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Examples Of Mental Illness In Macbeth

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Approximately 18.1 percent of adults in the U.S experience an anxiety disorder such as PTSD, OCD and other phobias. Therefore, mental illness and guilt can come as a result of committing a violent crime. Such as in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. In the play Lady Macbeth develops an anxiety disorder that closely resembles PTSD. Lady Macbeth develops this mental illness after she forces Macbeth to murder King Duncan. Lady Macbeth forces Macbeth to murder the king in order for him to fulfill the witches prophecies of becoming king. In the beginning of the passage Lady Macbeth states, “ Yet here’s a spot. Out damned spot, out, I say” (5.1.33,37). The spot Lady Macbeth is referencing is the blood that is stained on her and Macbeth's hands. …show more content…

When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man”(1.7.53-58). By “what beast was’t then, that made you break this enterprise to me?” (1.7.55) Lady Macbeth is asking Macbeth why he is reconsidering the murder of Duncan. Then when she states, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man” (5.1.57 - 58). In this Lady Macbeth means that Macbeth is only a man if he commits the murder. That if he does not dare to perform this act to become king then he is not a man. To further explain she is stating that he is a coward if he does not go through with the murder. This idea of proving to Lady Macbeth that he is not a coward , and that he is a man leads Macbeth to …show more content…

At the end Lady Macbeth has a guilty conscience because she pushed Macbeth to commit the murder. Especially when she states, “What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed”(5.1.71). The way she repeats herself in general shows that she is paranoid about the consequences that could fall upon her and Macbeth. By repeating “to bed, to bed, to bed”(5.1.71) it is reasonable to conclude that because of her guilty conscience she struggles to fall asleep. The paranoia and guilt lead to the development of her mental illness, and are also the reasons for her subconscious nightmares. What she means by “what's done cannot be undone”(5.1.71) is that she cannot undo her actions. This is very similar to her realization earlier that there is no way to erase her actions. This shows how easy it is for the guilt to overtake her. This guilt because of her terrible actions leads to her committing suicide at the end. This being because she can no longer live with her own actions. In that way the murder of Duncan inevitably leads to her suicide because she can never get over the paranoia, and

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