In Act two, Macbeth had killed Duncan. Duncan was a king and that is what Macbeth wanted to be, so he decided to murder him. Macbeth’s outward appearance is that he is powerful, but really incapable of standing his own ground. Macbeth became paranoid because he did not want anyone knowing that he had murdered Duncan. Every knock of the door he heard, he would ask “whose there?” Macbeth had an excessive amount of blood on his hands and thought that his hands could never become clean again. His guilty conscience was beginning to take over his mental thoughts.…
While Macbeth is awaiting the signal that King Duncan is sleeping, which will summon him to commit the murder, Macbeth is struck by a vision of a dagger. This “dagger of the mind” symbolizes Macbeth’s last minute doubt and the choice of committing the murder that he is still facing (2.1.38). Even within his vision, Macbeth does not have hold of the transient knife; he has not reconciled himself to the inevitability of his treachery even at this late point. The illusionary dagger is in stark contrast to the physical dagger Macbeth pulls from his side.…
Shakespeare is one such playwright who explored the possibility of some characters being mentally ill. In his play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is depicted as unstable and considerably insane. However, for this paper, I will seek to diagnose Macbeth with schizophrenia, which is a mental disorder characterized by the deterioration in one’s brain and personality as seen in a person feeling, conduct and thoughts. Beside these general character traits of a person suffering from schizophrenia, the diseases specifically results to incoherent conversations and hallucinations. All these elements of a schizophrenic are found in Lady Macbeth; hence, I assert that the Lady Macbeth is schizophrenic.…
Malcolm and Donalbain talk about leaving Scotland and seem to be suspecting that someone else is guilty of the king's murder.…
We are first presented with a disturbed mind in Act 1 Scene 3, where Macbeth’s first words echo the witches - “fair is foul and foul is fair”. If we look closely at this it tells us that things are not always what they seem which can really indicate a disturbed mind because somebody could be disturbed and we couldn’t know because we as people cannot look into somebody’s mind. Another example is when Banquo makes a note on Macbeth’s reaction to the three witches – “he seems rapt with awe” this suggests that Macbeth was in a trance like state which really indicates a disturbed mind because his mind is not where it should be. It also makes us question whether the witches have awakened a hope that Macbeth had always had? Macbeth also shows a very hostile and aggressive response to the witches – “Speak, I charge you” this indicates a disturbed mind because it is in contrast to Banquo who is very calm about the witches.…
As the main motivator to Macbeth’s actions, Lady Macbeth is a character whose ambition and greed lead her and her husband to their inevitable fate of death. Lady Macbeth’s relentlessness, as well as her longing for power generate an emotion of pain and suffering. After hearing the prophecies of her husband, Lady Macbeth is intent on making her husband King of Scotland, as she will not let anything get in her way; even if she needs to resort to murder. After Macbeth’s murder of King Duncan, she is fearful that his loyalty and consciousness will overcome their “priorities”; however, as the play progresses, we are able to see that ironically, it is her that slowly becomes insane for she is being consumed by guilt and fear. This is distinctly apparent as Lady Macbeth sleepwalks and perpetually attempts to wash the blood aka the guilt of killing King Duncan, off her hands. In this quote from Act 5 Scene 1, Lady Macbeth states, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!— … —What, will these hands ne'er be clean?—No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that…,” we can perceive that she is near lunacy as she can no longer comprehend her actions and what she can do to eradicate the constant sense of guilt.…
The first factor of their dwindling sense sanity is the idea of guilt. This starts immediately after Macbeth murders Duncan. He realizes the blood on his hands is from duncan and is thrown into a confusion, wondering if his hands will ever be cleared of the crimes they have committed towards the kind. “Will Great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine,”(II.2.59-61). Macbeth and his wife realize that they cannot dwell on this too long or it will drive them both mad, “These deeds must not bethought after these ways, so, it will make us mad” (II.2.33-34). Knowing they had killed their king was going to drive them mad, but they both could do little to prevent thinking about the deed they had done.…
