In Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Lady Macbeth shows many detailed symptoms that today would be classified as a paranoid schizophrenic. Lady Macbeth is the wife of Macbeth, who was a thane who became king by brutal meanings. Although Lady Macbeth is a strong willed woman in the beginning, she is clearly deteriorating from a mental illness. Lady Macbeth’s actions are the clear result that she is suffering from what today are the symptoms relating to paranoid schizophrenia.
Paranoid schizophrenia is an mental illness that can be defined as “a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder …show more content…
“Schizophrenia is a devastating illness, afflicting about one percent of the population worldwide” (Andreasen). She believes that she has her hands covered in blood and that she cannot remove the smell from her hands saying, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (V.1.38) Later she continues to add, “Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (V.1.43) Lady Macbeth continues to ramble in an incoherent way, which is also common among paranoid schizophrenics. She begins to …show more content…
The doctor begins to ask questions with the gentlewoman responding what she has seen Lady Macbeth do. She begins to say Lady Macbeth has “throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon’t , read it, afterwards seal it, again return to bed” (V.1.4-7) The Doctor then begins to proclaim that “this disease is beyond my practice; yet I have known those which walked in their sleep which have died holily in their beds” (V.1.59-61) During this time, the doctor expressed the best medication for this disease is bed or sleep. Today, however, even though the causes for this illness are still unknown, treatments many include antipsychotic medications and different psychosocial treatments. In conclusion, Lady Macbeth show signs of what today would be classified as paranoid schizophrenia. Having these symptoms occur, she became detached from reality and began to speak in incoherent sentence fragments also beginning to see things that really were truly not there. Though not able to identify her true mental disorder in Shakespeare’s time period, now after many years of tough research many have a probable clue that she suffered from paranoid
Paranoid schizophrenia is an mental illness that can be defined as “a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder …show more content…
“Schizophrenia is a devastating illness, afflicting about one percent of the population worldwide” (Andreasen). She believes that she has her hands covered in blood and that she cannot remove the smell from her hands saying, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (V.1.38) Later she continues to add, “Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (V.1.43) Lady Macbeth continues to ramble in an incoherent way, which is also common among paranoid schizophrenics. She begins to …show more content…
The doctor begins to ask questions with the gentlewoman responding what she has seen Lady Macbeth do. She begins to say Lady Macbeth has “throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon’t , read it, afterwards seal it, again return to bed” (V.1.4-7) The Doctor then begins to proclaim that “this disease is beyond my practice; yet I have known those which walked in their sleep which have died holily in their beds” (V.1.59-61) During this time, the doctor expressed the best medication for this disease is bed or sleep. Today, however, even though the causes for this illness are still unknown, treatments many include antipsychotic medications and different psychosocial treatments. In conclusion, Lady Macbeth show signs of what today would be classified as paranoid schizophrenia. Having these symptoms occur, she became detached from reality and began to speak in incoherent sentence fragments also beginning to see things that really were truly not there. Though not able to identify her true mental disorder in Shakespeare’s time period, now after many years of tough research many have a probable clue that she suffered from paranoid