Delusional Characters In Shakespeare Essay, Research Paper

“Delusion can often lead to unhappiness.” Comment on how characters you have studied in a text this semester have deluded themselves and other. What was the outcome of this delusion?In William Shakespeare’s play text “Macbeth”, we are shown delusion can often lead to unhappiness. Many of the characters in the play deluded themselves and others along the way. A deluded Macbeth destroys his entire kingdom by deluding others around him as well as himself, and eventually in a moment of tragic realization, is slain. Lady Macbeth suicides in a moment of insanity and unhappiness when she realizes her own delusional state. King Duncan is deluded by feelings of safety and trust, impelling him to his death at the hands of Macbeth, causing unhappiness for all belonging to his kingdom. Banquo, though suspicious of Macbeth, still has confidence in their friendship then momentarily allows himself to be deluded by the promise of prophecy and soon after is murdered. All the characters, consequently, end up unhappy.

Macbeth is deluded by prophecies of kingship and once king, he is then deluded by the promise of power. The witches foretell Macbeth’s rise to the throne and due to his superstitious nature, he willingly believes the prophecies, never really doubting their augury. A delusional Macbeth ignores the order of the natural world, failing to recognize the Great Chain of Being. The king on the Chain of Being is recognized as earth’s tangible divinity, a Supreme Being of earth, situated at the highest earthly place on the chain. Macbeth’s first delusion is that he has any right to claim a place on the throne and in doing so ignores divine order. The fact that it was the oracles of evil, the witches, who informed Macbeth of his ascension should have been enough to alert him that the witches were going to create disorder and use him as an agent of chaos. The seduction of power then fuels his delusion and he plots to kill King Duncan. Macbeth’s second delusion is that he can enact the murder without encountering the consequences inevitable when divinity is slain. He does fleetingly consider these consequences of the heinous crime in a moment alone. After acknowledging the diablerie of the proposed crime, he decides not to carry out the murder.

“We still have judgement here; – that we but teach

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice

Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice

To our own lips.

Act I, Scene VII, Lines 8-12.

He tells Lady Macbeth of his decision, which prompts her to viciously impel him to reassess his decision. Macbeth then ignores what he knows is right and allows himself to be deluded by Lady Macbeth and the witches. Macbeth then goes on to murder his king, Duncan in order to reach the throne.

Once he is king, Macbeth is deluded that he can maintain power through chicanery. Fearful the witches prophecies of Banquo’s sons elevation to the crown will eventuate, causing him to loose his position, Macbeth employs murderers to kill Banquo, in order to do this and to preserve himself from the fatal consequences of his actions.

Following Banquo’s murder and the appearance of his apparition, Macbeth visits the witches due to new fears and with trepidation. At his feast, in which to Banquo was invited, Macbeth acknowledges Banquo’s absence despite his knowledge of his death. In response, the ghost of Banquo appears at the table and a mortified Macbeth proceeds to rant and rave in fear. Lady Macbeth with no other choice takes control and sends the guest’s home. Due to his fears after the ghostly visitation, Macbeth decides to visit the pernicious weird sisters in order to discover how to achieve his destiny. During the consultation, the witches delude Macbeth further by telling him what they know he wants to hear about his future.

“Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff.

Beware the thane of Fife?laugh to scorn

The power of man; for none of woman born

Shall harm Macbeth?

?Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until

Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill

Shall come against him.”

Act IV, Scene I, Lines 70-71,79-80&91-93.

Macbeth, deluded by the witches’ promise of his immortality as well as his arrogance and fear of being discovered, becomes more treacherous and plans the slaughter of Macduff’s family. After the witches vanish, Macbeth speaks to Lennox, a Nobleman of Scotland who tells him that Macduff has “fled to England.” After hearing this Macbeth expresses his annoyance that he had not acted earlier when his suspicions first arose. He decides that from now on, he will act on his thoughts immediately.

“The flighty purpose never is o’ertook,

Unless the deed go with it. From this moment,

The very firstlings of my heart shall be

The firstlings of my hand. And even now,

To crown my thought’s with acts, be it thought and done”

Act IV, Scene I, Lines 143-150.

