenia, one being paranoid schizophrenia, where the schizophrenic person becomes very paranoid when an episode tends to happening.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also by Macbeth showing passion he want the joy and riches of being king and will do anything to get in the light of power that will give him the fame and fortune of being king. They strove so hard to make Macbeth king that they became totally obsessed with it. It became all they thought about and their whole being revolved around it. When Lady Macbeth finds that Macbeth has been prophesized to be king, she does not believe he is capable of fulfilling the prophecy alone. So, she says to herself, " Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thane ear, and chastise with the valor of my tongue which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal.…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is a play that highlights one common theme: the gradual loss of sanity. Macbeth progressively becomes plagued by intense, consuming guilt as his desire for power drives him to attain his goals by any means necessary, including the act of committing murder. Feeding his hunger for dominance, he murders King Duncan in cold blood in order to become the King of Scotland, has Banquo killed by three murderers to maintain his position as royalty, and finally, he has Macduff’s family slaughtered out of rage and fear. Although all of these occurrences take place because of Macbeth’s eagerness to be King, they all result in him being overtaken by shame and dismay. Realizing that every move that he makes is completed of…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Macbeth was a respectful man who served the king with great loyalty. He feels guilt already because he is the King’s good friend and doing this deed will destroy him inside. Macbeth says “ He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself”…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In order to remain as the king, Macbeth is willing to do anything, which even includes making immoral decisions to arrange acts of murder. In the play, Macbeth decides to plan Banquo’s murder on the day of the feast because of his suspicion towards Banquo. The murder results in Macbeth starting to hallucinate, as he begins to see an apparition of Banquo. Macbeth says “Avaunt and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Role Of Motifs In Macbeth

    • 1863 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Macbeth has many different emotions that contribute to his own degeneration. Macbeth portrays some fear as the…

    • 1863 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the story of “ Macbeth”, Macbeth was driven by ambition. He didn't care what he had to do or who he had to hurt to get what he wanted. Macbeth kills the king. Later on he started to have guilty conscious. He started going crazy and not doing so good.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I have thee not and yet i see thee still” (2.1.44-47). This is Macbeth's first hallucination, he claims he sees the handle of a dagger with blood pointing toward him and believes it to be real. The audience is lead to believe that the dagger is a foreshadow to Macbeth's future of blood and violence. Macbeth refuses to take precaution in this sign and looks as it a positive, he assumes that this knife is leading him to the killing, here we see Macbeth's deterioration as he refuses to make decisions by himself and constantly needing a push when making…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Macbeth Good Vs Evil

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Right when he tells Lady Macbeth of his fate, she instantly desires to be a part of making it happen, solidifying his uncertain decision to kill Duncan, putting himself one step closer to the throne. After the completion of the murder by Macbeth’s own hands, and the subsequent breakdown of his composure, Macbeth becomes desensitized to murder in a way, ordering others to off those who stood in his way. He states to the murderers hired to accomplish the task: “And though I could with barefaced power sweep him from my sight and bid my will avouch it, yet I must not…” (III.i.121-123). These extremely immoral doings show that once Macbeth experienced to the “thrill” per se of murder, there lie nothing to stop him from letting his evil ambition eat upon his…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Macbeth we see the transformation the characters experience and how the mind is more vulnerable than the body in Shakespeare’s theory of man’s psychological nature. Macbeth’s character changes dramatically and his personality shows many signs of a serial killer and psychopath. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a perfect thane, strong and willing to suffer physically, to the death, for his King. After the first battle in Act I, Macbeth suffers a psychological when the witches, present him with the idea of becoming king. It was then that his mind then begins to race, with the killer instinct he contains.…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (3.2.54-55), he decides that Banquo needs to be killed. At the beginning of the book, Banquo is one of Macbeth’s greatest friends, and his ambition has turned this friend into nothing but a roadblock on Macbeth’s road to greatness. Macbeth uses this hate fueled by ambition to convince the murderers that Banquo is evil and needs…

    • 1516 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays