Macbeth: Schizophrenic Essay

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Macbeth: Schizophrenic Essay

Macbeths tragic downfall into insanity could be modernly diagnosed as the mental disorder schizophrenia. Many of the actions carried out by Macbeth during the play lead the reader to believe that Macbeth is crazy. However, by todays medical standards, Macbeth falls into several of the categories under the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is defined as, “a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought, and conduct.” Macbeth: Schizophrenic Essay.
In Act I Macbeth is very uneasy in his and Lady Macbeths decision to kill Duncan. He says, We shall proceed no further in this business. For he hath honored me of late. (I.7.31-32) This is an unmistakable example of how Macbeth is not fully confident in his decisions. He feels guilt and anguish, as does Lady Macbeth, for she will not commit the murder herself, due to the fact that King Duncan looks too much like her father. At this point in the play, it is quite questionable as to weather either of the conspirators will consummate to the killings. Duncans death can be identified as the turning point of Macbeths sanity. This is when Macbeth starts to clearly display numerous symptoms of schizophrenia. OOne of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia is the inability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Macbeth displays this characteristic as he speaks vehemently to an empty chair, which he believes is the ghost of his old friend Banquo, who he just recently had killed. He says, Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo! how say you? Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too. If charnel-houses and our graves must send Those that we bury back, our monuments Shall be the maws of kites. (III, 4) Macbeth is the only one to see the ghost, not even the audience is allowed by Shakespeare to see this apparition. After this, his mental stability begins to deteriorate throughout the course of the play. Guilt and obsession are also among the leading features associated with schizophrenia. After Macbeth is coaxed into killing Duncan, he is plagued by the blood, which he has spilt. However, he still manages to kill anyone who threatens his reign, even those who are very close to him. One could say that his obsession with maintaining his royal stature drove him nuts. After Macbeth carries out the murder of Duncan, he returns to his wifes chambers, only to say, I have done the deed. (II.2.14) These seem like very uncharacteristic words from a man who, not that long ago, was torn apart over the mere thought of killing King Duncan. Macbeth can be further diagnosed as a schizophrenic paranoid type, which is a subdivision of schizophrenia. Macbeth: Schizophrenic Essay. This category is defined by its criteria of: Preoccupation with one or more delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations. Macbeth frequently and vividly hallucinates during the play. The first indicator into his hallucinogenic illness is when he struggles to decide whether or not to kill his good friend, Banquo. As he argues to himself, he begins to imagine a dagger in front of him. Hay says, to himself, Is this a dagger which I see before me… (II, 1, 33) Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight, or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? (II.2.35-39) In this passage, Macbeth even admits to himself that he is beginning to see things that are not only unreal, but a projected figment of his tainted mind. Soon after, as he returns to see the three witches, who started this whole masquerade, he sees another vision. This time, it is a vision of his future. He sees an armed child, a bloody child, and a child with a crown holding a tree branch. (IV.1) This is meant to represent Macbeths future and to warn him of what will happen with MacDuff. He then proceeds to vision all of the former Kings of Scotland processing past him, with the final King holding a mirror in which Macbeth is to look into. Macbeth is now beginning to have not only hallucinations, but also detailed fantasies, in which he interacts with the apparitions. Macbeth now relies totally on fantasy, he has pushed everyone out of his life. All those who he has not yet killed, he has ostracized completely, namely his wife, Lady Macbeth. Macbeth: Schizophrenic Essay.

