Devices Symbolism is cunningly used in this soliloquy. Blood becomes a symbol of guilt but before it symbolized evil, so you see a transition Macbeth is feeling with his interior guilt. “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. ” (2. 1, 53-55). Pathos is present throughout this soliloquy, we as the readers might feel sympathetic sorrow for the character, in this case Macbeth. We see that he is struggling with the pondering of the decision he is about to make.
I feel a strange sympathy towards him because he may not want to kill Duncan but it is something he has to do at this point. If he doesn’t he will let his wife down, and she will think less of him. This is obviously a choice he has to make and sympathy is hard to give to someone that is debating whether to kill someone or not, but for some reason I feel it for him. Enhancing the depressing and uncanny atmosphere of the speech is the use of allusions to people which summon up images of wicked and earthly evil.
Hecate which is the goddess of witchcraft, is preparing her sacrificial victims, and Murder himself, summoned by his trusted watchman, the wolf, moves with the power and speed of evil king Tarquin towards his prey. Prince Tarquin is known for raping the Roman marton, Lucrece; therefore, this allusion is very appropriate as it seems Macbeth is attempting to evoke the prince’s tyrannical spirit in order to proceed with the murder. Dramatic Purposes During Macbeth’s soliloquy he is alone in his castle, reflecting on the murder he is about to commit.
The quotation develops the characterization of Macbeth by illustrating that Macbeth feels the guilt of the murder and is not as cold and calculating as he appears. Your answer is good so far and the reason why it is dramatic is because it gives the reader the opportunity to consider Macbeth’s character and make him more real and not just the personification of evil. To carry out this deed without any consideration of the wrongdoing would remove any feelings the audience may have towards him and his hesitation provides the audience with cause to recognise that he is manipulated and almost under a ‘spell. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come let me clutch thee. He is even steeling himself for the deed he obviously knows is heinously wrong. The ringing of the bell is what seems to send him into the almost trance-like state – as if he is hypnotized Lady Macbeth’s signal,… the ringing of the bell So explain how the fact that he is not so cold and calculating adds to the audience’s understanding of him and the dramatic significance of that is evident as it affects the tone of the whole play.
Add a reference to the influence of the witches and his wife (as mentioned above) in the situation in which he now finds himself. Including something about the trance-like state in which he concludes the soliloquoy also adds to the dramatic effect. The focus of the soliloquy, the invisible dagger, is our first glimpse of Macbeth’s powerful imagination – imagination that is largely responsible for his mental torment throughout the drama. Themes/Motifs
In this soliloquy Shakespeare presents the theme of good and evil. Macbeth is torn between the forces of good preventing the deed, and the forces of evil which seem to be aiding him in his crime. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. Hallucinations Visions and hallucinations recur throughout the play and serve as reminders of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s joint culpability for the growing body count.
When he is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air. Covered with blood and pointed toward the king’s chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on which Macbeth is about to embark. he suppresses his imagination and seizes his resolve. He casts himself into the role of withered murder, in league with the forces of night. The dagger is his hallucination, produced by his imagination, intensified by his emotional exhaustion and strain so that its vision seems foe a while real.
The immediate effect of the vision is to cause a powerful coil, expressed in the past tenses of lines 42-43. His repugnance against evil and disorder, then, is still active, still able to divide his “single state of man”; but it has changed places. Where before it was the ally of his conscious effort to avoid temptation, now it is the enemy of his peace of mind having fallen. Not how description of night turns images of ugliness, reversal of nature, malice.
