Macbeth Group

Question:

sherdil
sherdil
Student
High School - 9th Grade

How does Macbeth's fantasy of the dagger influence Macbeth and drive him on to assassinate Duncan?

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Posted by sherdil on Sunday April 26, 2009 at 3:25 AM and tagged with characters, duncan, literature, macbeth.

Answers:


  1. troutmiller Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    Perhaps that hallucination appears to him as a guide or a signal.  In his soliloquy here he speaks to it directly at first asking if it is real or fake, and then asking it if it was leading him to do the dirty deed.

    "Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight, or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation...Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going; and such an instrument I was to use."

    He sees the dagger as a reminder of what he must do to fulfil the prophesy.  In fact, the dagger is floating in front of him with the handle facing him as if waiting for him to reach out and grab it.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/act-ii-summary-analysis

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    Posted by troutmiller on Tuesday April 28, 2009 at 9:17 AM