The Shakespearean play Macbeth conveys the actions and consequences of the 11th century power struggle in Scotland. It is an appropriately “dark play…overcast with portents of misfortune” and death (Kim 46). Throughout the play, Shakespeare focuses intently on the use of daggers, both literal and figurative, and their often double-edged effect on the mind and conscience. [I know this needs work but I got writer’s block.] Macbeth is centered on the murder of the godly king of Scotland, Duncan, by his subordinate Macbeth. Upon receiving supernatural prophecy that he, Macbeth, would be a future king of Scotland, Macbeth immediately begins to plot Duncan’s death. Prior to Macbeth’s corruption, he is indeed seen as an honorable soldier and friend of Duncan. It is Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth, who hears of the prophecy of the witches and becomes determined to see that Macbeth takes matters into his own hands. Shakespeare enables the reader to closely monitor both the mind and imagination of Macbeth as he falls from his nobility. The night of the planned murder, Macbeth witnesses a vision of two daggers – the soon-to-be murder weapons – in his hands. As his mind slips from reality, he cries, “Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight?” (2.1.36). His delusional state spawns from his self-inflicted anxiety, which cuts into his conscience deeper than any physical blade. The more the evil grows in Macbeth’s heart, the more the apparent – and ironic – reality of the dagger becomes to him. According to Harold Bloom, Shakespeare emphasizes how “Macbeth’s imagination does the work of his will.” (Bloom 77). In other words, through the vision of daggers, Macbeth allows his imagination control over his thoughts. He becomes a sl... ... middle of paper ... ..., but her “crisis” still arrives “ever more terrible” (Garber 712). At the time of Duncan’s death, Lady Macbeth guided her husband to clean his hands of blood. Towards the Tragedy’s end, she begins to see visions – visions that will lead to her death – of blood on her hands while she sleeps. She becomes terribly distraught, much like Macbeth had previously displayed, and by this time Macbeth has been hardened from merciless killings and obsession with “lifeless materiality” (Arthos). They each experience both sides of the sword – the sense of power that springs from greed, and the terrible guilt that results from injustice – and, regardless of its timing, they both are unable to sustain themselves at the hand of evil. They lose far more than they ever could have hoped to gain, their lives empty and fruitless, and so they die; of madness, of insanity, of selfishness.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a story of a great Scottish warrior hero who falls prey to the temptations of his own aspirations to be king. Macbeth hastily silences everyone who even has a chance of standing in the way of his power. Initially, he is able to overcome his scruples to obtain the position he desires, but soon the uneasiness catches up to he and his wife in shocking manners. The dagger scene, banquet scene, and sleepwalking scene are all related because they demonstrate the guilt that both the Macbeths experience after the murders of Duncan, Banquo, and the Macduffs and how their actions are driving them to their inevitable deaths.
Shakespeare uses his skill in ambiguity to play the idea of an active imagination in an individual and not it affects how they act and feel. Macbeth’s imagination leads him to what he wants the most but also his downfall. Macbeth’s true intentions in the beginning of the play was unknown. Was he being all heroic for the better of Scotland, or was he just doing it all for the titles and names that could go along with it. Macbeth is mesmerized by an imagined future and haunted by his memories of a blood-soaked past. For instance when Macbeth hallucinated dagger that leads Macbeth to Duncan's bedchamber. Macbeth thinks that the murder of the king will be a one-off event, something that can be done and forgotten about. “If it were done when ‘tis
Macbeth is questioning his own sanity, whether or not this dagger he sees before him is part of the real world or created by his troubled mind. After Lady Macbeth takes part in the murder of King Duncan by replacing the bloody daggers in the hands of the guards, she is filled with guilt and sleepwalks almost nightly. Her continuous need to wash her hands is a sign of this guilt, and she is also confusing what should be inside and s...
