Macbeth’s Insanity, Research Paper Example

Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbethis a play in which the protagonist, MacBeth increasingly grows more insane through each act, until in Act V, he allows his insanity to be his downfall. In MacBeth’s fight to win the Scottish crown, he allows his ambition to get the better of him. In fact, as in all Shakespearean plays, MacBeth’s fatal flaw is his ambition. MacBeth’s obsession with the crown, his obsession with gaining more power, and the actions that lead him to attaining and retaining the crown are all symptomatic of his insanity. This paper will argue for MacBeth’s insanity as supported through these actions.

Macbeth’s character showcases megalomaniacal impulses. Once he’s introduced to the witches on the field of battle and they tell him that he will be Thane of Glamis, then Thane of Cawdor, then King, this sparks the first sparks of his ambition. Prior to this encounter MacBeth was stable with his position as a warrior. Once these witches, with the help of Hecate, introduce the possibility of becoming king, then MacBeth’s small ambition (wherein he’s a great warrior on the field of battle) overtakes his personality as the play increases (this may be influenced highly by Hecate and the witches, as Hecate states, Hecate tells the witches that their actions have been “…for a wayward son/Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,/Loves for his own ends…” (III.v.11-13)). The first step in this direction in Shakespeare’s play is with MacBeth killing Duncan, his king: “‘If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well/It were done quickly…’” (I.vii.1-2). Even before he kills Duncan, MacBeth has a hallucination, “‘Is this a dagger which I see before me…I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.’” (II.i.44-46) in which the dagger turns bloody; truly a representation of his insanity. In Macbeth’s monologue, it’s revealed that he’s having an inner conflict.

This inner conflict is one of the only times in the play that the audience sees a MacBeth suffering through a moral dilemma. This suggests that with Duncan’s murder, the last shred of MacBeth’s grasp on reality is conquered. MacBeth feels loyalty to the king not just as a subject, but as a kinsman, and as a guest in his house, “He’s here in double trust:/First as I am his kinsman and his subject…then, as his host” (I.vii.12-13). A sane person would not step across one of those lines but MacBeth steps across all three. This suggests that MacBeth plunges into his insanity, and doesn’t merely take baby steps. The moral question presented to the audience at this point is whether or not MacBeth feels guilty about what he’s done.
It’s with guilt that the analysis of the play, of MacBeth’s insanity, can truly be dissected. MacBeth commits murder despite his lingering obligations to Duncan in a threefold manner. It isn’t a question of whether or not murder is wrong (as MacBeth is a warrior) but in what way he’s obligated to Duncan. When MacBeth severs the line of kinsmen, subject, and host, he vanquishes his ties to humanity. Death is a part of life, and certainly a part of the play. In MacBeth’s mind everyone dies eventually (“hereafter”) so his isn’t a question of moral fortitude, but rather when he kills the king, in a sense, he’s killing his obligation to be human: to act in a human way, to behave with the same edifices as others in the play, and to act with a grieving conscious (as Hamlet does). MacBeth does grieve;instead his grief is turned into visions. These visions support MacBeth’s spiral into insanity.

When MacBeth sees Banquo’s ghost (“‘If I stand here, I saw him.’” (III.iv.89)), he is physically agitated by it, so agitated that his friends at the dinner table recognize his symptoms,“The nobleman Ross, recognizing MacBeth’s state of mind, tells everyone to rise and leave, but Lady MacBeth asserts her control and save the scene, directing the guests to remain seated while explaining that her husband often suffers from ‘fits’ since his youth” (Bloom 30). Banquo’s ghost is the second sign of MacBeth’s insanity manifested: the first being the bloody dagger, as Bloom states, “Just as the ghosts of MacBeth’s victims come back to haunt him and expose his culpability in the public realm, Lady MacBeth’s insanity causes her to become like one of the undead herself, teetering between reality and madness” (38).
Banquo’s ghost symbolizes MacBeth’s ultimate break from reality. It’s a full realization of his insanity, of his deeds standing before him, of perhaps a guilty conscious, but instead of regret, MacBeth’s subconscious manifests a ghost. It’s strange that Shakespeare refers to Banquo as a ghost instead of a vision. No one else at the dinner table can see Banquo, and yet MacBeth is completely agitated by its presence. Trying to distract other dinner guests from her husband’s obvious declining mental state, Lady MacBeth states, “‘He grows worse and worse’” (III.iv.144). She relates this to “‘lack the season of all natures, sleep’” (III.iv.173), which is supported by Macbeth saying “‘Macbeth shall sleep no more’” (II.ii.56) after murdering Duncan.

