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The Loss Of Ambition In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

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Macbeth’s battle between his ambition and his morals reach a peak at this point of the play to the extent that he appears to have lost his sanity. By the end of Act I, Macbeth had made up his mind concerning the deed, after attempting to reason with himself but ultimately being influenced by Lady Macbeth, he committed himself to the murder. In this scene, Shakespeare finely exhibits the struggle between reason and delusion, just as Macbeth is about to kill Duncan. By the end of the soliloquy, Macbeth has completely given over to his ambition and madness, Shakespeare’s meticulous use of imagery clearly conveys Macbeth’s state of mind. His paranoia is evident as he is sure that ‘stones prate of my whereabout’, creating an image of a fearful Macbeth, and the audience sees how Macbeth’s nerves are playing mind games with himself. The ‘gouts of blood’ on the dagger symbolises Macbeth’s guilt, showing the audience that he is still sane, however we know that he is losing the battle against his ambition. As his downfall progresses, Macbeth is less contemplative and hesitant of his actions, and he begins to lose his sanity to ambition and paranoia. …show more content…

In the very first line of the soliloquy, ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me’, Shakespeare conveys Macbeth’s uncertainty by giving the pentameter a feminine ending, meaning the last syllable is unstressed. This uncertainty and anxiety is further enforced through the series of rhetorical questions from Macbeth as he wonders if the dagger is real or if it is ‘a dagger of the mind’. The short sentences throughout the soliloquy reflect Macbeth’s short points of lucidity at times, and increase the tension to express to the audience Macbeth’s rush of thoughts and alternating

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Is this his wavering conscience or destiny signalling to him? Shakespeare uses the personification here, where Macbeth asks to, “clutch thee,” implying that the dagger is beckoning him to commit the murder, again blaming external circumstances when really, interestingly, revealing his own intention. This visual imagery appears in the reader’s mind, crafted with a lure of power that even the bravest Macbeth could not resist. Shakespeare uses mimesis here, and mimics the reality of man in art: even somebody as infallible and heroic as Macbeth crumbles in front of unconstrained power and space. This is how weak and frail human nature is.

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Macbeth battles this conflict until his conscious is flooded with dark desires, his call upon evil to wash away his good, and his desire for power. At the beginning of the soliloquy, Macbeth’s imagination started to corrupt his mind; he began to hallucinate a bloody dagger floating in front of him, which was the product of his guilty conscious due to his contemplation to kill the king, which is the byproduct of his quest for power. “A dagger of the mind, a false creation/ Proceeding from the heat -oppressed brain?”

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The voices he hears that threaten: “Macbeth shall sleep no more” indicate a relationship between guilt and madness. Therefore, the manifestation of the dagger suggests that he feels guilty because of his attempt to murder Duncan. There are three major transitions of thought. First, he contemplates about the dagger’s existence; the second is the invocations of dark images; finally, there is the bell that cuts off Macbeth’s contemplations. The transitions between topics indicate that while Macbeth feels guilty for the murder, his determination makes him ignore

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/ I see thee yet, in form as palpable / As this which now I draw” (Shakespeare 2.1.37-40). Macbeth questions whether the dagger is real or is it is an illusion of his mind, which demonstrates that his touch with reality is declining. His “dagger of the mind” symbolizes his thoughts about murdering King Duncan.

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Though first confused by the dagger, he later concludes that is a figment of his imagination from a guilt-ridden mind. The intensity of the dagger hallucinations experienced by Macbeth increases as he states that his eyes are “made the fools o’ the other senses,” showing that his eyes perceive visions of which he knows not to be there (2.1.56). He later reasons that it is the “bloody business which informs/Thus to mine eyes,” as the reason he sees this dagger is due to the murderous journey he

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Macbeth, Macbeth begins his soliloquy. The soliloquy consisted mainly of a floating dagger. This floating dagger resembles how Macbeth is about to murder king duncan. Macbeth's guilt is making him hallucinate considering that King Duncan was a wonderful man and he is contemplating ending his life that very night. This soliloquy shows that even though Macbeth had a lot of guilt it was unfortunate too little to overpower his ambition for power as he kills Duncan in the following scene.

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