Examples Of Bipolar Disorder In Macbeth

William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is intense and horrifying, with Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, planning to kill the king so that Macbeth can take his position. Lady Macbeth is the master mind behind all of this. She is in his ear telling him what to do and how to do it. Under all of this pressure from his wife, Macbeth starts to go insane. In the play, Macbeth shows symptoms of bipolar disorder due to his lack of sleep, agitation, and activeness.
Macbeth suffers from lack of sleep which is one symptom of bipolar disorder ("Bipolar Disorder Symptoms - Mayo Clinic"). Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth, “you lack the season of all natures, sleep” (3. 4. 140). This shows that she is worried that he is not getting enough sleep and that it is causing him to act strange. Macbeth starts hallucinating, seeing Banquo’s ghost, and screaming and shouting at it and disrupting the banquet. Lady Macbeth tries to save his image by telling the guests, “I pray you speak not. He grows worse and worse, question enrages him. At once good night. Stand not upon the order of your going, but

go at once” (3. 4. 116-119). She wants them to leave so they will not start asking questions because he is hallucinating, and she thinks it is due to his lack of sleep. All of these things show that his lack of sleep is a sign of bipolar disorder.
He starts to become agitated when he finds out there are ten thousand soldiers outside his castle. It is certain because Macbeth tells his servant, “I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d. give me my armor” (5. 3. 32-33). The servant tells him he does not need his armor, but Macbeth insists, saying, “I’ll put it on. Send out moe horses, skirr the country round, hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor” (5. 3. 34-37). He is going to go and try to fight all the soldiers by himself. This is another one of the symptoms relating to bipolar disorder "Bipolar Disorder Symptoms - Mayo Clinic".
Macbeth has never been as active in the country as he is now, he told the murderers “to leave no rubs nor botches in the work--- Fleance his son, that keeps him company, whose absence is no less material to me than his his father’s, must embrace the the fate of that dark hour.

Resolve yourselves apart, I’ll come to you anon.” 1(3. 1. 133-138). This means Fleance is not important so kill him along with his father. Macbeth has been informed of McDuff fleeing the land to go to England and get Malcolm he is furious with this news. He says “the castle of McDuff I will surprise, seize upon fire, give to th’ sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line.” (4. 1. 150-153). Macbeth is saying he want’s everyone in McDuff’s castle killed including his wife and children. Last but not least this is a proven symptom of bipolar disorder "Bipolar Disorder Symptoms - Mayo

Clinic".
In conclusion, it is irrefutability that Macbeth suffers from bipolar disorder. This is shown because of his hallucinations during the banquet, proving he has a lack of sleep. Him killing McDuff’s wife and children is evidence of his agitation for McDuff fleeing the land to go to England to get Malcolm. On another note his activeness is proven by him telling the murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance, he is destroying anything that is going to one day stop him from being king. Macbeth could have been treated properly if he had been in modern day. Back then there was not technology and medicine to help him with his illness.