![]() "If thou couldst Doctor, cast/ The water of my land, find her disease/ And purge it to a sound and pristine health/ I would applaud thee to the very echo/ That should applaud again. Mental illness, when left untreated, tends to worsen dramatically and may even lead to methods of self-harm and suicide, which, non-surprisingly, happens to Lady Macbeth. #LADY MACBETH QUOTES PROFESSIONAL#Allowing a patient to "minister to " is not a professional statement for a doctor to make. Although in the Medieval era there were not the same treatments for mental illness as there is today, the common practice was to still give some form of herbs and send the patient to the church. While mental illness is difficult to treat, there is treatment besides allowing the patient to 'heal themselves' which is how the doctor planned to proceed. However, it was wrong of the doctor to say, "Therein the patient/ Must minister to himself" (5.3.48-9) He seems to be speaking about curing himself, not Lady Macbeth, as he talks about the troubles of the brain and cleansing him of the disease. This passage is also important because through Macbeth's rambling, he slightly hints that he is also suffering from his own mental disease. Although it would be simple to have a generic "sweet oblivious antidote", curing mental illness is heavily dependent on the severity and cause which is individual to each case. Unlike physical diseases, mental illness is harder to treat because it is different for each individual and is not as easy from plucking a bad memory from one's mind. Macbeth displays a stigma that is common even today that curing mental illness is easy and can be done by any doctor. In this passage, Macbeth was speaking to the doctor, and asking him to cure his wife from her illness and make her better again. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased/ Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff/ Which weighs upon the heart?" (5.3.41-7) This is similar to the course of action taken by real doctors in Medieval era, who commonly left "treatments" to the church and its ways. His treatment for Lady Macbeth's mental illness is to simply let her die in her sleep, since there is nothing he can do about it. #LADY MACBETH QUOTES HOW TO#This doctor states that mental illness is something "beyond practice" which implies that although he is able to cure physical ailments, he does not know how to help people who suffer from mental illnesses. The doctor notes this while observing Lady Macbeth's behaviour. Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds." (5.1.59-61) Lady Macbeth also appears to have depression - this is later proved by her suicide but specifically in this passage, she begins to cry when she states the smell of blood will never leave her hands. Her guilt has caused her to hallucinate blood that remains on her hands and the Gentlewoman later comments that "I have known her to continue in this a quarter of an hour". She appears to have OCD due to her obsessive behaviour about washing her hands. Lady Macbeth appears to suffer from both mental illnesses - obsessive compulsory disorder (OCD) and depression. According to a study done by Stanford University of Medicine, people suffering from obsessive compulsory disorder and depression are more likely to sleep walk compared to those that do not. Although the exact cause of sleepwalking is still unknown, in Macbeth, one can assume Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking is brought on by her immense guilt over her involvement in the deaths of Duncan and Banquo. Sleepwalking is characterized as arousal from non-REM sleep. Firstly, she sleepwalks which can be considered a mental illness in itself. Lady Macbeth displays many common mental illnesses within her scene in 5.1. Lady Macbeth sleepwalks while holding a candle and obsessing over blood which she hallucinates on her hands. This passage, spoken by the Gentlewoman, refers to Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking in Act 5. "I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again, return to bed yet all this while in a most fast sleep" (5.1.4-8) ![]()
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