[Part 3]- Characters: Macbeth 🤴 Flashcards
‘Is this a dagger which I see before me?’ 🗡️
- Macbeth firstly directly addresses the hallucination, questioning if it’s real.
- This conveys how Macbeth is struggling whether he should stick with his conscience, or stick with his ‘vaulting ambition’ and kill Duncan. [therefore disrupting the natural order]
What alternative interpretations relate to the quote:‘Is this a dagger which I see before me?’ 🗡️
- ; perhaps ‘this dagger’ also reflects Macbeth’s’ desires: he desires and wishes to murder Duncan, so he can become king.
I= On the other hand, the hallucinated dagger may also reflect how like the dagger is an illusion and hallucination, so is Macbeth’s triumph/victory, because he will lose his throne and be usurped of his kingship.
What does the quote: Is this a dagger which I see before me?’ 🗡️ suggest on a dramatical perspective
- It’s also interesting to note, that from a dramatical perspective, it allows Macbeth to articulate his inner thoughts and [inner] conflict to the audience, in his ‘heated-oppressed brain’.
- this is because, the dagger is a metaphorical representation of his brain, which implies there are conflicting thoughts in his head about the murder.
Why does Macbeth question, if his hallucination of the dagger is real ?
- I= Alternatively, by questioning if the hallucination is real, it suggests he is aware this is a hallucination [produced by him] reflecting his guilt.
- Macbeth knows he is hallucinating because of his sense of guilt/he feels guilt and blame, for an imagined crime- he hasn’t killed Duncan yet and upset the natural order
What does Macbeth understand from seeing the dagger ?
- Macbeth understands that if he does murder Duncan, it will consequently lead to not only his tragic downfall [as he becomes a tragic hero] but to the destruction of his psyche.
- this is because, his mind will be destroyed if he does this, since he will be tortured and wrecked with guilt.
What evidence suggests Macbeth’s psyche is physically tortured with guilt ?
- later in the play, Macbeth confesses to Lady Macbeth in Act 3, that ‘full of scorpions is my mind’
What evidence suggests Macbeth’s psyche is physically tortured with guilt ?
- ; however, this is also seen before in Act 2 where he thinks [voices are telling him that] ‘Macbeth will sleep no more’ and how he asks that ‘What hands are these?’ [in Act 2, scene 2]
- this clearly highlighted how his mind has been ruined because from a psychoanalytic perspective, this would be interpreted as Macbeth suffering from a dissociative disorder.
What evidence suggests Macbeth’s psyche is physically tortured with guilt ?
- ; however, this is also seen before in Act 2 where he thinks [voices are telling him that] ‘Macbeth will sleep no more’ and how he asks that ‘What hands are these?’ [in Act 2, scene 2]
- this clearly highlighted how his mind has been ruined because from a psychoanalytic perspective, this would be interpreted as Macbeth suffering from a dissociative disorder.
Why does Macbeth attempt to separate the physical and the physiological ?
- He attempts to separate the physical and the psychological, to avoid seeing what his hands have done- reflecting how the murder has tarnished/ruined his mind.
How is the dagger that Macbeth hallucinates, ironic ?
- additionally, the dagger in this scene is quite ironic, suggesting how although Macbeth attempts to and successfully gains power with his own hands- those hands will be the cause of his own tragic downfall.
- because, the temporary power Macbeth now has will crumble because of him, and his own self-destructive nature- by choosing to murder Duncan, he will now evolve into a tragic hero.
What is Macbeth’s turning point ?
- Macbeth’s turning point is where he is now ‘steeped’ in blood ‘so far’, that stopping no would be as hard to go back to being good, as it is to keep killing people.
-From this point onwards in the play, Macbeth has damned his ‘eternal jewel’ to hell moreover, he and Lady Macbeth will be given a ‘fruitless crown’ and a ‘barren sceptre’.
How could the dagger Macbeth hallucinates, be metaphorical of how Macbeth loses his power to Lady Macbeth ?
- in Act, 2 Macbeth refuses to place the dagger back with the servants whom Lady Macbeth has drugged.
- this is because on one hand, he can’t stand to see what he has done but on the other hand, Macbeth can’t force himself to lose that power he has usurped from Duncan.
How does Lady Macbeth take Macbeth’s power ?
- Lady Macbeth is the one who takes the ‘daggers’ and with them, Macbeth’s power [and psyche]-until later in the play, where her power is handed over to Macbeth, since she spirals due to her guilty conscience and eventually kills herself.
What is the point in Macbeth, in which Lady Macbeth destroys her psyche ?
- by taking the daggers from Macbeth, she also takes Duncan’s blood from the daggers, to her- this is the moment, where she now has the ‘damned spot’ and ‘smell of blood’ on her hand.
- alternatively, perhaps this is the moment where she also destroys her psyche, along with Macbeth.
‘Quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!’ 🌍
- L- Macbeth is defeated by one of the senses: sight- [ links to Lady Macbeth claiming the dead are ‘but as pictures’ and Banquo’s ghost is simply ‘the painting of your fear’- visual imagery]
