P2 - First Hallucination

• As Macbeth is about to kill King Duncan, he experiences his first hallucination. Act 2, Scene 1 contains another soliloquy where he is confronted with the weapon he is about to use - a dagger. This dagger covered in blood symbolises the battle between his violent ambitions and morality, as well as the deterioration of his mental state.
• He refers to the dagger as “a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain”
• The blood foreshadows not only the evil deeds he is about to commit, but also the immense guilt he will feel afterwards. Shakespeare metaphorically describes his fears as “heat” to express the great amount of stress that his thoughts are causing him.
• He attempts to convince himself that this is just a figment of his own imagination. This imaginary dagger is personified - it influences Macbeth’s final decision to commit regicide, and he has managed to reassure himself that this object will be to blame for the murder. He distracts himself from the fact that his own ambitions are corrupt and dangerous.
•  The audience would grow more anxious at this point in the play - the unpredictability of his actions and being on the edge of insanity showcases just how weak and turbulent he is as a character. Furthermore, the effects of this premeditated regicide are shown in Act 2, Scene 4 - where Duncan’s horses are eating eachother. This imbalance in nature highlights the detrimental effects of his ambition on the external world.