Symbolism is used extensively to express the motivation of guilt in Macbeth. “Out, damned spot!” (Act 5 scene 1) is one memorable quote by Lady Macbeth. The spots of blood that the lady saw on her hand, while dreaming, is a symbol and metaphor of the guilt that she feels of the king’s murder. Despite what she does to try to wash the guilt away she can’t make the blood disappear. Lady Macbeth earlier on tries to repress her ‘womanly emotions’ in order to commit the murder but she is not successful and that guilt would later become her cause of death. Lady Macbeth says to her husband after the king’s murder, “A little water clears us of this deed”. Later, however, Lady Macbeth’s guilty conscience prevents her from ever washing the spots of blood off her hands. This is an instance of irony. Blood is a heavily used symbol. In Act 3 scene 4, Macbeth says “I am in blood / Step't in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er”. This quote is just after he sees Banquo’s ghost. The blood represents a marsh of guilt and evil that Macbeth has waded so far in that he cannot back out of it. He has no choice but to accept his guilt and if need be, cover up his guilt with more murders. Symbolism gives the audience more insight to the characters and their feelings. It also adds depth to the concepts of guilt in Macbeth and enhances the experience of the plot.…
Review: Macbeth a visually striking period piece for the modern viewer We all wrote an essay about it in high school; Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” is so widely read that it’s surprising Justin Kurzel’s newest film is the first notable cinematic adaptation since Roman Polanski’s in 1971. Kurzel’s take on the Scottish play is a spectacle of haunting violence; he takes advantage of the cinematic medium and crafts a stunning aesthetic. As an adaptation, the film offers an imaginative reading of the familiar narrative of the eponymous Scottish general (Michael Fassbender, sure to draw a crowd at the box office) and his infamously manipulative wife (Marion Cotillard, art-house ace). However, in its attempts to be visually striking, much will seem to have…
In many great pieces of literature, secondary characters play important roles in developing the main character and the story’s themes. In William Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth, the author uses many different secondary characters to develop Macbeth’s and the play’s themes. This will be shown through the analysis of three secondary characters: Duncan, Macduff and the Weird Sisters.…
Throughout the play the audience may have blamed the witches or Lady Macbeth for Macbeth’s eventual passing, but people overlook the fact that it was Macbeth who chose to do the crimes. The play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, shows the life of Macbeth, with him becoming king by doing the worst crime of the land. Macbeth murders his best friend, Macduff’s family and also damages Macduff’s castle. All of these actions that Macbeth commits results to high treason, leading to his death. Macbeth’s death was brought onto himself with the help of the witches when they tell him that he has the chance of becoming king. Macbeth changed his mind so that he commits these crimes, on his own. After that meeting…
King James VI, king of Scotland, ascended to the throne of England after the death of Queen Elizabeth I. This act united Scotland and England under one rule. While King James was alive, He was interested in the world of witchcraft and wrote a book about the subject called Daemonologie. In Macbeth Shakespeare uses Macbeth and his misunderstanding of the fates as a representation of King James and his misconception of witches and their true nature.…
Shakespeare creates a facade when he coats Lady Macbeth with feelings of love and compassion for her husband Macbeth. However, when Lady Macbeth finds out the witches prophesied Macbeth was to become king she immediately thought of ways she could achieve her ambition, committing the sinful act of killing King Duncan was the first to come to mind. Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeths manly hood by stating “It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness” The noun “milk”, a word of purity and motherly love is used to describe how she thinks Macbeth is too soft hearted and cowardly to kill King Duncan, she bullies Macbeth into going along with the plan. Lady Macbeth knew that Macbeth was a warrior and has killed before so she tries to unleash that inner…
Tens and thousands of people are diagnosed with mental illness annually. In the play Macbeth, the protagonist, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth suffers through mental agony, influenced by their ambition and guilt, as well as self-fulfilled prophecies sparked by the three witches. Shakespeare’s tragedy suggests that the opportunity to attain power and the influence by the supernatural causes one’s mental deterioration, which eventually leads to an individual’s inevitable, fatal demise.…
Macbeth is the first of our characters to be tormented with feelings of guilt. He commits regicide following the trust in the witch's predictions and the persuasion from Lady Macbeth, however, even before doing so, he has feelings of guilt for thinking it could be done. It could be said that the dagger which Macbeth claims he can "see before [him]" which lead him to Duncan's chamber was due to the feeling of guilt he had felt prior to the murder, as Macbeth describes it as a "dagger of the mind" suggesting the guilt has begun corroding at his sanity from the very begining. Arguably, it could be said that the dagger was infact due to supernatural occurences and the witch's conjured it up using supernatural powers.…