Mental Illness In Macbeth

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William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” displays many instances of physical and mental illnesses throughout the characters and settings within the tragedy. Shakespeare is greatly known for his tragic plots that express the destruction of individuals in his plays. The significance of the psychological and physical disorders in the play demonstrate the deterioration of the kingdom and characters’ stability. Macbeth apprehending the position of the king threatens the kingdom’s balance. According to Crowther, “I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. / It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash / Is added to her wounds. [ . . . ] It cannot / Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing, / But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile; / Where …show more content…
The play proposes, “What man dare, I dare. / Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, / The armed rhinoceros, or th' Hyrcan tiger; / Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves / Shall never tremble. Or be alive again, / And dare me to the desert with thy sword. / If trembling I inhabit then, protest me / The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! / Unreal mockery, hence” (Crowther III.iv 103-111). The hallucinations described in the quote demonstrate how much damage Banquo’s murder inflicted upon Macbeth; the visions are also an indication of psychosis seizing Macbeth’s mental health. The developed psychosis signifies the decreasing strength of Macbeth’s psychological state. Besides Macbeth, Lady Macbeth also becomes affected by the pressure of the situations. As stated by the article, “The patient experiences flashbacks, traumatic daydreams, or nightmares, in which he or she relives the trauma as if it were recurring in the present” (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). Lady Macbeth experiences illusions that correspond to the murder of King Duncan; the delusions express the guilt that Lady Macbeth hid during the assassination. The disorder intensifies and begins to slowly damage Lady Macbeth’s mental stability. Therefore, both the characters and their kingdom’s stability suffer due to the physical and mental diseases that presented throughout the
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