Question

Using these lines from Act II, explain the relationship between Macbeth's words and the words of Duncan's sons.. . "Macbeth. Had I but died an hour before this chance,. I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant. There's nothing serious in mortality:All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;. The wine of life is drawn, and the mere leesIs left this vault to brag of.. . Malcolm. What will you do? Let's not consort with them:. To show an unfelt sorrow is an office. Which the false man does easy. I'll to England.. . Donalbain.. To Ireland, I; our separated fortuneShall keep us both the safer: where we are,. There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood,. The nearer bloody."

Answer 1

Macbeth's famous soliloquy at the beginning of this act introduces an important theme: visions and hallucinations caused by guilt. The "dagger of the mind" that Macbeth sees is not "ghostly" or supernatural so much as a manifestation of the inner struggle that Macbeth feels as he contemplates the regicide. It "marshal[s] [him] the way [he] was going," leading him toward the bloody deed he has resolved to commit, haunting and perhaps also taunting him (II i 42). The same can be said for the ghostly voice that Macbeth hears after he kills Duncan, as well as the ghost of Banquo that appears in Act 3. Indeed, almost all the supernatural elements in this play could be—and often are—read as psychological rather than ghostly occurrences.