How Does Shakespeare Show the Correlation Between Unethical Deeds and the Manipulation of Psychology in Macbeth?
How does Shakespeare show the correlation between unethical deeds and the manipulation of psychology in Macbeth?
Good evening everyone,
The play Macbeth highlights William Shakespeare’s own opinions on correlations between committing unethical deeds and the manipulation of a person’s psychology. While modern psychological research did not appear until the late 1800s it is evident that with the help of his son-in-law John Hall (a man who introduced one of the first psychological concepts of hypochondriac melancholy), Shakespeare was able to use many psychological abnormalities to highlight that partaking in evil changes the mind. But this little knowledge has left plenty of room for ambiguity in Macbeth and has resulted in many modern debates to arise over differing interpretations of the play.
One interpretation details Shakespeare wished to show to his audience that mental illness will form within them if they commit a particularly sinful act. While Shakespeare did not know the official diagnosis of mental disorders such as schizophrenia or bi-polar Robert Munro states within his Lady Macbeth: A Psychological Sketch that ‘which a knowledge of psychology which was far in advance of his time...he always speaks of the abnormal conditions of the mind with marvellous accuracy’. In Act 5 a doctor comments on Lady Macbeth’s sleep walking saying ‘unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds/ To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets’. This comment upon her case of what the responders of the time knew as Severe Somnambulism is the pinnacle of Shakespeare’s claim that guilt from an unethical deed will result in an ill mind. The darkened stage and inclusion of a taper as a prop in Lady Macbeths’ hands helps to illustrate for the responders the issue of her mind falling into symbolic darkness as she struggles to cope with the guilt caused by her deeds. Also personification of deaf pillows is used by Shakespeare to show that her unusual
Good evening everyone,
The play Macbeth highlights William Shakespeare’s own opinions on correlations between committing unethical deeds and the manipulation of a person’s psychology. While modern psychological research did not appear until the late 1800s it is evident that with the help of his son-in-law John Hall (a man who introduced one of the first psychological concepts of hypochondriac melancholy), Shakespeare was able to use many psychological abnormalities to highlight that partaking in evil changes the mind. But this little knowledge has left plenty of room for ambiguity in Macbeth and has resulted in many modern debates to arise over differing interpretations of the play.
One interpretation details Shakespeare wished to show to his audience that mental illness will form within them if they commit a particularly sinful act. While Shakespeare did not know the official diagnosis of mental disorders such as schizophrenia or bi-polar Robert Munro states within his Lady Macbeth: A Psychological Sketch that ‘which a knowledge of psychology which was far in advance of his time...he always speaks of the abnormal conditions of the mind with marvellous accuracy’. In Act 5 a doctor comments on Lady Macbeth’s sleep walking saying ‘unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds/ To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets’. This comment upon her case of what the responders of the time knew as Severe Somnambulism is the pinnacle of Shakespeare’s claim that guilt from an unethical deed will result in an ill mind. The darkened stage and inclusion of a taper as a prop in Lady Macbeths’ hands helps to illustrate for the responders the issue of her mind falling into symbolic darkness as she struggles to cope with the guilt caused by her deeds. Also personification of deaf pillows is used by Shakespeare to show that her unusual