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Lady Macbeth also demonstrates many of the schizophrenic characteristics herself. Her speech patterns become very choppy and incoherent, as is common among many schizophrenics. In Act V, scene one, she rambles, Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One: two: why, then tis time to dot. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our powr to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? These do not seem like the words of a woman who, not much earlier, had devised a brilliant conspiracy to kill the King. Lady Macbeth suffers severely from the positive symptom of thought disorder. Positive, meaning symptoms that are present in schizophrenics that would not be present in a mentally stable person. This entails, for example, the inability of a person to connect thoughts into logical sequences. Thoughts come and go so rapidly that it is not possible to rationally organize them. Because thinking is disorganized and fragmented, the ill person’s speech is often muddled or unreasonable. Thought disorder is frequently accompanied by inappropriate emotional responses: which means words and mood do not appear in tune with each other. The result may be something like laughing when speaking of shady or frightening events. Early warning signs, such as Lady Macbeths sleepwalking, her irrational speech, and her loss of normal temperament were all reverberations of her mental instability.
Extreme circumstances such as the ones presented in Macbeth are highly probable causes for both Macbeth and Lady Macbeths development of schizophrenia. Their behavior, although seeming quite erratic and irrational, is quite common among patients with this disorder. The term schizophrenic, however, was not even brought to the public until 1911, by a Swiss psychologist, Eugen Bleuler, almost three decades after Shakespeares Macbeth was introduced to England. Citizens during the sixteen hundreds would have just thought Macbeth and his wife were insane and should be locked away. With todays psychoanalytic sciences, though, it can be most likely predicted that schizophrenia was present in Macbeth.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both show signs of what would today be diagnosed as symptoms of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is defined as “a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought, and conduct.” Macbeth: Schizophrenic Essay. There are three major symptoms of the disorder; not being able to distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality, incoherent conversations, and withdrawal physically and emotionally. The most common and most well known symptom of schizophrenia is when people cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not. Schizophrenics often.
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 thine ear, and chastise with the valor of my tongue which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal.” (I.5.23-28) Macbeth becomes so passionate about becoming the king that he killed anyone who could possibly take the throne away from him, even the king, Duncan. “I have done the deed.” he said to his wife after killing him. (II.2.14) Macbeth shows several symptoms of schizophrenia. These symptoms are techniques that Shakespeare uses to create the idea that Macbeth has a mental illness. Macbeth’s main symptom is detachment from reality. While contemplating killing Banquo to secure his fate, Macbeth begins to see an imaginary dagger in front of him. He asks, “Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight, or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” (II.2.35-39) Then after Banquo is dead, Macbeth believes he sees his ghost during a dinner with the country’s nobility. Macbeth says, “The table’s full.” (III.4.46) Lennox points to the seat where Macbeth sees Banqo’s ghost sitting and tells him that it is empty. Puzzled, Macbeth asks, “Where?” (III.4.48) He

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While the diagnosis of mental conditions is considered a modern practice, people throughout history have suffered similar mental illnesses but have gone undocumented or unstudied. But even without scientific or psychological records, mental illness can clearly be derived from historical figures and works of art. As early as the 1600s, characters in literary pieces are known to depict characteristics of modern mental labels. During this time period, mental illnesses were generally credited to witchcraft or demonic possession. Though the explanations seem farfetched, the symptoms of what are now seen as neurological disruptions remain the same. In William Shakespeare’s seventeenth century play Macbeth, several characters portray indications of what could be the modern diagnosis schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is mental disorder that inhibits the abilities “to think clearly, to distinguish reality from fantasy, to manage emotions, make decisions, and relate to others” (Duckworth). Macbeth: Schizophrenic Essay. One defining symptom of schizophrenia lies in recurring delusions of grandeur. The afflicted patient’s “beliefs are not based in reality and usually involve misinterpretation of perception or experience” (Mayo Clinic Staff). It could be argued that Macbeth suffers from delusions that he rightful king of Scotland. Unlike Banquo, Macbeth, in his fantasy-like state, takes the witches prophecy too strongly to heart and thus acts upon it. Additionally, when the witches foretell that “none of woman born/ Shall harm Macbeth” (4.1. 91-92), Macbeth succumbs to an unrealistic delusion of invincibility, which inevitably proves to be fatal. As with Macbeth, Lady Macbeth also appears to suffer these delusions with her husband as king of Scotland. She is the … … middle of paper … …is. Macbeth struggles to grapple with reality through the hallucinations he experiences and the paranoia that results in a plethora of murders. The prospect of kinghood throws him over the edge and he takes with him his wife Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth similarly witnesses sensory apparitions and becomes overanxious to the point of suicide. The two slip into an alter reality in which paranoia and delusions overcome practical judgment. Had this murderous couple existed today, their actions of delusion would certainly classify them as diagnosed schizophrenics. Works Cited Duckworth M.D., Ken. “Schizophrenia.” NAMI.org. National Alliance on Mental Illness, Feb. 2007. Web. 28 March 2010. Mayo Clinic Staff. “Schizophrenia.” MayoClinic.com. Mayo Clinic, Jan 2010. Web. 25 March 2010. Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992. Print. Macbeth: Schizophrenic Essay.

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