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What Is The Mood Of Macbeth's Soliloquy In Act 2

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In Shakespeare’s drama “Macbeth” the protagonists Macbeth delivers a soliloquy in act two scene one, line 32-64, in which he follows a imaginary dagger, while being on his way to kill King Duncan. The scene is set at night in Macbeth’s castle and his soliloquy begins after an encounter with Banquo and a servant. Beforehand his wife convinced him to murder King Duncan, in order for him to become king. In this soliloquy Macbeth talks about seeing a dagger floating before him and trying to grab its handle. As its only imaginary, he is not able to touch the dagger and wonders wether it is him going crazy, its being a false creation or wether a fever is causing this hallucination. He then withdraws his dagger, the weapon he plans on using for the murder on King Duncan, and follows the imaginary dagger that appears to move towards Duncan’s room, which now has drops of blood on its handle, while doubting to trust his senses. Next Macbeth describes the night by mentioning the goddess of ghosts and witches “Hectate”, nature being dead and a wolf howling. The protagonist sees the howling as a cue to murder Duncan and asks the earth to ignore his deed. After killing the king a bell is ringing and his soliloquy ends soon after. The structure of this soliloquy reflects the change from Macbeth’s rational state of mind to a …show more content…

35-36) and is aware that he is getting perceived. Macbeth also tries to give reasonable answers to why he is hallucinating (l. 36-38), for example a fever (l. 39). Later on he follows the imaginary dagger, even though he just questioned its authenticity, thinking it is leading him to his murder (l.42). This is when he switches his rational state of mind to a mentally ill one. Afterwards he connects usual sounds of the night with his murder “…, the wolf, whose howl’s his watch,…” (l. 53) and feels supported by it, like it is destined to

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