(However, if this is true, one must also inquire about the witches: are they, too, creations of Macbeth's fevered mind? The fact that they just give voice to Macbeth's repressed goals would seem to reinforce this notion, but this is contradicted by the fact that Banquo both sees and hears the same witches.) The "dagger of the mind" is simply one of the play's many psychological forms. While the bodyguards murmur âGod bless us,â Macbeth discovers that he is unable to speak the prayer word âAmen.â A literary psychoanalyst could interpret this as a physical incapacity to speak induced by Macbeth's paralyzing uncertainty about the murder's propriety. Thus, the psyche's inner world exerts itself on the physical world. The same might be stated of the voice Macbeth hears calling out, "Macbeth shall never sleep again" (II ii 41). An strong feeling of shame will prohibit Macbeth from experiencing âinnocent sleepâ from his disturbed conscience. While he has relegated Duncan to everlasting slumber, he now lives in perpetual worry.
Malcolm will now inherit the throne after Duncan's death, putting him firmly in opposition to Macbeth becoming king.
Scene 5 of Act 1 Lady Macbeth reads from her husband's letter on his experience with the witches. She worries that her husband is âtoo full of the milk of human kindnessâ to see the quickest path to the throne. She want for him to return fast so she may âpourâ her words of aspiration into his ears. She is interrupted by the king's arrival at the castle that evening and the arrival of Macbeth. She rejoices in Duncan's âfatal entranceâ into their house. She invokes the spirits to âunsexâ her and imbue her with the capacity for murder. When Macbeth returns home, Lady Macbeth sows the seeds of her homicidal ambitions. She tells him to seem innocent while concealing their goals, but to be a âserpentâ below.
Macbeth is a brutal drama, and that is an understatement. It opens in combat, features murders of men, women, and children, and concludes not only with a climactic siege, but also with Lady Macbeth's suicide and Macbeth's execution. Macbeth makes a significant point about the nature of violence during this bloodshed: every violent act, even those committed for noble causes, seemed to necessarily lead to the next. As Macbeth himself recognizes, the brutality with which Macbeth ascends to the kingdom paves the path for others to attempt to ascend to the throne via bloodshed. Thus, Macbeth must commit acts of violence after acts of violence, until violence is all that is. "Blood will to blood," Macbeth declares after witnessing Banquo's ghost. Violence breeds violence, creating a vicious circle.
Act 2 Scene 3Banquo is already dubious of the account surrounding Duncan's murder: he refuses to believe it, revealing his suspicions about Macbeth in the process. Loyalty; violence; blood Let us meet and interrogate this most heinous piece of art in order to have a better understanding of it. Act 2 Scene 3 Donaldbain thinks that he and Malcolm would be safer apart from Scotland. (Malcolm travels to Ireland, while Donaldbain travels to England.) The daggers symbolize sharp fangs that are capable of cutting and injuring them, indicating that their acquaintances are not their friends and cannot be trusted. Themes/motifs include loyalty, knives, and the contrast between appearance and reality. Our distinct fortunes will keep us both safer. Where we areThere are daggers concealed in men's grins.
