From Adolf Hitler who repulsively killed millions of jews, to the merciless Luis Garavito who tortured and murdered 147 boys, infamous slayers tend to possess a variety of indistinguishable traits. Essentially, many average people, and serial killers, act impulsively without good intention or justification. Impulsivity is developed from a number of actions and personal characteristics that a person holds. Macbeth possessed the impulsivity of a serial killer due to his craving for power, absence of compunctions, and his evident mental illness.
There are many distinct similarities between serial killers. A serial killer is identified as: “A person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, …show more content…
When serial killers attack, they have little to no tendency to feel for their victims or cease mid-homicide. This is evident in The Tragedy of Macbeth when Macbeth fears that his best comrade and fellow thane Banquo may know of the murders and immediately settles to kill him. As the play opens, the reader learns about Macbeth and Banquo’s war exploits. We also learn that not only were they partners, but best friends. After assassinating King Duncan, Macbeth, like all serial killers, possessed the urge to continue killing for his own benefit. As soon as the slightest suspicion was raised on him by his “best friend”, Macbeth hired murderers not only to kill Banquo, but to slaughter his innocent son Fleance as well. After the agreement is secured with the murderers, Macbeth states, “I’ll call upon you straight. Abide within. It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul’s flight, if it find heaven, must find it out tonight” (iii.i. 140-142). It is clear that Macbeth could care less about the murder he was about to commit to and just wants it to be done. He simply carries out this outrageous plan and feels absolutely no remorse or regret just like many serial …show more content…
There is a wide variety of these maladies, but a common trait found in these killers is frequent hallucinations. These hallucinations include visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, tactile hallucinations, and gustatory hallucinations (qtd. in Lava, Neil). Generally, people that suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Schizophrenia end up experiencing visual hallucinations. This leads to driving a person to go completely insane. For example, the English serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe suffered from such delusions. As the veteran psychiatric nurse, Pamela Kulbarsh stated, “...Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Killer), who in 1981 was convicted of murdering thirteen women because loud hallucinations had instructed him to kill them. Sutcliffe believed he was the instrument of God’s wrath on earth and waged a holy war against immorality” (Kulbarsh, Pamela). Doctors diagnosed Mr. Sutcliffe with "encapsulated paranoid schizophrenia" and said that he had been mentally ill at the time of the attack (qtd. in Davies, Caroline). Although this illness is not PTSD, both have the same effects and lead to hallucinations. It is clear that this man acted so viscously due to the fact that he was schizophrenic and his hallucinations led him on to take the lives of
There are many distinct similarities between serial killers. A serial killer is identified as: “A person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, …show more content…
When serial killers attack, they have little to no tendency to feel for their victims or cease mid-homicide. This is evident in The Tragedy of Macbeth when Macbeth fears that his best comrade and fellow thane Banquo may know of the murders and immediately settles to kill him. As the play opens, the reader learns about Macbeth and Banquo’s war exploits. We also learn that not only were they partners, but best friends. After assassinating King Duncan, Macbeth, like all serial killers, possessed the urge to continue killing for his own benefit. As soon as the slightest suspicion was raised on him by his “best friend”, Macbeth hired murderers not only to kill Banquo, but to slaughter his innocent son Fleance as well. After the agreement is secured with the murderers, Macbeth states, “I’ll call upon you straight. Abide within. It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul’s flight, if it find heaven, must find it out tonight” (iii.i. 140-142). It is clear that Macbeth could care less about the murder he was about to commit to and just wants it to be done. He simply carries out this outrageous plan and feels absolutely no remorse or regret just like many serial …show more content…
There is a wide variety of these maladies, but a common trait found in these killers is frequent hallucinations. These hallucinations include visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, tactile hallucinations, and gustatory hallucinations (qtd. in Lava, Neil). Generally, people that suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Schizophrenia end up experiencing visual hallucinations. This leads to driving a person to go completely insane. For example, the English serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe suffered from such delusions. As the veteran psychiatric nurse, Pamela Kulbarsh stated, “...Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Killer), who in 1981 was convicted of murdering thirteen women because loud hallucinations had instructed him to kill them. Sutcliffe believed he was the instrument of God’s wrath on earth and waged a holy war against immorality” (Kulbarsh, Pamela). Doctors diagnosed Mr. Sutcliffe with "encapsulated paranoid schizophrenia" and said that he had been mentally ill at the time of the attack (qtd. in Davies, Caroline). Although this illness is not PTSD, both have the same effects and lead to hallucinations. It is clear that this man acted so viscously due to the fact that he was schizophrenic and his hallucinations led him on to take the lives of