Theme Of Mental Illness In Macbeth

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The mind is a powerful weapon that can be used to accomplish things or also to demolish. Mental Illness can be caused by many things some being family history, or a sudden psychotic break. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth let’s his mind take over to a point where he can no longer distinguish what is real and what is fake. At the beginning of the play Macbeth’s mental state is fairly stable, but as the play goes on and the hunger for power grows he becomes less and less mentally stable. Macbeth’s visions and hallucinations help develop his character throughout the play, by showing Macbeth’s rising insanity. There are three major hallucinations that contribute to his development as a character them being: the dragger, Banquo’s ghost, and
The witches tell him three apparitions that will happen to him these three apparitions are “Beware Macduff. Beware the thane of Fife.”, and “Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth.” and that “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him” (4.1.73-98). These three apparitions make Macbeth more paranoid about what will happen to him. Macbeth comes up with reasons about how the witches’ prophecies will never come true he says, “That will never be. Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earthbound root? Sweet bodements! Good! Rebellious dead, rise never till the wood Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath To time and mortal custom” (4.1.98-105). Macbeth is saying that it would be impossible for the tress to ever move and that is how he knows that he will never die, because it won’t
Macbeth also starts to hallucinate and trouble sleeping with would be caused from the emotional stress that he is going through. As Macbeth is trying to deal with the aftermath of killing the King, he also believes that killing is the only way to fix his problems so he goes on and kills more people. As he tries to hold on to what makes him a man he become less human and even not having to think twice about killing someone. Macbeth becomes merciless in his killings and this causes him to not even care when he kills Banquo and Macduff’s family, because Macbeth believes that murder shows how manly someone

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