The Deterioration Of Macbeths Mental State

Once the honorable fighting Macbeth known by all, “What he hath lost honorable Macbeth hath won.” Act 1 Scene 2, Line 69, through different mental states chooses not to wear his armor because he is delusional by the witches prophecy that he is invincible, “none of woman born” can harm him Act 4, Scene 1, Line 96.

As soon as Macbeth turns away the armor, the reader feels the sense that Macbeth is invincible, cannot be beaten in any length. But mentally he is delusional, by rather accepting that it’s an unconquerable endeavor, he chooses to battle on. His still astray even after hearing his wife’s death, “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing” Act 5, Scene 5, Lines 25-27.

A messenger enters with astonishing news, the trees of Birnam Wood are advancing toward Dunsinane. Enraged and terrified, Macbeth recalls the prophecy that said he could not die till Birnam Wood moved to Dunsinane.

However, On the battlefield, Macbeth strikes those around him vigorously, insolent because no man born of woman can harm him. He kills Lord Siward’s son and fades away in the fight.

Macbeth at last encounters Macduff. They fight, and when Macbeth insists that he is invincible, Macduff tells Macbeth that he was not of woman born, but rather “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripped” Act 5, Scene 5, Lines 10-11. Macbeth suddenly fears for his life, but he says that he will not surrender “[t]o kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet, / And to be baited with the rabble’s curse” Act 5, Scene 10, Lines 28-29

Overall, Macbeth visits the truth on the verge of his death, till that point he was in mental state of invincibility, the feeling of being God. As reality struck him, he was less delusional and more in the realization his fate was no different then his wife.