The doctor tells Macbeth that his wife is very ill, and he cannot cure her. Macbeth reacts angrily, telling the doctor he cannot be bothered by such matters. This is so different than the start of the play when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are shown as a close, loving couple. We know when Macbeth no longer cares about his wife that he is headed for tragedy.
The Doctor is concerned. (Remember, he has witnessed Lady Macbeth sleepwalking.) When Macbeth asks if there isn't something that the doctor can do- some drug he can give her - anything to make her become healthy again, the doctor replies that there is nothing he can do. He says that her illness is beyond his medicine for the physical body - she needs something for her soul (More needs she the divine than the physician) and that Lady Macbeth will have to help herself. Macbeth then says that if there is no medical cure, medicine is a useless profession ("Throw physics to the dogs...")
The doctor tells Macbeth that it is an ailment of the mind and that he (the doctor) or Macbeth can do nothing physically for her.
*All quotes are taken from the Norton Shakespeare, based on the Oxford Edition.
The Doctor believes that Lady Macbeth is suffering from troubles in her mind, which is keeping her from sleeping soundly: "Not so sick, my lord,/As she is troubled with thick-coming fanicies/That keep her from her rest." (V.iii.39-41)
Macbeth wants the Doctor to cure his wife. Macbeth believes that the doctor can administer some medicine to erase these troubling thoughts from Lady Macbeth's mind: "Cure her of that./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 fraught bosom of that perilous stuff/Which weighs upon her heart?" (42-47)
The Doctor replies that Lady Macbeth will have to erase these thoughts herself. Macbeth is obviously upset by this and says that the doctor is throwing medicine to the dogs.
What does the doctor think about Lady Macbeth's condition and what to do before telling Macbeth?
In Macbeth, the doctor feels there is no medical cure for Lady Macbeth. He insinuates that she is in need a spiritual healing. Lady Macbeth is trying to wash bloodstains from her hands. She appears to be doing this while sleep walking:
Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One; two; why, then it istime to do it. Hell is murky! For shame, my lord, for shame! A soldier,and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can callour power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man tohave had so much blood in him?
Clearly, Lady Macbeth is reacting out of guilt of being a part of King Duncan 's murder. She cannot rid herself of the guilt. She was instrumental in the killing of King Duncan. She persuaded Macbeth to do so. Now, she is losing her sanity. She...
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cannot find rest even when she should be sleeping. The doctor states that he cannot help her with medicine. He claims that she needs a spiritual healing:
She needs the divine more than she needs the physician.God, God, forgive us all! Look after her.Take everything from her that she might use to harm herself,And still keep your eyes on her. So, good-night.She has stupefied my mind, and amazed my sight.I think, but dare not speak.
Truly, the doctor feels that Lady Macbeth's condition is beyond his parctice:
This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have known thosewhich have walked in their sleep who have died holily intheir beds.
What does the Doctor think about Lady Macbeth's condition?
The Doctor overhears enough of Lady Macbeth's talking in her sleep to understand that she and her husband were guilty of King Duncan's murder as well as other crimes. He tells the Gentlewoman who is eavesdropping with him, "Go to, go to. You have known what you should not." The Gentlewoman replies, "She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that."
A little later in Act 5, when Macbeth asks, "How does your patient, doctor?" he replies, "Not so sick, my lord, / As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies / That keep her from her rest." He obviously thinks she is mentally ill. Macbeth responds in some of Shakespeare's most poignant lines which show that he is suffering from the same illness as his wife:
Cure her of that.
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?
The Doctor replies, diplomatically, "Therein the patient must minister to himself." He is suggesting that the only cure for Lady Macbeth, as well as for her husband, would be a religious one involving full confession of their sins. The Doctor feels that there is nothing he can do to help either of them, and he wishes he had never been summoned. He says to himself in an aside:
Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
Profit again should hardly draw me here.
What does Lady Macbeth say, and what does the doctor think about her condition?
The part of the play that your question is asking about is Act 5, Scene 1. A gentlewoman has come to get a doctor in order to ask him to observe Lady Macbeth's new habit of sleepwalking. Lady Macbeth walks around the castle at night trying to wash the blood off of her hands. She says some of her most famous lines during her sleepwalking episodes.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
and
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
and
Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.
Her words and actions are Lady Macbeth's confession to some evil deed. The doctor does admit that she might not be guilty of anything.
This disease is beyond my medical skills. But I have known people who sleepwalked and weren’t guilty of anything.
The above line also indicates that the doctor wants nothing more to do with the situation. He's looking for an out, and he claims that Lady Macbeth's condition is beyond his training. The doctor believes that Lady Macbeth needs a priest for her problems more than she needs a medical doctor.
More needs she the divine than the physician.