Examples Of Hallucinations In Macbeth

Hallucinations are where you see, hear, or even smell something that is not there. In the story Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth experiences hallucinations such as when he sees the dagger in front of King Duncan’s room and when he sees Banqos ghost at the banquet. The dagger Macbeth sees is an important detail of the story and affects Macbeth in many ways including; encouraging him to proceed with the plan, becoming a pivotal turning point in the story and representing guilt and the growing insanity Macbeth is experiencing.
Macbeth sees the bloody daggers in front of him, pointing the way to King Duncan’s chamber. This encourages him to proceed with the killing of his cousin. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible, To feeling as to sight? or art thou but, A dagger of the mind, a false creation,” This shows how the false image of the dagger encourages him to kill Duncan and since it is all within his mind, it adds to the guilt he feels. For a second it almost stops him from killing Duncan because the image of the dagger forced him to rethink the

In Macbeth, this pivotal moment is the murder of King Duncan. The only reason Banquo dies as well as the guards is because of what happened with the dagger. The ability for Macbeth to get away with murder, gives him a sense of what he is capable of, and now he must do anything to keep his coverup of the murder going… even if that means murdering his best friend, Banquo. “In this long soliloquy, we find Macbeth, whose mind is wrought almost to madness by the deed he is about to perpetrate, the victim of a hallucination.” (lines 33-64) It explains how he became a victim of the hallucinations and then the real plot of the story begins. How far will he go to keep his