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Examples Of Mental Illness In Macbeth

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Macbeth’s Mental Deterioration In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the main character starts off to be loyal and caring towards his wife and friends. Later in the story, Macbeth betrays all of his friends and becomes a murderous tyrant. The events that occurred in this play cause him to begin to have symptoms of mental illnesses. Macbeth could have been born with an illness or later developed one because of what he does throughout the play. Mental disorder is deterioration of one’s mind. This can be caused by stress, drug abuse, or disease. Macbeth ends up developing multiple different, but similar, mental illnesses. Some of the disorders he begins to display are Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Schizophrenia, Psychosis, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Borderline Personality Disorder and depression. Macbeth develops symptoms for each of these disorders/illnesses. Multiple events that go on in Macbeth’s life cause him to see things that are not there, and eventually make him go crazy. Towards the end of the story, he becomes very lonely because he had betrayed everyone.
Any mental illness can cause suffering. Macbeth felt so guilty after killing King Duncan that he could have developed …show more content…

“Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over” (The National Institute of Mental Health). This mental illness has a huge impact on people’s daily lives. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder may not seem to be part of this play, but looking into the details, Lady Macbeth could have developed this disorder. Seeing the blood all over her hands, Lady Macbeth’s mind forced her to wash her hands to wash away the blood. Even though it was the terrible delusions she was having, she still believed her hands were covered in King Duncan’s

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