Patrick's Super Awesome Hypertext Close Reading

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going,
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses,
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing.
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives.
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. A bell rings
I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

Notes

Hallucinations are a common occurrence throughout Shakespeare's plays. In this scenario, Macbeth nervously prepares to murder Duncan. The imaginary dagger represents the violence that lays ahead as well as Macbeth's sense of guilt for the crime he is about to commit. Shakespeare uses hallucinations in the play Hamlet as well. Similar to the ghost of Banquo in Macbeth, old Hamlet appears as a ghost in Hamlet. These hallucinations or supernatural events are used, in these cases, to make the reader question the sanity of the protagonist.

Ambition and Destiny drive Macbeth onwards towards the dagger. Macbeth's own desire to be king, aided by the prophecy of the Witches and his wife's incessant urging make him eager to carry out the murder.

A paradox is now presented. In this line, the use of smooth iambic pentameter rhythm and contradiction (have, not, yet, still) give a clear sense of Macbeth's dilemma. He is certain he sees the bloody dagger before him, but he cannot grasp it. This line provides a transition for the next few lines where Macbeth attempts to puzzle through this situation.

To feeling as to sight? Here Macbeth asks a question he already knows the answer to. He asks the dagger if seeing means touching, but he knows the answer is no because he already tried to grab the dagger. The way Macbeth address the dagger in this manner helps the audience to visualize the hallucination for themselves.

Heat-oppressed is Shakespeare's way of saying fevered. When you replace Heat-oppressed with fevered, you can look at the line in two ways. Macbeth's mind could be fevered from the heat, as a symptom of some sickness, or in an emotional sense; fevered with ambition, guilt, or some other emotion.

Stage direction is combined with dialogue here as Macbeth would presumably draw his own dagger when comparing it to the hallucination.

The way. The dagger points towards Duncan's room, ushering Macbeth towards his destiny.

For the third time, Macbeth exclaims that the dagger is still present. The repetition of the line "I see thee still" is a powerful device for forcing the audience to picture the imaginary dagger and showing them Macbeth's bewilderment regarding his current situation.

Dudgeon The handle of a blade

Gouts Drops