Bloodshed in William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Macbeth, causes strong guilt, mental instability, and eventually his downfall as shown by Beebe Stroud’s article, “Guilt: Definitions, Types, & Differences Versus Shame”. In the play, Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to murder the king to make himself king. Later, to maintain his position, he kills Banquo and Macduff’s family. Although he should be happy that his position is somewhat secure, the guilt as well as the feeling of blood on his hands creates paranoia and other mental issues that prevent him from keeping his position and lead him to his downfall. After the murder of King Duncan, strong guilt overtakes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The deed haunts them and Macbeth wishes that “great Neptune’s …show more content…
In fact, “an excess of guilt is listed as a symptom in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (APA, 2013) for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders.” (Stroude 1) Having committed murders, it’s reasonable to assume that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth feel a considerably overwhelming amount of guilt, leading to PTSD and possibly other disorders. Although not officially listed as symptoms of each other in the DSM-5, Paranoia and PTSD are often diagnosed separately in the same people, meaning if someone has one of them, they're likely to have the other. Throughout the story, Macbeth becomes increasingly paranoid that someone will take the throne from him; therefore “they say, blood will have blood” (Macbeth 3.4.124). By this, Macbeth compares murder to the domino effect wherein one murder causes another. The paranoia that everyone is out to get the throne and have him dead compels him to kill anyone in his way. This ties back to his mental instability, and worsens any PTSD he has developed creating an unbreakable cycle of blood, guilt, PTSD, paranoia, and back to blood, linking blood to guilt again almost …show more content…
Before the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth says, “I see thee still,/ And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,/ Which was not so before.” (Macbeth 2.1.45-47) He is staring at the “dagger of the mind” as it is covered in blood and guilt, as it wasn’t before. He continues to say, “There’s no such thing:/ It is the bloody business which informs/ Thus to mine eyes” (Macbeth 2.1.47-49), and he’s not so far gone yet that he doesn’t realize what he’s done. Although he hadn’t murdered the king yet, the damage has already been done. The blood representing guilt was already on the knife that represents his mind. This is the turning point in the play in which there was no going back, and he was fated to die to
In my experiences, depression is common among those with guilt. Depression is a deep and severe condition that can affect a person´s will to live. Lady Macbeth, the newly appointed queen and wife to King Macbeth has shown signs of severe depression and warning signs of suicide. I have worked with the Queen’s doctor to find sufficient and specialized treatment for her. Lady Macbeth organized the death of the King of Scotland as well as other acts that have caused her immense distress and grief due to this experience.
After Macbeth begins his murderous downfall, Lady Macbeth acquires excessive guilt in many ways. For example, sleeplessness (V.i) is evidence of Lady Macbeth's guilt. Lady Macbeth was sleep walking and trying to wash imaginary blood off her hands while sleeping. This exposes Lady Macbeth was in extreme denial over the murders of Macbeth’s victims.
Guilt can affect people in ways that aren't even fathomable by causing anxiety, stress, and regret but guilt could even drive someone mad if they refused to open up and fix the issue instead of submerging themselves deeper in their shame for example in the story of Macbeth by Shakespeare Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself slowly submerge themselves in guilt ending with Lady Macbeth committing suicide and Macbeth driving himself insane before being slayed by Macduff. So, in "Macbeth," William Shakespeare uses the dangers of mental health to convey how easily people can form guilt. Guilt can cause bad mental health by ultimately causing anxiety and regret and this is shown in the story of Macbeth by emphasizing how the characters feel in their speech in Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 34 - 38 Macbeth says "Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, the death of each day’s life, sore labor’s
Approximately 18.1 percent of adults in the U.S experience an anxiety disorder such as PTSD, OCD and other phobias. Therefore, mental illness and guilt can come as a result of committing a violent crime. Such as in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. In the play Lady Macbeth develops a anxiety disorder that closely resembles PTSD after she forces Macbeth to murder King Duncan. She forces Macbeth to murder the king in order for him to fulfill the witches prophecies and become king.
This drives Lady Macbeth to lose her own sanity as guilt and fear plagues her until eventually she takes her own life. In the end, as Macbeth begins to lose his conscience and guilt, he begins to see things clearer and is able to act on his own will, almost as if he has attained some of his sanity back. To conclude, to demonstrate the effects guilt will have on one’s sanity, three different perspectives are illustrated in The Tragedy of Macbeth: Macbeth during his first murder, Lady Macbeth after the massacre of the Macduff house, and Macbeth after his second
A Guilty Conscience: How Guilt Drives the Powerful to Insanity Guilt is the cause of the destruction of many, particularly in Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Macbeth. As Macbeth and Lady Macbeth continue to murder for the sake of power, they embark on opposite journeys but their guilt ultimately drives them both to insanity. Macbeth goes from being driven mad with guilt, to his instability causing him to murder recklessly. His wife goes from expressing no compassion or guilt to her guilt overcoming her and driving her to madness.
Macbeth feels regret and guilt after murdering King Duncan. He is beginning to understand the consequences of his actions and the disruption of the natural order that he has caused. Macbeth’s guilt shows that he still has some understanding of the natural order, but his ambition and desire for power are clouding his judgment. “I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er” (3.4.136-138).
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.
In the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth wanted to gain power and leadership over the country of Scotland and become king. He wanted these authorities so desperately, Macbeth would do whatever it took to get it, even going as far as murdering not just one but multiple people. He wanted nothing more other than to be king as well as his wife. Throughout the play, Macbeth showed different varieties of many mental disorders but mainly Paranoia and Schizophrenia. Paranoia is described as ¨a delusional belief that one is being harassed, or betrayed by others¨, while Schizophrenia is described as ¨a serious long-term mental illness that affects how a person thinks, feels, and
Similarly, Macbeth 's own mental state initiates a rivalry within itself. The thought of killing Duncan brings Macbeth 's brain into turmoil, causing him to hallucinate. He then questions his own sanity by asking if the imaginary dagger is physical " Or art thou but // A dagger of the mind, a false creation // Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?"
Macbeth’s guilt and battle with mental illness begins early within the play: right after the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth, once a loyal sergeant in Duncan’s army, has killed the king in order to possess the throne of Scotland. This act of such extreme measures begins Macbeth’s descent into madness and insomnia. Immediately after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth says, “Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.”
In act two scene one it states, “Or are you only a dagger of the mind, a false creation of my own fevered mind?” As was stated in the text, Macbeth is seeing a hallucination of a floating dagger that he can’t quite tell if it’s real or just a false creation by the mind. In act three scene four it states, “No, see there! Behold! Look!
The massive guilt expressed makes Macbeth believe that it is a a non-realistic, fictional situation. He has become insane, from his overload of insecurity. The paranoia and guilt
Then from there a lot more murder takes place and the guilt starts to take its toll on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as Macbeth “succumbs to insanity, while
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.