Q: What do we learn about Macbeth and his mental stability in Act 2 Scene 1?
In the book, Macbeth's mind seems to kind of be all over the place as of late. In previous scenes / chapters, he starts to reconsider killing Duncan. But as the story goes on, he goes more towards thinking that he should in fact kill Duncan. Before doing so, Macbeth has a long internal monologue about his weapon that really seems to hint at him being unstable mentally. He goes on saying that he is basically reaching for a fake dagger. "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?" (2.1.36-40). This quote really highlights Macbeth's inner struggle as he is trying to figure out if his mind created the dagger or if it is a hallucination that his brain had made. This struggle really gives off a feeling to the reader of being unstable, especially in this thoughts. Also, another confusing part about his monologue is that right after he talks about the fake dagger, he pulls out his actual dagger and that he can still see the fake one. "I see thee yet, in form as palpable / As this which I now draw" (2.1.41-42). Macbeth saying he is able "to see" the hallucinated dagger also highlights that he could be pretty unstable. Farther in the scene, Macbeth admits that there is no dagger and that the murder he is about to do is making him believe that he is actually looking at one. "There's no such thing. / It's the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes" (2.1.48-50). This quote shows another huge sign of Macbeth having very low mental stability.
I love the way you are using passages from the text in these entries to support your analysis. You're spot on in noting that Macbeth's mental stability is becoming tenuous. But, he does still recognize that the daggers are not real. He still knows enough to question what he's seeing.
ReplyDelete