After a long and hard battle, the Sergeant says to King Duncan, “For brave Macbeth,-well he deserves that name,- disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, which smok’d with bloody execution , like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage till he fac’d the slave;” (1.2.16) . This quote shows that Macbeth is viewed as a valiant soldier and a capable leader. However, it does not take long for the real Macbeth to be revealed- a blindly ambitious man, easily manipulated by the prospect of a higher status. His quest for power is what drives his insanity, and after having been deemed the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth’s ambition can immediately be seen. In a soliloquy, Macbeth says, “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings; my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastica, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is but what is not” (1.3.140). Macbeth has just gained more power, and his immediate thought is of how to gain an even higher status as king. He imagines how to kill Duncan, and then is troubled by his thoughts, telling himself it is wrong. This inner struggle between Macbeth’s ambition and his hesitation to kill Duncan is the first sure sign of his mental deterioration. Although Macbeth does kill Duncan, he questions whether or not he should to do so, which is far different from how Macbeth feels about murder later in the play. Macbeth becomes king, and this power leads
Having already possessed the title of Thane of Glamis and Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth yearns to have the last part of the witches prophecy come true, the one part he secretly longs for – to have the title of king. As King Duncan sleeps, Macbeth comes forward and is prepared to commit murder in order to achieve his secret desire of becoming king. But before he can commit the act, he sees a dagger in front of him. This dagger represents the small amount of innocence Macbeth still possesses before he commits the murder. “Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible, to feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?” (2.1, lines 37-41). But soon after the murder has been committed, we see Macbeth begin a downward spiral created by the presence of his Greek hubris. When Lady Macbeth commits suicide in act 5, scene 5, Macbeth has given up hope and his hubris has almost led him to his death. However, at this point, he still believes in the witches’ prophecy and the fact that he cannot be killed of anything born of woman. In his speech after his wife’s death, Macbeth says, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and
Shakespeare presents imagery to emphasize Macbeth’s subconsciousness and represents his little amount of conscious about the dagger hovering is a fatal vision he is visioning. The dagger hovering in the air functions to signify future events, specifically the murder of King Duncan, that will take place. Shakespeare also uses symbolism of a dagger covered in blood pointing towards King’s room to emphasize the bloody path Macbeth is about to encounter. Besides the fact Macbeth pursuits to clear his guilt , he blames Duncan’s personal guards responsible for his death. As proof, the moment Lady Macbeth and Macbeth discuss the plan for King Duncan’s murder, he replies: “When we have marked with blood those sleep two/ Of his own chamber and used their very daggers/ That they have done’t “ (1.7.75-77). Shakespeare uses symbolism to represent the ruthless crime on Macbeth’s shoulders to rather fall upon the guard’s shoulders. Diction is also used to emphasize his apprehension within his thoughts. Macbeth’s character states: “heat-oppressed brain”(1.2.77) after he is gains little conscious about the fatal vision. The word choice reveals his eager ambition to gain power and is evidently a significant cause of Macbeth’s tragic downfall. Therefore, it is evident that Macbeth’s paranoia is reinforced through the use of hallucinations of daggers that cause him to fall deeper into
Before committing the murder of Duncan, Macbeth's guilt causes him to envision a floating dagger and says, “To feeling as sight of all thou but a dagger of the mind a false creation” (II.I.25). The dagger is a knife with a pointed edged blade which is the weapon Macbeth has in his possession. This is created from his paranoia, but will give him the temporary satisfaction when done. Macbeth kills both Duncan and the guards revealing that Lady Macbeth's manipulation impaired his judgment because the mission didn't go to plan. Furthermore, Macbeth confesses it by saying, “O yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them” (II.III.35). This alludes to Macbeth's downfall because he admitted the murder, potentially jeopardizing his credibility. The idea of the truth coming out frightened Macbeth causing him to make impulsive decisions, killing the guards. Blood stains just like guilt doesn't leave the body, it continues to build up. Shakespeare uses the dagger to represent guilt conveying the theme of how manipulation impairs one's judgment, providing temporary
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation…”-Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1. This vision is what pushed Macbeth over the edge and caused him to become a victim of his own delusions. Only after seeing this “fatal vision”, did he make the choice to murder Duncan. This scene serves to reiterate how important of a role the supernatural plays in the outcome of the play. Without this supernatural vision, Macbeth might not have been able to bring himself to commit murder, thus changing the play entirely.