Lady Macbeth’s is the mirror of her husbands’ delusion. She too, is deluded by the witches’ prognostications along with the seduction of the throne and its power. She determinedly decides to provoke her husband to take the life of Duncan in order for Macbeth to reach the throne. Not believing Macbeth has the evil in him to carry out the murder of a king, Lady Macbeth calls upon evil spirits to make her uncompromisingly evil, in doing so empowering her to push Macbeth further towards the throne.

“Come, you Spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full

Of direst cruelty.”

Act I, Scene VI, Lines 38-41.

What Lady Macbeth fails to realize is that through her invocation of the evil spirits, she has heightened the irony of her delusion as it brings Macbeth’s downfall closer. In becoming ‘unsexed’ Lady Macbeth is robbed of her femininity and she loses the ability to conceive children. Therefore, she and Macbeth will have no heirs to carry on the crown. In her evil and deluded state, Lady Macbeth then assists in the murder of Duncan and deludes both herself and Macbeth into believing in a false sense of security and that they could murder Duncan without meeting the fatal consequences.

“A little water clears us of this deed;

How easy it is then!”

Act II, Scene III, Lines 66-67

King Duncan’s delusion is that he is safe and well honored by the virtue of his position and this delusion leads to his death. His trust is inexplicable considering the actions of the previous Thane of Cawdor. A na?ve Duncan believes Macbeth to be brave, loyal and trustworthy.

“What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won”

Act I, Scene III, Line 70.

The delusional king also believes Macbeth’s castle to be a place of peace and beauty and comments so to Banquo on arrival for their stay.

“This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air

Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

Unto our gentle senses.”

Act I, Scene VI, Lines 1-3.

Lady Macbeth then further deludes Duncan by offering warm hospitality to mask her true murderous intentions. Consequently, due to his delusion of safety, Duncan is murdered that very night while he is sleeping in Macbeth’s so-called ‘peaceful’ castle. His murder triggers the unhappiness of the people in the now disordered kingdom. Scotland declines into chaos when the king is murdered due to the rightful king not being in his position at the throne.

Banquo’s delusion is fleeting, yet its consequence is swift. Initially, Banquo dismisses the witches prophecies and warns Macbeth of the meddling ways of the witches. He recognizes that witches are evil and discerns their ways of manipulating the truth to deceive one into believing falsity. Once Macbeth is king, Banquo expresses his suspicions of how Macbeth was able to reach his position. Sadly, Banquo blindly ignores his suspicions and allows himself to be deluded by the thought that their friendship overrides Macbeth’s foul ambition and keeps him safe from any of Macbeth’s conspiracies. Then, in an unfortunate moment of human weakness he considers the possibility that the prophecy about his sons being future kings could be true.

“Why by the verities on thee made good

May they not be my oracles as well,

And set me up in hope?”

Act III, Scene I, Lines 8-10.

What Banquo fails to realize is in prophesizing the elevation of his sons to the throne, at the same time the witches have prophesized his death. The witches speak of the elevations of his sons to the throne, but he is told that he will never be king himself. To an intelligent reader, this suggests a degree of uncertainty towards the future life of Banquo as, for his son’s to be king he must be dead before they are able to rise to the throne.

The prophecy of Banquo’s death is realized a short time after as Macbeth has plotted the murder of Banquo and his son Fleance due to his insecurity in his position as king. After informing Macbeth of his afternoon’s plans, whilst riding in the woods with his son, Banquo is killed by murderers hired by Macbeth, though Fleance is able to escape death.

The swiftness of the deathly consequences of Duncan and Banquo’s delusions foreshadows the outcome of both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s fate. Lady Macbeth, though deluded at first, is quickly able to see that all is not well. She and Macbeth are unable to enjoy what they have achieved due to the fact that it could be taken away from them at any moment.

“Naught’s had, all’s spent,

Where our desire is got without content.

‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy,

Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy”

Act III, Scene II, Lines 5-10.

Lady Macbeth then becomes only an implicit accomplice in Banquo’s death. Though suspicious that her husband is contemplating the murder of Banquo, Lady Macbeth does not go to abundant lengths to prevent him from killing his friend though after her delusion is lifted, she becomes ambivalent and urges Macbeth to have patience, reasoning that Banquo and his son are not immortal

“But in them nature’s copy not eterne.”

Act III, Scene II, Line 38.

