Quotations provide the evidence to support your critical interpretation of any text. When you are revising a text it is always useful to ensure that you maximise the usefulness of each individual quotation, so you can make the most of what you know, particularly when you are under the intense time pressure of exams. So, for every quotation included here, I have endeavoured to show how the quotation might support different themes and ideas.
Be flexibly responsive to earn the highest marks.
Ambition.
For example, when Macbeth says at the beginning of Act Two Scene One, ‘ Is this dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?’ The audience might assume he is hallucinating the dagger as a tangible confirmation of his ambitious desire to murder King Duncan in order to assume power. It is highly significant that the ‘handle’ points towards Macbeth’ s ‘hand’ reinforcing the means and opportunity by which Macbeth can dispose of Duncan and claim the crown. The hallucinatory representation of Macbeth’s obsessive ambition reveals his disturbing psychological reality at this point of the play. Ambition has become synonymous with temptation. Macbeth’s mind is so consumed by the need for power and the justification of that need, that he creates a confirmation out of his feverishly ambitious imagination. Interestingly, the hallucinatory appearance of the handle’s direction seduces Macbeth into believing he will get away with the murder. and escape all consequences. This is a fatal mistake, combining hubris and hamartia. Of course, this is not the case. The consequences of the hallucination ultimately set up a series of murderous repercussions including Macbeth’s own death at the hands of the justifiably vengeful, Macduff. The fact that Macbeth does pose the question, ‘Is this a dagger’ cleverly reminds the audience that Macbeth still has some choice in the matter of how he reacts to the hallucination. yet, the irony might be that his ambition disregards the actual question and accepts the hallucination as a reality because it suits his ambition.
Madness.
On another note, we might also explain this hallucinatory representation as being a sign of Macbeth’s deteriorating mental state and even his madness, foreshadowing the appearance of the Ghost of Banquo in Act Three and the ritualistic behaviours and hallucinations of his wife Act Five. Both husband and wife seem to reflect each other’s mental fixations and behaviours at different stages of the play, culminating in their tragic downfall. The secret criminality of Macbeth’s mind has destroyed the noble figure we encountered in Act One, whose bravery and loyalty seem to have been usurped by a mania that becomes paranoia.
Supernatural.
Conversely, the audience might interpret the appearance of the ‘dagger’ as being evidence of the supernatural influence and pervasive contamination of the witches, whose uneasy ability to appear and disappear unsettle ‘weird’ Macbeth to his core, especially as they refuse to explain themselves logically, beyond the temptation of dangerous suggestion. If the witches can play with their own material reality, then they might have planted the dagger ‘before’ Macbeth to guarantee his desire to murder the King. The witches clearly desire to bring chaos and disruption to Scotland and this strangely appealing ‘dagger’ prevents Macbeth from suffering any more doubts about his murderous project. ‘Fair’ and ‘foul’ apappear inextricably mixed up in this hallucination, resulting in the psychical destabilization and ultimate ruination of Macbeth.
Violence.
Even though the hallucinatory appearance of the ‘ dagger of the mind’ appears to do no harm to Macbeth himself because of the situation of the ‘handle’, the audience may find it curious that Macbeth sees fit to trust this apparition rather than ‘see’ it as a soldier might who has fought so many violent, bloody battles with knives that do considerable harm. And as the play progresses we might recollect the almost existential question ‘ Is this a dagger…?’ as if it might be something else that is being manifested before him that is for a moment presenting itself (temptingly and temporarily) as a ‘dagger.’ For the dagger is a gateway to destruction, to the existential nullity of the ‘tomorrow and tomorrow’ world. The dagger lays waste to Macbeth’s old way of life: his reputation, his relationships and his nobility are all destroyed by the recklessly violent ‘vaulting ambition’ encapsulated in the tempting knife that will remove him forever from grace. Yet Macbeth greedily persists in his predilection for supernatural signs that defy the rational and flatter the secret, violent ambitions of the pathologically dissatisfied.