Generally it can be said that, as long as Macbeth’s imagination takes effect, we feel tension, dread or timidity, in which also admiration and sympathy are hidden; but as soon as it becomes inactive, these feelings vanish. He then is no longer “infirm of purpose” (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2, l.53), as his wife called him, but becomes imperious, even brutal, or he turns into a cold-blooded, merciless hypocrite. “He is generally said to be a very bad actor, but this is not wholly true. Whenever his imagination stirs, he acts badly. It so possesses him, and is so much stronger than his reason, that his face betrays him, and his voice utters the most improbable untruths or the most artificial rhetoric. But when it is asleep he is firm, self-controlled and practical, as in the conversation where he skillfully elicits from Banquo that information about his movements which is required for the successful arrangement of his murder. Here he is hateful; and so he is in the conversation with the murderers, who are not professional cut-throats but old soldiers, and whom, without a vestige of remorse, he beguiles with calumnies against Banquo and with such appeals as his wife had used to him.” (Bradley, p.298, l.24ff.)
The impacts of imagination on his thinking and his mental condition are profound. Even though Macbeth, encouraged by the witches’ prophecies (see Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3), revels in fantastic dreams of his future royal glory and gets high on the forthcoming perspective, his imagination has – in the further course – the consequence that his own ambivalence and insecurity aggravate in him. The way to the king’s throne and the pleasure of the new rank is being impeded, at times even made impossible, by his imagination. Thus his imagination converts, for instance, the warning voices of his ‘conscience’ into terrifying horror images in his mind. Therefore he is incapable of having clear thoughts any longer, since he is constantly overwhelmed by them.
This phenomenon aligns with psychoanalytic theory, particularly the concept of the ‘unconscious’. Sigmund Freud’s exploration of the unconscious mind reveals that repressed thoughts and desires can manifest in dreams and irrational behaviors, much like Macbeth’s hallucinations and paranoia. Macbeth’s imagination, serving as a conduit for his unconscious fears and desires, overwhelms his rational mind.
But although he is able to anticipate the impacts of his deed due to his prophetic power of imagination, he is still so tied to his ego and the idea of becoming king that he disregards the warning images, which it makes him believe to be a function of his ‘guilty conscience’. Since evil gradually and unnoticeably, like a sneaking poison, spreads in Macbeth’s body, he himself shudders from the depths of his consciousness when the dangerous thoughts, which it created, for the first time enter the foreground of his consciousness due to the witches’ prophecies – “I am Thane of Cawdor. / If good, why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, / Against the use of nature?” (Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3, l.135-139 / Deutschbein, p. 243, l.14-19).
As a result of the prophecies his mind develops a psychomachia, a war of the soul in which his positive features fight against the demonic forces in him, but are already defeated in the end of the first act (see Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7, l. 80-83). This internal conflict can be viewed through the lens of Carl Jung’s theory of individuation, where the struggle between opposing forces within the psyche aims to achieve a balanced self. Macbeth’s failure to integrate his shadow – the darker aspects of his personality – leads to his ultimate downfall.
Even though Macbeth is ultimately driven to murder by his “vaulting ambition”, a power stored in the demonic part of his mind, he inwardly rebels against the deed, as becomes evident in his monologue in act one, scene seven, ll.1-28. Hence he has to virtually estrange from his own self, which consequently even leads to a split personality. However, this conflict of his mental powers actually makes up the protagonist’s humanity (see Unterstenhöfer, p.130, l.2-6).
After his committed regicide Macbeth complains in feigned grief that this hour has destroyed the glory, honor and happiness of his life (see Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3, l.92-97) and in the end he desperately has to realize that, therewith, he was, against expectation, speaking the truth (see Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 3, ll.22-28 / Schabert, p.578, l.34-38). Here, Shakespeare illustrates the dreadful horror of the entirely deserted, only threatened human, into which Macbeth deliberately put himself against his better knowledge. He is even abandoned by his own self and alienated from his being (Naumann, p.388, l.15-18).
Simultaneously to his further murders and cruelties, his inner destruction progresses as well. As king (from act three, scene one onwards) he then finds himself in a state of increasing isolation and alienation from society, which Shakespeare illustrates through numerous monologues and his gradual loss of communication even with his wife, whom he now basically no longer needs. The process that Macbeth now has to endure after murdering Duncan can be described with one word: “imprisonment. This is the interior punishment exacted by his political crime. […] He becomes imprisoned in the tyrannical authority of his own unrestricted egotism or self-will.” (Mack, p.131, ll.12-13; l.21-23).
Meanwhile the tortures of his dreams and visions are so horrible and so full of madness that he even envies the dead and puts everything at risk in order not to have to bear it any longer – “Better be with the dead, / Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, / Than on the torture of the mind to lie / In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave. / After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well; / Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, / Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, / Can touch him further.” (Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2, ll.20-27 / Naumann, p.391, l.21-24).
This depiction of Macbeth’s torment aligns with existentialist themes, particularly those explored by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, where the struggle to find meaning in a seemingly indifferent or hostile universe leads to profound despair and alienation. Macbeth’s recognition of the futility of his actions and the isolation he experiences are emblematic of existential angst.
Overall, Macbeth’s journey from noble soldier to despised tyrant is marked by an increasing loss of his humanity and psychological deterioration. Shakespeare’s intricate portrayal of his protagonist’s mental state not only serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked ambition but also provides a profound exploration of the human psyche that resonates with various psychological and philosophical theories.