The dagger scene is one of the most famous and important scenes in the tragedy of Macbeth. This soliloquy clearly illustrates Macbeth’s character development as he descents into insanity. He is reluctant to murder the king in order to reach what he believes is his fate, which is to become king of Scotland himself. Lady Macbeth, the three witches, as well as the “dagger” which is pointing him towards Duncan, develops his motivation to kill Duncan, which is his goal in this scene. In this part of the play, Shakespeare uses dark language to depict Macbeth’s thoughts and imaginations. In addition, the lines of the speech illustrate a significant turning point in the play, which is when Macbeth begins to go into mental disturbance. For example
This blood marks that Macbeth cannot reverse his decision to murder Duncan, yet at the same time it serves as a reminder that Lady Macbeth coerced Macbeth into murdering Duncan. Regardless of Macbeth’s personal desire to kill Duncan, the apparition of the dagger is a representation of Macbeth’s moral conundrum of deciding whether or not to disturb the nature of the world at large and the “gouts of blood” now on the dagger represent Macbeth’s resolution to chase his ambitions rather than to preserve the naturalness of the world (Act II, Scene I). In a natural world, Duncan is alive and Macbeth is the Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, however, Macbeth chases his unbridled ambition and shifts the world’s balance towards chaos by murdering Duncan. This bloody decision stains guilt
The two characters’ diction reveal much about their intentions, feelings, and attitudes towards dethroning King Duncan. As Lady Macbeth speaks, Macbeth responds briefly and in a dismissive way, postponing their discussion on the murder—stating that they “will speak further” (37). Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, discloses her wicked traits and thirst for the crown through dark diction that includes references to death, blood, and darkness. She calls upon spirits to “tend on mortal thoughts,” suggesting that she is mentally prepared to commit murder. Consequently, she requests the spirits to “fill [her], from the crown to the toe” with “mortal thoughts,” a reference to becoming a queen, no matter what it takes (2-3). These lines suggest that Lady Macbeth is willing to do anything, even commit murder, in order to sit with a crown upon her head. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth differ in their diction used, exposing the more powerful, manly features of Lady Macbeth, stripping away the femininity, delicateness, and poise she once had. Macbeth inherits the role of being afraid and skeptical of the extent to which Lady Macbeth will
Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is the story of a man’s rise to power through murder and manipulation, and then his fall as he becomes arrogant and slowly turns insane. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses many symbols such as the floating dagger, Macbeth’s bloody hands, and the ghost of Banquo to emphasize the theme of the burden of guilt can drive someone insane if it becomes too great. Notably, Macbeth’s first sign of insanity is right before he murders King Duncan. Macbeth sees an imaginary dagger floating in front of him, with “[t]he handle toward [his] hand” (Shakespeare 2.1.33). Furthermore, the dagger is covered in “gouts of blood” (Shakespeare 2.1.46). Macbeth’s hallucination of
“Macbeth’s capacious mind, despite its moral degeneration, remains at centerstage, showing the horrific consequences of a truly heroic spirit embracing evil” (Reid 1). Macbeth’s mind was the basis of the entire Elizabethan tragedy. Macbeth’s “moral degeneration” was fueled by his ascension to becoming the thane of Cawdor. A once honorable man becomes opportunistic, disloyal, and traitorous – thus beginning his reign of endostatism, which entails a certain degree of opportunism, and a readiness to cut corners and bend rules (Sadowski 1). With every crime and every murder, Macbeth is more physiologically removed from his victim’s deaths and his motivation becomes less personal and more political as he becomes more frantic to keep hold of his newly gained power. “We have scorched the snake not killed it...can touch him further” (3.1 15-28). His motivation and thirst for more power is never quenched, and he believes that he has “injured” the snake but he has not completely gotten rid of it. The snake represents anything and everything that has the potential to take the crown out of his grasp. Macbeth’s “black and deep desires” become scornful annihilative hated and the acts draw their cathartic energy not from regicide but from the heroic male’s reaction to the destruction of a beloved maiden and her child (Lainer
Before Macbeth murders Duncan, he sees a bloody dagger floating in the air that he tries to grab. He then pulls out a real dagger and realizes that the floating dagger is only a vision that is foreshadowing the King’s death. Macbeth announces, “there’s no such thing. / It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes” (Shakespeare 2.1.59-60).This means that the sinful act he is about to commit is the reason to why the non-existing dagger appears before him. In the last act of the play, Lady Macbeth is so full of guilt that she is unable to rest. A doctor and a gentlewoman see her sleepwalking and rubbing her hands together as if she is trying to
Immediately preceding the murder, Macbeth has an important vision of a dagger, bloody and ready to be grasped. He is unsure whether or not the dagger is real; he asks “art thou not, fatal vision, sensible, to feeling as to sight?” wondering if the dagger is a physical object, or an amalgamation of his worries and fears about assassinating Duncan (II.i.37-38). Macbeth also states that he is ready to murder, following this vision- his hallucination of the dagger’s handle facing towards him gave him the sense that he was actually prepared to kill Duncan.