Power of Dreams

Macbeth and Veronica Sawyer share a similar side effect: hallucinations of those they have killed. At the banquet hosted at his home, Macbeth hallucinates Banquo, whom he had earlier hired assassins to kill, resulting in confusion and shock from guests. This hallucination is described by Lady Macbeth as “the very painting of fear” (III.iv.64), demonstrating Lady Macbeth’s annoyance at what she considers Macbeth’s weakness: not being “man” enough to commit murder. Likewise, after the death of Heather Chandler, and later football players Ram Sweeney and Kurt Kelly, Veronica begins to have hallucinations as well. The first of these begins immediately after the death of Heather, as Veronica forges a suicide note.

After Macbeth murdered King Duncan, paranoia quietly started creeping in. He thought that he “heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep” - the innocent sleep” directly following the deed(2:2:53-56). As his paranoia increases, Macbeth convinces himself that being King “is nothing, but to be safely thus. . .[His] fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared;” subsequently, Macbeth has revealed

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

Shakespeare also utilizes the theme of appearance and reality. The classic dagger scene, when Macbeth is not sure if he can trust his eyes, is only one of many references to this theme. For instance, he sees Banquo's ghost at the banquet and Lady Macbeth imagines blood on her hands. Banquo talks about the 'cursed thoughts' he has had and his dreams of the witches. Macbeth talks of the world of thought and dreams and sometimes becomes lost within it. Lady Macbeth is critical of Macbeth's 'foolish thoughts' and talks of him being 'lost' because of this. The idea of sleep is also integrated, as Macbeth is told he has murdered sleep and will 'sleep no more' whilst Lady Macbeth thinks of sleep as death, calling it the sternest 'goodnight'.

It becomes a downward spiral as Macbeth is then forced to kill the chamberlains. It goes further until he kills his best friend Banquo, as the witches had prophesized that the children of Bonquo would become kings, but the son of Banquo manages to flee. After the ghost of Banquo visits him he fearfully visits the witches’ cave and they tell him more about those who stand in the way of his continued reign as king. It becomes the story of a hero trapped with the obsession of power, where a good man of glory becomes the villain. In both stories the hero dies, but after his tyrranical reign the loss of Macbeth against a vengefull man named Macduff, the man who’s land Macbeth took and had his family

“I was not looking for my dreams to interpret my life, but rather for my life to interpret my dreams.” Susan Sontag was an American writer, filmmaker, teacher, and political activist. She expresses how life and all of its conflicts can affect one’s dreams. What are dreams? In life, dreams can be experiences to look forward to, hard work at a job, or other things of the imagination. Dreams can also be something to hope for or to accomplish. Sadly, there are conflicts that can get in the way of someone reaching their dream. A person’s sex can give power or powerlessness, determine the expected behaviors of male and females, and judge a person’s appearance. In the works of To Kill A Mockingbird,

Circumstances: Banquo is awake because his thoughts are troubled over his encounter with the Weïrd Sisters. The Weïrd Sisters foretell that Banquo’s children will become kings. In order for this to occur, one of Banquo's sons would have to commit a regicide. This thought is so terrifying that it is preventing Banquo from sleeping. Meanwhile, Macbeth is about to commit a regicide and pauses on his journey to converse with Banquo.

The humankind throughout history has tried to learn and figure out the meaning of dreaming. The interpretations and true meanings of dreams has expanded and has varied over centuries and cultures. Many of the earlier studies were based on culture’s and the interpretation of dreams, but also used as a form of prophecy, inspiration, and guidance. Many people still believe this such, people today beliefs and theories have opened up to a more vast interpretation, they are made up of; dreams are rare brain activity, dreams allow people to reflect on themselves, or that dreams are too massive to be correctly interpret. Although, not a single theory has been proven to this day, science as of why dreams occur is still a mystery.

A major part of life is to pursue dreams. Life would almost be pointless if people did not have ambitions, people wouldn’t have a reason to get out of bed if they did not have a dream that they want to achieve. Anne Laurel Cartier, the author of the short story “Leaving the iron lung,” specifically looks at how having a dream can affect one’s life. Carter uses conflicting characters, character transformation, and the setting to illustrate to be content with life one needs to follow their dream, to commit and sacrifice to it if they want achieve it.

