Regarding Act five of Macbeth, Macbeth as a character is largely unstable. His instability and near delusion became clear through a close analysis of the text and his behavior, in terms of an inconsistency and a deluded perspective on reality. Looking at his dialogue with other characters as well as his longer speeches, he demonstrates what could even be called insanity clearly.
Beginning with Act II, his first appearance in Act VI, he attempts to remain emotionless by mentally warding off fear: “I cannot taint with fear” (VI, iii, 3). He goes on toward the end of this short speech to reaffirm this, confirming that “The mind I sway” (VI, iii, 9). However, immediately following the servant’s entrance, he lashes out, displaying anger, and potentially fear and a general inability to remain calm: “The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!//Where gott’st thou that goose look?” (VI, iii, 11-12). His emotionally charged expression completely contradicts his stoic attitude. Once the servant leaves, he tells Seyton, who is not even present in this moment, “I am sick at heart” (VI, iii. 19), and goes on to explain his aching mood. Further on once Seyton returns, he demands his armor (VI, iii, 33) as if he is about to fight or needs to defend himself, despite the fact that he has expressed confidence, up to this point, that he cannot be killed by anyone born of his mother, as the witches told him earlier in the play. His back-and-forth mental state suggests a serious instability and inability to cope with his circumstance. Which, in all fairness, is pretty understandable given that witches are talking to him and his wife’s a murderer and quite a few people are out to get him.
Macbeth continues in scene three to display irrationality when speaking to a doctor about his wife’s mental illness. He even outwardly defies logic, making the exclamation, “Throw physic to the dogs! I’ll none of it” (VI, iii, 49). He clearly and expressively refuses to accept the logic of science and medicine, demanding a cure for his wife despite the Doctor’s continued insistence that her condition is not curable in the sense that he wishes it to be cured. His demand in and of itself is enough to verify his insanity, providing evidence that his newfound power has deluded him into believing that he has the authority to demand things outside of a realistic realm of reality and possibility. Within scene three alone, his insanity presents itself to every character he speaks to, or thinks he’s speaking to but in actuality is only speaking to himself.
Regarding his presence in scene five, Macbeth seems to portray, through his speech, a calm and sensible persona, explaining that he has had time to become levelheaded through after the recent excitement. He is almost irrationally emotionless, claiming, “I have almost forgot the taste of fears.//The time has been my sense would have cooled” (VI, vi, 9-10). He continues to lash out, calling the messenger a liar and a slave, as an exclamation. His instability, and primarily his inconsistency in this scene, verify that his mental state is far less than sane.
Throughout all of Act five, Macbeth portrays the mentality of an insane man. Whether his mental state jumps back and forth between calmness and anger—or fear from a psychoanalytic perspective, or he is consistently so emotional that he cannot control any of his lashing out or consistency of belief in his fate, he is clearly out of his mind. While this instability is understandable, it is obvious that Macbeth needs a therapist and a Xanax.
HR: none
X_Sarah E. Lemon