Following Banquo’s murder, her growing awareness of her husband’s delusion as well as her own forces her to acknowledge that she and her husband have lost their humanity.

“You lack the season of all natures”

Act III, Scene IV, Line 140.

Succeeding the murder of Macduff’s family, Lady Macbeth’s conscience overwhelms her and she slips into insanity, the catalyst for her suicide. Unaware of the doctor and Gentlewoman present in her chamber, Lady Macbeth confesses her and Macbeth’s sins.

“Out, damned spot! Out I say! – One;

two, why then ’tis time to do’t – Hell is murky! Fie,

my Lord, fie! A soldier and afeared? – What need we

fear who knows it, when none can call our power to

accompt? – Yet who would have thought the old man to

have so much blood in him?”

Act V, Scene I, Lines 34-39.

In her ranting, Lady Macbeth highlights her former delusion that a position of power is a pathway to control and safety. She reflects on previous conversations with Macbeth in which she consoled both him and herself by reasoning that their power would keep them safe from being punished if their secret was to be unearthed. It was delusional of Lady Macbeth to believe she could conceal such a terrible event without meeting some kind of fatal consequence or effect of guilt. In the end, the Divine Witness, unaccounted for by Lady Macbeth dispels her the unhappy punishment of self-inflicted death.

Macbeth begins to realize his delusional state when the reality of his situation sets in and he sinks into melancholy. He has irresolute feelings about himself and his situation. The beginning of Act V, Scene III has Macbeth arrogantly convincing himself that the witches prophecies will keep him safe from Macduff who has ostracized himself from Macbeth due to his belief that Macbeth’s position was not rightfully his. A servant brings a report of ten thousand soldiers proceeding on an attack. For the first time, with an army that’s numbers are dwindling dramatically, Macbeth, in a moment alone, acknowledges that what he has aspired to has proven to be dissatisfying. His delusion of kingship, power and immortality has brought him to the face of death or worse, a continued life full of disloyalty and falsity.

“And that which must accompany old age,

As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have; but in their stead,

Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honour; breath

Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.”

Act V, Scene III, Lines 24-28

His realization of his delusion is deepened upon the announcement of his wife’s death and he is heard lamenting

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is hears no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.”

Act V, Scene V, Lines 24-28.

Macbeth has realised that despite having achieved his desire, he is unhappy. When he hears from a messenger that Birnam Wood appears to be moving, he begins to question the predictions of the weird sisters.

“I pull in resolution, and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend

That lies like truth”

Act V, Scene V, Lines 42-45.

Macbeth’s life comes to a tragic end when he finally faces Macduff in Act V, Scene VIII. Macbeth, still deluded, boasts to Macduff about killing his family. He tells Macduff that he need have no fear because no man born of a woman can harm. What Macbeth fails to see at this moment is that due to the prophecy about Birnam Wood transpiring, his death is inevitable as the witches predicted that when the Birnam Wood moved, Macbeth would die. In response to Macbeth’s flaunting of his immortality Macduff tells Macbeth he was not born of woman.

“And let the angel whom thou still hast served

Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb

Untimely ripped.”

Act V, Scene VIII, Lines 14-16.

Upon hearing this truth Macbeth comprehends minutes before he is slain, the pitiful reality of his situation. The witches had guilefully deluded him and he had deluded himself.

“And be these juggling fiends no more believed

That palter with us in a double sense,

That keep the word of promise to our ear,

And break it to our hope.”

Act V, Scene VIII, Lines 18-21.

A fight ensues after Macbeth’s realization and he is slain. His death a fitting consequence for courting the delusions of kingship, power and immortality.

Many of the characters in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” experience feelings of unhappiness because of their delusion. The witches delude Macbeth by causing him to believe he can overrule Natural Order and commit the most deplorable of crimes, then ascend to the throne, ruling in success. His unfortunate ending comes after his realization of his delusion and he dies in a state of melancholy. Lady Macbeth’s delusion that power would keep her safe from punishment causes her insanity and she suicides feeling remorse for the deaths she played a part in. Banquo and Duncan, both na?ve to their own delusions, die in unnatural ways in the hands of the most deluded of them all, Macbeth. The consequence of delusion in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” is death, in the unhappiest of ways.