Daggers In Macbeth

In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses recurring images and references of daggers to illustrate the sinister and barbarous nature of Scotland under the tyrant Macbeth. Shakespeare had a dagger come to Macbeth as a sign at the opening of the play, telling him in a hallucination that he should use this specific dagger to slay King Duncan. Although Macbeth was first hesitant to murder King Duncan, the dagger's symbolism ultimately compels him to carry out the crime. Later in the play, when Donalbain and Malcolm decide to leave Scotland after the death of their father, the dagger motif is utilized to symbolize the core of treachery surrounding King Duncan's death and Macbeth's ascent to power. Ultimately, Shakespeare's use of daggers represents the immoral

As the hallucination of the dagger emerges, Macbeth says, “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 Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?” (Shakespeare II.i 45-65). Shakespeare makes the implication in this quotation that, despite Macbeth's hesitation, the sight of the dagger will make him kill King Duncan, lending the object its allusive association with killing. As Shakespeare has Macbeth describe the dagger as, “art thou not, fatal vision,” he is expressing that Macbeth sees the dagger as a deadly apparition. This dagger is setting Macbeth on the path of perfidy and murder, which gives the other Thanes cause to depose Macbeth. The violence Macbeth shows causes the Thanes to perceive him as an unruly, trigger-happy tyrant who is a threat to Scotland and themselves. Later in Act 2 Scene 2, Shakespeare has Lady Macbeth use the daggers to execute their plan of framing the murderers for the killing of King Duncan, ultimately illustrating the amount of lying and deceptiveness around Macbeth’s rise to power. As Lady Macbeth confronts Macbeth for

As Macduff asks Macbeth about his basis for killing the servants, he says, “Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers, Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breeched with gore” (Act II.iii 125-130). In this quote, Shakespeare is showing that the presence of daggers in the possession of the murdering servants emphasizes the depiction of violence and murder surrounding King Duncan’s death. Shakespeare's use of “breeched with gore,” illustrates the amount of blood on the daggers, associating them with the murder and treachery around Scotland. This ominous illustration demonstrates how the Scottish perceive daggers and how they symbolize Macbeth's distrustful and ruthless ascendancy. At the end of Act Two of Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of daggers as a representation of the deception around the death of King Duncan, which ultimately illustrates how nobody can be believed or trusted. When Donalbain is discussing with Malcolm about their plans, he states, “To Ireland I. Our separated fortune Shall keep us both safer. Where we are, there’s daggers in men's smiles. The near in blood, The nearer bloody” (II.iii 160). With this quote,