Paranoia In Macbeth

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Shakespeare uses Macbeth’s paranoia to show the immediate change someone goes through after committing a crime as brutal as killing a king and disrupting the natural order of life.’O full of scorpions is my mind dear wife!’. The use of the metaphor demonstrates how after perpetrating such a ferocious act he is starting to become mad. The reference to scorpions in his brain have deadly connotations and implies that he is getting tangled up by some mysterious creature. In this time and place poisoning was the most common way to carry out a murder. By this Macbeth could be foreshadowing his future events as being stung by a scorpion, which later on becomes his act of murder and now Macbeth is slowly starting to become overwhelmed and getting poisoned by the whole situation.The use of the imagery shows how perturbed and awful Macbeth is feeling. Macbeth at this point the Jacobean audience can see a character evolution, he has gone from being in a calm and unworried mood after carrying out his plan to going crazy. The use of the exclamation shows how he believes truly in what he is …show more content…

This is shown when Shakespeare writes ‘There the grown serpent lies; the worm that’s fled Hath nature that in time will venom breed, No teeth for th’ present’. In direct contrast to the paranoia that Macbeth started feeling after Duncan’s murder now he is being cold and menacing after the murder of Banquo. He is not upset or paranoid by the fact that his best friend has just been killed, but now only cares that his power is not in danger and all loose ends are tied up.The use of the imagery presents nature in a way which had never been explored before as the death of Banquo is harmless at the time but will become poisonous as the natural course of things discourse.The use of dramatic

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