Here, Shakespeare is using sleep as a metaphor for insanity. This can be analyzed through MacBeth’s monologue in which he states that Lady MacBeth shall sleep no more, meaning that she will not be insane (it can be argued that both MacBeth and Lady MacBeth suffer through a decline into insanity). MacBeth’s own lack of sleep suggests that his brain is becoming overactive with his planning, plotting, and guilty manifestations. This combines for a cocktail of added hysteria that in turn leads to him believing the witches and believing that he cannot be killed by anyone of woman born. Another element of MacBeth’s insanity is his megalomaniacal impulses.

MacBeth certainly regards himself in high esteem. This level of self-obsession further exemplifies MacBeth’s insanity. His megalomania lends itself to intertwined with his downfall that hastens because of his insanity. His megalomania is further exemplified through acquiring the crown, the means by which he does it, and the way in which he retains the crown (by hiring assassins to kill his best friend). MacBeth increasingly exemplifies his debilitating insanity, as he progresses through his insanity in each act of the play. This is seen when MacBeth kills Duncan’s sons (Malcom and Donalbain), MacDuff’s wife and son, and finally Banquo. Since MacBeth is on a journey through insanity, he overestimates his abilities in being king, and finds that with great power comes a severe increase in his paranoia.

Along with MacBeth’s paranoia comes an increase in his isolation (Neely 315). This is another symptom of his insanity. MacBeth’s is a self-imposed isolation as he doesn’t have time for anyone while he’s plotting the king’s murder, then other’s murders, then finally trying to keep the thrown. Also, MacBeth’s isolation is due to him killing all those around him, or from his wife’s suicide. While MacBeth’s insanity manifests in visions, Lady MacBeth’s manifests in guilt and she kills herself. Despite MacBeth’s manifesting grief in killing his friend, Banquo, MacBeth shows no remorse for the hand he played in his wife’s suicide (Ribner 39). This may be denial, but it may also be another sign of his insanity. Inability to show feelings, to be apathetic and impassive (children “‘Naught’s had, all’s spent,/Where our desire without content’” (III.ii.6-7), in which Lady MacBethreference their lack of sex life) are traits suffered by a mentally ill person, typically one who has schizophrenia:

His mental disorder lead him to become a merciless murderer just to keep his throne over Scotland. He was plagued by hallucinations that led him to do horrible things. Even his subjects were aware that he was ill. There is no cure for this disorder; except for the medications we have available now to suppress it. If the doctor who diagnosed his wife was aware of Macbeth he would have been locked up. Unlike Lady Macbeth’s disorder, there may not have been a way to overcome his disorder. However if he had waited to be crowned king naturally his own fate might not have been so dark (Auden para. 12).

This fact, compounded by his paranoid fears, offers a conclusive diagnosis of MacBeth’s insanity.
MacBeth’s insanity is also influenced by his anxiety, and finding no pleasure in life (Andreasen 5). Indeed, when he returns from battle and comes home to his wife, he is somewhat amorous, but this is the only time in the play that the audience sees a different side to MacBeth; despite the complexity of his character, he is rather flat in that he only exhibits his one tragic flaw, ambition through the rest of the play; “A second way in which Shakespeare breaks new ground in MacBeth is in his deeper study of the nature of ambition…Ambition is usually understood in its straightforward sense as an eagerness to gain promotion and power, to rise in the world, and, as Duncan’s general in the field…” (Bloom 61). MacBeth’s insanity is also exhibited through depression (severe), anxiety, and impassive/apathetic views on life (other than attaining and retaining the Scottish throne).

MacBeth seems to be of an influential mindset. At the beginning of the play he relies on Lady MacBeth to make the decisions (the major decision being killing Duncan to gain the crown) (Craik 55). As such, the reader may begin to decide that MacBeth is merely a vessel by which other’s desires is manifested (it isn’t his idea to become king, but rather the witches’ idea), as such, his mental prowess should be questioned early on. MacBeth may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (related to his time in battle) and this may in turn be a symptom of his insanity. Despite the different reasons to MacBeth’s insanity, what is clear in the play is that MacBeth has a simple intellect, that’s easily influenced, and his belief in visions and delusions is so whole, that he risks his life on it (no man from woman born).

