Known for its bloody plot, and supernatural undertone, Macbeth, written out as a play by William Shakespeare, is one of Shakespeare’s more renowned pieces of work. Within the play, it sports many monologues and many diverse characters. Monologues such as, “Is this a dagger I see before me,” or the very infamous “she should have died hereafter,” appear to spur on character development; in Macbeth’s case, it is more the deterioration of his moral character.
Prominently, his dagger speech, which appears near the very beginning of this play, spurs on his inquiry about a dagger that appears before him; truly vivid it is, but seemingly untouchable. The whole speech embraces a vaguely foreboding undertone - one that may foreshadow his own feelings regarding the matter of Duncan. He inquires, primarily in the first section of this monologue (“Is this a dagger . . . which was not so before”), how he is seeing this dagger. Why is he seeing it? He becomes confused and rather conflicted, but soon things become clearer to him. The mere presence of the dagger represents a strong symbolism. He ponders on the fact that he may be seeing it as a sign of his overwhelming feelings of having to murder the present king. A “fatal apparition” (line 37, ACT II scene 1) that is meant to torment him. There is even vague analogies present in this piece. Wherein, just the initial illustration of Macbeth’s worries translate through the apparition of the dagger, a weapon he claims to be using for the