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Corruption and Insanity in Macbeth Essay

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Corruption and Insanity

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

-- Albert Einstein

Everyone does stupid stuff. However it is the continuation of these things that qualifies one for madness. Macbeth believed that the only way to get what he wanted was to remove all those that stood in his way. Pretty soon he was killing lots of people; however he was not getting what he wanted. Macbeth corrupted himself to achieve what he wanted and in the process became insane from what he did. Along with corruption always comes insanity.

The first example of Macbeths insanity is in Act 2 scene 1 lines 33-34. Is this a dagger which I see before me I have thee not and yet I see thee still. He is waiting until it is time to kill the king and is talking with Banquo. When Banquo leaves Macbeth sees a dagger floating in front of him. He knows that he is about to kill the king so that he can take his place. In doing this Macbeth is abandoning everything that he stands for, which causes him extreme mental stress, and he starts to see things so he is going insane.

In act 3 scene 1 macbeth says this: Our fears in Banquo stick deep and in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared. It is here that Macbeths progression can be seen. Macbeth believes that his time as king is threatened and wants to remove the threat. In addition to killing Banquo he orders that his son be killed. From his tone it can be assumed that he no longer has any problem with murder and will do it whenever necessary; a clear sign of insanity.

A major telltale sign of insanity is seeing ghosts of people you have killed, let alone any ghost at all. In act 3 scene 4 macbeth does just this. That when the brains were out the man would die and there an end; but now the rise again In this scene macbeth is seeing the ghost of Banquo. He has gone so far off the deep end that he is seeing ghosts.

As can be seen through these examples macbeths insanity advances with his corruption of character. The more macbeth kills the more insane he becomes. He also murders time and again expecting that things will change with each one. However like the quote says, this is insane.

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