MacBeth certainly allows Lady MacBeth to influence his decisions. This is seen in her manipulating him into seizing the crown through murder. In fact, MacBeth can be seen as deferring to the witches, and to Hecate, when he has an important decision to make. The reader may gain a glimpse of his inner thoughts, the thoughts not influenced by each of these female characters, in lines such as “‘I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun,/And wish th’ estate o’ th’ world were now undone’” (V.v.55-56). MacBeth reveals in this line how he’d rather the world end, than to have to make a decision in that world, or have that world influence him. It seems that MacBeth is slightly coherent about his position, his declining mental state, in this line, however, MacBeth is of such a weak mental state that he doesn’t follow this train of thought to its conclusion (which may very well be walking away from the crown) because his actions are dictated by the female characters in the play, who feed MacBeth’s frenzy (his obsession, ambition, insanity), “A traditional interpretation saw Macbeth as part victim, part self-destroyer, a basically good, public-spirited man who was willing to serve his king until evil, in the form of the witches, and the malice of a nagging wife preyed jointly on the malign inner force of ambition” Farrell para. 2). Juxtaposing the above line with “Why should I play Roman fool and die/On mine own sword? While I see lives, the gashes/Do better upon him.” (V.viii.1-3) it can be inferred that MacBeth seems to be of two different minds. One in which he wishes the world to cease existing, and one in which he wishes himself to live. These contrary analogous statements suggest that MacBeth’s ego is dictating his actions to such a degree that it may be termed megalomaniac (as referenced above) and as such, deserves to be classified as insanity.

MacBeth’s insanity may be due to the female characters in the play, as Bloom states:
Somehow they make contact with MacBeth’s mind, even before he sees them: his very first words, ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’, suggest their influence, since he unconsciously echoes their earlier chant. And as they somehow give Banquo ‘cursed thoughts’ in his dreams (II.i.8), and can invade the sleeping mind, what are we to make of the dagger that seems to marshal MacBeth to Duncan’s chamber a mere thirteen lines later? Another cursed thought, planted in MacBeth’s mind to draw him to the murder? All of these impressions work together, suggesting that the Weird Sisters have access to the human mind (Lady MacBeth, Banquo, MacBeth), and can attack MacBeth’s directly and indirectly (58).
Therefore, the Weird Sisters may be the impetus to MacBeth’s insanity, but they merely exacerbated something that was already in the fruiting stages. Bloom’s analysis of MacBeth is accurate, especially in regards to the female characters of the play, and the witches certainly play a large hand in influencing MacBeth’s mind.

MacBeth’s ego, or megalomaniacal tendencies issue forth a concept that MacBeth is insane: his insanity is further exemplified through his belief that he doesn’t have a “vulnerable crest” (V.viii.14), that’s he’s invincible, and doesn’t need to fear death. To believe that a person is beyond the grasps of mortality is truly an insane thought. This thought process was alive early on in the play as when MacBeth tries to wash off Duncan’s blood, “‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/clean from my hand?’” (II.ii.78-79). MacBeth is continually seeing blood in his visions which may also be a side symptom of PTSD, and the only sane sign of his guilty conscience as Auden states, “Avoidance is the next symptom and it has been found that people with PTSD often try to avoid or “push away” their emotions about a traumatic experience and emotions in general” (para. 6).

MacBeth’s insanity seems to be greatest when he encounters the witches,“‘Beware MacDuff!/Beware the Thane of Fife!’”(IV.i.81-82). The witches go on to say that MacBeth will not be killed “‘…none of woman born/Shall harm Macbeth.” (IV.i.91-92) as well as “‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be until/Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill/Shall come against him.’” (IV.i.105-107).

MacBeth’s insanity isn’t shown completely at the beginning of the play but manifest increasingly throughout. This is seen in the final acts of the play in which “The lords also discuss MacBeth’sbeleaguered state. Although the king has fortified his castle, he is bereft of supporters. It is a well known fact that MacBeth has lost self-control, and is generally believed to have done mad…The focus now shifts to the imminent battle which will purging Scotland of its sickness” (Bloom 38). At this point in the play, MacBeth is fully insane. He charges forth in battle, in armor that doesn’t fit him (a symbol of the man or warrior he was compared with the waning character he is; a compare and contrast of the first and final act of the play wherein are the only parts in the play where the audience sees MacBeth in his warrior garb). The fact that MacBeth is so proleptic throughout the play, and yet doesn’t recognize simple symbols of his diminishing capacity is outrageous, and speaks to his mental capabilities. Throughout the course of the play Shakespeare has MacBeth speak about things to come or other characters foibles and character flaws and yet MacBeth remains clueless to his own mental state. All of MacBeth’s monologues are his questioning his path, capabilities, and the fortunes that are befalling him. When he speaks to Banquo’s ghost, this is perhaps one of the only times in the play that the audience sees MacBeth recognize the course of his actions. Prior to, and after this,MacBeth seems to be living in an insular world in which his actions are not termed as insane or sane, but rather and only, a means to gain his destiny as promised by the witches.