Dreams may be defined as a goal a person will do anything to achieve during their lifetime. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby creates a false sense of wealth and affluence to achieve his dream of marrying Daisy, and in the process he loses his identity.

One key difference is the path taken. In Macbeth, he commits deeds that are considered taboo, while in Ambition by Edgar Albert Guest, and in Aspiration by Emily Dickinson, they give reference to more respectable ways. For example, in Aspiration by Emily D, she says “The heroism we recite would be a daily thing,” alluding to the statement that you must be honorable to be heroic. That clashes with Macbeth’s actions, because Macbeth’s actions were extremely ignoble. Finally, in Ambition by Edgar A.G., and Aspiration by Emily D., the theme of aspiration is extremely similar. They both give views on aspiration and they do align. The overall view of this text is that you should always do what is right, and work your hardest to achieve greatness, because the payoff is far exceeding anything

In Act 2 of Macbeth, the “dream” motif is used to set an anxious mood in the text. When Banquo is speaking with Macbeth, he says, “All’s well. I dreamt last night of the three Weïrd Sisters. To you they have showed some truth” (2.1.24-26). In this quote, Banquo is saying that he dreamt of the witches, and he feels he needs to heed their words given that their prophecy has been true so far. He is waiting in suspense for prophecy of the witches he saw in his dreams to come true, as they have been for Macbeth. The dream motif is being used to signify that the witches that Banquo saw may be real, and not really a dream, given their apparent legitimacy in tampering with the real world. When Macbeth is hallucinating about the dagger, he says, “Now o’er the one-half world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep” (2.1.61-63). This quote shows Macbeth’s

This angers Macbeth and enables him to follow Lady Macbeth's scheme to kill the King easier. Macbeth's first murder is definitely a trying experience for him. However, as the play progresses, killing seems easy and the only solution to maintain his reign of the people of Scotland. Macbeth becomes increasingly ambitious as the play goes on. The witches prophecies and Lady Macbeth's influence intensifies his ambition and drives Macbeth to obtain and maintain his title of Scotland by whatever means, even murdering his best friend, Banquo. "Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, ...no son of mine succeeding. If't be so, for Banquo's issue have I filed my mind; For them the gracious Duncan I have murder'd; ...To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings! (Act III. sc.I) At this point Macbeth's passion becomes more and more extreme to the point where no one stands in his way. His greed, violence, and hunger for power drastically declines his character. The witches prophecy, Lady Macbeth's influence, and Macbeth's own ambition all contribute greatly to his deterioration of character which results in his downfall, which was death. All the causes link to one another. If it wasn't for Macbeth's strong will and passion, Macbeth would still be his ordinary self. Because of this, Macbeth's curiosity of possibly becoming king was brought out which led to Lady Macbeth's controlling influence. Macbeth's ambition then builds and causes him to commit a

When she learns of the predictions of the witches, she immediately goes to work on figuring out how to get her husband into the throne of power. She fears that her husband is too kind and that “impedes thee from the golden round” (1.5.31). She manipulates her power over and tells him that he would not be a man if he did not kill Duncan, "When you durst do it, then you were a man;/and, to be more than what you were, you would/ be so much more the man" (1.7.56-58). Using her power over her husband, Lady Macbeth convinces him to kill King Duncan. However as Macbeth becomes power, and becomes more paranoid he begins to be the mastermind of his fate, as Lady Macbeth had once been. Macbeth plans to kill Banquo and Fleance, without communicating with Lady Macbeth about his plans; when he tells her of his plans, she warns him no to, where he responds she should “be innocent of the knowledge” (3.3.51). Macbeth’s plans were not successful, and Fleance escaped, which causes his “fit again. else been perfect.” (3.4.23) When Lady Macbeth was dominant, Macbeth experiences hallucinations, for instance the floating “dagger of the mind.” However, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship shifts, Lady Macbeth is now experiencing hallucinations of the “damn’d spot,” the blood, which shows her guilt for the feeling of committing murder. Her guilt was so great, that while she was sleep walking, she began to re-enact the

In the novel, Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M Coetzee, the magistrate’s progressive, non-linear dreams are a parallel to his growing involvement with the barbarians and his growing distaste for the empire. The great psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud said, “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious.” In every dream there is a hidden meaning and when the reader starts analyzing the magistrate’s dreams he reveals that he is oddly attracted to the barbarians and knows he should not get involved and it will be a trial to get close to them.