Madness In Macbeth

In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the character Macbeth descends into madness. Macbeth’s descent into madness first started with the witch’s prediction. If he had never met the witches none of this trouble would have occurred.

When Macbeth imagines that there is a bloody dagger before him even before he is about to kill Duncan, it represents his guilt even before he has committed any crimes. Macbeth has planned the entire act of killing Duncan and as he walks to Duncan's room, he hallucinates that there is a bloody dagger sitting before him, inviting him to kill Duncan. This bloody dagger is a window to Macbeth's future of guilt after killing the king. Even before Macbeth has done a deed he feels guilty for what he is about to do. This dagger is there as a warning for what is to come in his future if he does kill the king.

[Act 2.1. 50 - 51] This given quote signifies the derivation of his stressed thoughts to become king and make Macbeth imagine a dagger. His belief that a dagger is shown before him allows him to assume that he must murder King Duncan. In this scene he finishes the murder, although Macbeth may have not followed through with killing King Duncan if he had not seen the dagger. His thoughts and imaginations tear him apart to push him to do many different

In Act ii, Scene 1, Macbeth says during a soliloquy in lines 33 – 64: ‘Is this a dagger I see before me/…let me clutch thee…/I have thee not, and yet I see thee still’. Is the dagger a ‘dagger of the mind’ (l.38), or a prank from the witches? It is impossible to know, however, the sight of this mysterious blood- covered dagger causes Macbeth to delve deep into evil thoughts and rumours: ‘ Wicked dreams abuse/…pale Hecate’s off ‘rings, and

If the dagger is a hallucination, then Macbeth has some subconscious urge to take Duncan's life. If the dagger is from the witches, then the witches want to entice Macbeth with a little something to make him contemplate beforehand what he may be doing. The witches know that Macbeth will not talk himself out of killing Duncan until after the fact.

Macbeth’s ambitious qualities and knowledge of what his future may hold help lead Macbeth to commit violent acts. These acts cause him to fantasize and act in unreasonable ways both before and after he carries out plans for murder. Act II begins with a soliloquy by Macbeth, where he envisions a dagger that he believes is encouraging him to kill Duncan. Macbeth questions, “Is this a dagger which I see before thee...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?”(Mac.2.1.33-40). The dagger is not tangible, as Macbeth is unable to grasp it, which shows that Macbeth is

Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee (2.1.33-35). This dagger resembles the one just like his and suddenly leads him into the path to King Duncan’s room. Silently Macbeth moves, closer and closer to the room. After the killing of King Duncan Macbeth is no more himself.

However, in contrast to my argument, several other researchers have concluded that perhaps Macbeth was not insane, but rather he was strictly murdering out of the confidence of his future. For example, in Arthur Kirsch’s article, “Macbeth’s Suicide,” Kirsch believes a combination of influencing outside factors, over ambition, and lust for bloodshed overall resulted in the innocent murders and the downfall of Macbeth. He summarizes that Macbeth's dominating “ambition provokes desires in him that he is increasingly incapable of satisfying”(Kirsch 269) which describes how Macbeth believed he was doing himself a favor by committing the devious murders, but was actually condemning himself to more evil. Likewise to the statement made above, Shakespeare adds that Macbeth begged the “Stars, hide your fires!/Let not light see my black and deep

Throughout Shakespeare’s gruesome play Macbeth, not only the main characters, but other characters have a lack of ability to differentiate between the illusions of their mind as well as the reality around them. This mental abnormality is made very prominent in the title character Macbeth, who suffers from paranoia on top of the fact he is hindered mentally by his own ambition. This suffering becomes even more apparent as the play progresses, consequently, Macbeth takes more action solely based on his instinct. Macbeth’s deteriorating mental state causes him to see and hear things that are not there, increasing his anxiety, therefore, distancing his contact with reality. This lack of contact ultimately drives Macbeth to madness, thus, fueled

There are multiple reasons as to why Macbeth went insane in the play Macbeth. He had a lot of pressure from others and himself. A lot of things can be caused by peer pressure and what he did is an example of this. While reading Macbeth we could start to sense the different kinds of pressure in which he faced. Not only pressure from his peers but also his wife and strangers. Obviously, there are many different reason as to why Macbeth went crazy in the play.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare starts out in a civil war placed in 11th century Scotland. Macbeth is one of the many soldiers bravely fighting in the war, who is seen as a honourable man. This quickly changes when the witches announce the prophecy that he will become king. Lady Macbeth becomes aware of the prophecy and forces Macbeth to murder King Duncan to receive the title. Macbeth soon becomes insane and the murderous actions begins.

(Macbeth, 2.1.43-59) Macbeth’s vision of this dagger, his instrument for the murder, represents the bloody and difficult course on which Macbeth will be embarking when he kills King Duncan. The dagger appears to be covered in blood and it points like an arrow directly towards the King’s room. The dagger also holds a strange allure and draws Macbeth to it, making the thought of murder more enticing to Macbeth; convincing him that this is the right choice. It clearly foreshadows the murder that will occur and the chaos which will ensue. It is evidence of Macbeth’s conscience being destroyed.

In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare goes through the stages of insanity after Macbeth goes to some witches for information, is pressured by his wife to commit some crimes and once he kills for success.

Humans crave to feel positively about themselves and they action they portray. Humans do not dare go through life with regrets of their success or social statuses. In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth is prophesized by three witches, the Weird Sisters, to become King of Scotland. To Macbeth, becoming king equates success and self-assurance. After learning his future Macbeth becomes obsessed with obtaining his king status. Macbeth’s crazy antics results in him making tained choices that reflect his downfall from a humble, loyal army general to a disenchanted, murderous human. Unfortunately, Macbeth lack of faith in himself destroys the man and potential king that he once

In time, the ambition in Macbeth to succeed by any means possible started to amplify. A sliver of light still shined over the darkness of evil temptation, however that sliver became overshadowed as Macbeth met his second supernatural occurrence. “Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going” (2.1. 43). This implies that the supernatural dagger Macbeth was seeing was leading him the way to Duncan’s chamber to murder him. “It is the bloody business which informs/ Thus to mine eyes” (2.1. 49-50). From this piece of the soliloquy, it implied that the dagger itself encouraged its user, Macbeth, to continue on to kill Duncan. The dagger soliloquy, on some basis, was like the three witches; it gave an idea to Macbeth of what is to come of next and by doing so, Macbeth proceeded with the assassination of King Duncan from this visionary encouragement.