MacBeth’sinsanity is manifest destiny. He envisions a certain path for himself (albeit a path manifested and promised to him by the witches) and sets forth on a different journey because of his insane predilections. If MacBeth is a berserker on the battlefield (as the soldier in Act I stated he was) then this points to MacBeth already having a capacity for bloodlust. This bloodlust isn’t a normal state of mind, as not everyone who goes into battle exhibits such tendencies, but the few and particularly brutal people do. This means that at the start of the play, indeed from before the play takes shape on page, MacBeth is a personality who tends to the extreme (even without the help of the witches) but his ambition, his tragic-hero flaw, is what guides his insanity. It is with this element that MacBeth’s character comes to be who it was meant to be (according to the witches’ desire) at the end of the play.

Throughout the playMacBeth feeds his berserker personality by becoming a tyrant. In his tyrannical rule, his insanity manifests in the following ways: killing his king, killing his best friend, being apathetic to his wife’s suicide, and finally believing in his own immortality. In these elements, as plotted through each act of the play by Shakespeare, the reader finds MacBeth’s decomposing mind. This means, that as soon as he sees his first vision, his manifestation of guilt and insanity, it marks his downfall. In all of Shakespeare’s plays, the hero’s tragic flaw in turn cements their demise. MacBeth’s ambition leads to his insanity. MacBeth’s fate was sealed in Act I when he and Banquo came across the witches. Although MacBeth had a choice in whether or not to fulfill this prophecy, he ensured it through his ambition (as sparked and fed by Lady MacBeth). His ambition was a vicious cycle wherein without it, he wouldn’t have been the warrior he was before the opening of the play, but with it, he destroys the pure heart of that warrior and becomes a tyrannical egomaniac.

Works Cited

Andreasen, Nancy. “The Artist as Scientist: A Psychiatric Diagnosis in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” JAMA Network. N.p., 26 Apr. 1976. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

Andreasen offers a look into MacBeth’s insanity as the protagonist’s ambition ultimately leads to his downfall. The author suggests that MacBeth’s impetus paves the way to his death. In MacBeth’s impetus is found his overwhelming ambition and drive toward the Scottish crown that consumes him completely: so much so that when his wife commits suicide, MacBeth is impassive about it.

Auden. “The Downfall of the Macbeths: A Psychological Perspective.” Mibba. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

Auden suggests that MacBeth suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. That the protagonist’s visions of supernatural forces (Hecate, Banquo’s ghost, bloody hands) goes deeper than proleptic imaginings and speaks toward MacBeth’s mental state. These delusions, manifested to the audience through monologues and apostrophes, suggests a deeper diagnosis than mere ambition, as a means to MacBeth’s ultimate downfall.

Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare’s MacBeth. New York City: Riverhead Books, 2005.
Print.

Bloom analyzes MacBeth’s actions as a means to Shakespeare’s plotline that is typically full of Elizabethan tendencies. That is, madness. MacBeth’s madness is emphasized through Lady MacBeth’sinsansity, and the two characters juxtaposed together create a compelling story for the audience to follow.

Craik, Katharine, and Pollard, Tonya. Shakespearean sensations: experiencing literature in early modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.

Craik & Pollard’s work suggests that Shakespeare’s work while entertaining, sought to establish a bond between character and audience. As insanity was one of the worst social stigmas of the time, Shakespeare wanted to highlight its progressive nature through a main character (MacBeth) in order to relate to audience.

Farrell, Joseph. MacBeth and Madness. Scottish Review of Books. 2012. Web. 22 June
2014.

Farrell breaks down MacBeth’s character in order to understanding the different stages of insanity. Farrell suggests that MacBeth was insane only at the end of the play when he believes he cannot die from anyone who was born to a woman. Farrell further suggests that MacBeth’s obsession leads to his insanity.
Neely, Carol Thomas. “Documents in Madness”: Reading Madness and Gender in Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Early Modern Cultures.” Shakespeare Quarterly Fall 1991: 315-338. Print.

Neely states that madness is a solitary infliction and as such, juxtaposes this definition with MacBeth’s monologues. As MacBeth progresses through the play, it is with his monologues that the audience gets a glimpse of his inner psyche; this psychological state brings about an increasingly obsessive personality wherein MacBeth wants to get the gain the crown, and once it’s gained, he must retain it. In retaining the crown however MacBeth slips ever increasingly into a state of paranoia that suggests an underlying psychological problem.

Ribner, Irving. Patterns in Shakespearian Tragedy. London: Methuen & Co., 2013. Web.
Ribner suggests that MacBeth is undergoing a life journey that leads him through insanity and back out again at the end. With the acceptance of his death, MacBeth is made sane because his death negates his delusions.

Shakespeare, William. MacBeth. Prentice Hall Literature. Ed. Unknown. Boston:
Pearson Education, Inc, 2012. 893-1000.

The crux of the argument in which MacBeth ever increasingly becomes mad. Through his visions, his monologues, and finally his death MacBeth is set up as a tragic hero, in which is fatal flaw, ambition, gets the better of him.