Essay: Explore Macbeth’s Mind Through His Dagger Vision and Monologue of Self-Analysis

Thus he calls the dagger a “fatal vision” (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1, l.36), and only two verses after, he already refers to it as “A dagger of the mind, a false creation” (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1, l.38), hence as a spawn of his tortured mind (see Clemen, p.47, ll.9-20). Then again, he also seems to be fascinated by this illusion especially because of this since, on the one hand, for the first time he here becomes fully aware of it as a newly acquired ability of his power of imagination: “Or art thou but / A dagger of the mind […] Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1, l.37-39); on the other hand, the evil, which this vision constitutes, has taken control of him at this point at the latest.
But in order to once more assure himself of the realness of his perception, he draws his own dagger, which the imagined dagger does not seem to be inferior to in terms of ‘tangibility’ – a symbolic gesture, since with that dagger he is about to commit the murder right after. Yet he himself knows that the illusion is not just any dagger, but the murder weapon. Besides, he feels exactly what it means when the dagger starts moving – as if it wants to show him the way to the site of the murder itself. But Macbeth has already been on that way before: “Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going“ (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1, l.42 / Clemen, p.47, ll.20-32). Here, his imagination equates to the reality of his murder plot.
We know that he is now going to irrevocably follow the dagger that leads the way. With the blood, which he suddenly notices on the blade and handle of the dagger, the now following bloody deed is inevitably anticipated, even though this new vision is also guessed as an illusion: “Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’ other senses“ (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1, l.44). But after the illusion has hardly entirely vanished, Macbeth realizes with full clarity what it is actually about – namely the pre-announcement of the murder: “It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes.“ (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1, l.48-49 / Clemen, p.47, l.32ff.). He discovers this with his astonishing ability of self-analysis, which here even explains the seemingly ‘supernatural’ as a subjective self-created conception. Rationality and irrationality – clear self-insight and obsession with a dark compulsion – live closely together inside him from the very beginning (Clemen, p.48, l.1-6).
When the imaginary dagger then disappears again, another vision rises in his fantasy: He imagines the hemisphere covered by the night as a conspiracy of all dark and evil forces and senses a secret agreement between himself and the bewitching demonic powers in the world, with whom he sees himself in league. Here the climax is constituted by the image of personified murder which appears before his spiritual eye: “[…] and withered Murder […] with his stealthy pace, / With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design / Moves like a ghost.“ (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1, l.52–56). The personified murder is “alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf” (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1, l.53) and anticipates Macbeth’s own murderous deed. At this point Macbeth projects his own intention into self-conceived imaginations of his environment which, in this way, he seems to turn into the accomplice and instigator for his own plan (see Clemen, p.48, ll.27ff.).
The lightness, or even implicitness, with which Shakespeare lets all these conceptions follow one another and groups around the central image of the spooky and haggard murder, is a sign of the intensity and rapidity with which Macbeth’s imagination moves forward (see Clemen, p.49, l.3-9).
In his delusion he then also addresses the earth and asks it not to hear his steps, so that his plan and the deed would stay undetected: “Thou sure and firm-set earth, / Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear / Thy very stones prate of my whereabout“ (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1, l.56–58). It appears to him like a sort of support, in contrast to the world of the invisible and imagined which has become overpowering (Clemen, p.49, l.15-18).
Here Macbeth talks like someone who observes himself in a dream and he speaks of his steps as if they were separated from him. This split of his character – the possibility of facing himself like a stranger – was already noticeable during his speeches in the first act1 (Clemen, p.49, l.24-29).
Just like in a mirror, this monologue shortly before the deed once again shows us quite plainly what kind of person Macbeth is and what it looks like inside his mind (Clemen, p.50, l.16-18). Step by step, an inner process of experience is being unveiled in front of the audience, and by talking about his inner illusions – which surround him as his actual reality – Macbeth here expresses things of which he was only partially aware.
Thereby, the astonishing part of Macbeth’s character is this juxtaposition of, on the one hand, obsessively being included in his intention and deed and, on the other hand, the clear suffering view of his own doing and conduct (Nauman, p.387, l.31-34), because even though he knows exactly that his sacrilegious undertaking is wrong, it appears to the audience that there is a necessity for him to act as if, in a way, he could not do otherwise than to murder the king.