How Does Shakespeare Create Tension In Act 1 Scene 6 Macbeth

Macbeth shows several symptoms of schizophrenia. These symptoms are techniques that Shakespeare uses to create the idea that Macbeth actually has a mental illness. Macbeth’s main symptom is detachment from reality. While contemplating killing Banquo to secure his fate, Macbeth begins to see an imaginary dagger in front of him. He asks, “Art thou not, fatal vision sensible to feeling as to sight, or art thou a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-opposed brain?” (Act 2, Scene 2, lines 35-39). Then after Banquo is dead, Macbeth believe he sees his ghost during dinner with the county’s nobility. Macbeth says, “The

at the time is king Duncun, a noble and honest king. He has two sons

Macbeth recognizes that the dagger is not real and accepts this. This is his first step into insanity. As he admits, his mind is feverish with excitement and perhaps dread, and he understands that this vision is ominous. His internal conflict has now begun to develop; his ambition is driving him to do something and subconsciously he knows it is not right.

Macbeth can be further diagnosed as a schizophrenic paranoid type, which is a subdivision of schizophrenia. This category is defined by its criteria of: Preoccupation with one or more delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations. Macbeth frequently and vividly hallucinates during the play. The first indicator into his hallucinogenic illness is when he struggles to decide whether or not to kill his good friend, Banquo. As he argues to himself, he begins to imagine a dagger in front of him. Hay says, to himself, “Is this a dagger which I see before me...” (II, 1, 33) “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-oppressed brain?” (II.2.35-39) In this passage, Macbeth even admits to himself that he is beginning to see things that are not only unreal, but a projected figment of his tainted mind. Soon after, as he returns to see the three witches, who started this whole masquerade, he sees another vision. This time, it is a vision of his future. He sees an armed child, a bloody child, and a child with a crown holding a tree branch. (IV.1) This is meant to represent Macbeth’s future and to warn him of what will happen with MacDuff. He then proceeds to vision all of the former Kings of Scotland

Macbeth has hallucinations based around guilt and to others he seems delusional and insane. After he hires the three murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance, they come back unsuccessful, only managing to kill Banquo. He is haunted by a hallucination of an apparition of (supposedly) Banquo and says “(to GHOST) Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake. Thy gory locks at me./ Gentlemen, rise. His highness is not well” (Shakespeare 3.4.61-63). Without being prompted by the ghost, Macbeth responds and another noble is weary of his actions. He kills Banquo because Banquo suspects that Macbeth did something horrible (like killing the king) to become king. Macbeth wants to keep the power that he

Act 2, Scene 2, takes place in the home of Macbeth as a result to the

And now, because the Weird Sisters told him prophesies and Lady MacBeth turned MacBeth into a savage, he has become mentally ill. His insanity starts even before he kills King Duncan. “While on his way to murder the King, he is convinced he sees a bloody dagger leading him up to Duncan’s room” (Shakespeare 51). Obviously, there could not be a dagger hanging in front of him and actually move by itself. This hallucination is just one example of how insane he is, and this is even before he killed anyone. And MacBeth’s insanity only gets worse at the feast. “At the feast, MacBeth is convinced that he sees Banquo’s

Macbeth's first hallucination of the bloody dagger leading him to Duncan's room was a way for Macbeth's mind to release some of its anxieties concerning the act of murder.  Although Macbeth had killed before, he had never killed for the purpose of improving his position.  His previous killings were in battle where he was killing his enemy, not a man he had no substantial problem with.  I feel that this hallucination was definitely the result of Macbeth's own anxieties coupled with the extreme level of stress he was experiencing.

Macbeth knows that he is hallucinating that there is a bloody dagger, but he can't seem to let the vision go. Macbeth knows the guilt will be haunting him for a while even before he has killed the king. The dagger is put before him as a warning that he will feel guilty about killing Duncan after it is too late. Macbeth is very weak and inexperienced around murder, so he is

The recurring supernatural forces that cause Macbeth to have hallucinations show how his guilt is slowly killing him. For example, before Macbeth kills Duncan, he visualizes a floating dagger that is not really there because he feels immense guilt about what he is about to do. When Macbeth says, “I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight? Or art thou a dagger of the mind, a false creation proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” (Shakespeare 51 and 53) he is discussing seeing the dagger but he is confused whether or not the dagger is actually there. The confusion shows that this hallucination is a force of a supernatural power and fabricated by Macbeth’s subconscious due to the tremendous guilt he feels about killing Duncan. Another example of the supernatural forces causing Macbeth to hallucinate is soon after Macbeth commits the murder, he tries to wash his hands clean from the blood, however no matter how much he scrubs his hands

So he kills many more people who he believes suspect him of murder. He becomes suspicious and insecure. He is scared of what he has done and fearful of deeds to follow. One of the main pieces of evidence that portrays a breakdown within the person is Macbeth's inability to sleep. This comes forward in Act two Scene 2 "I heard a voice cry `Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep'" (lines 33-34). Sleep was seen as the natural end to the day and it was unnatural to not be able to sleep. Macbeth lost the ability to restore himself within his mind and his body, therefore becoming abnormal. The fact that Banquo's ghost appeared to him at the banquet shows his troubled conscience - his murderous deeds are playing on his mind. The vision of the ghost also represents the fact that after Macbeth killed Banquo, he entered into the world of the supernatural at a level that he had never stooped to before. All the evidence above portrays a steadily growing breakdown within the person - within Macbeth.

Macbeth was, shortly after the murdering incident, driven insane by the immense guilt produced by his withered conscience. The dagger that was used in the killing of King Duncan haunted him before the murder took place. This tragedy in the play gives us both fear of where the sword came from and pity for Macbeth's character that had degraded to such a point that he has become paranoid.

== = As soon as Macbeth is alone he imagines he sees daggers before him. In other words he is hallucinating Macbeth: “In this a dagger which I see before me,

That night Macbeth ends up killing Duncan. Just before the murder Macbeth is walking down the hall when he has a vision of a dagger with a bloody tip, which is pointed for Duncan’s room. He thinks to himself, “Art tho not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation” (II.1.36-38). During the murder Macbeth makes a mistake that angers Lady Macbeth. He has forgotten to leave the daggers with Duncan’s guards, and she must now go and return them. Initially Macbeth is upset over the murder, but Lady Macbeth tells him it is as easy to forget about as washing the blood away with water. This first murder shows the strong character of Lady Macbeth and the influence she has over her husband.

Moreover, Macbeth’s constant paranoia forms hallucinations, illustrating the thesis of how unchecked ambition can lead to madness. His burden with killing is holy king is overpowered by Lady Macbeth’s insults of Macbeth’s manhood. While preparing for Duncan’s murder, Macbeth’s guilty conscience is represented through a dagger as he states, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? [...] thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes.” (2.1.33-49). Covered with blood, the dagger displays the wicked course of action Macbeth has decided to take. The hallucination underlines the juvenile stages of Macbeth’s decline into tyranny. Macbeth’s ambition