Mecbeth Soliloquies Essay
Ellen
MacbethSolioquy-DaggerScene.pptxMacbeth
“Dagger” Soliloquy
Act Two, Scene One
Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Exit Servant
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' the 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 halfworld Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder, Alarum'd 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.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. Thee = you
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible Art = are // thou = you
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
Macbeth, while he waits for Lady M to ring the bell to indicate that she has gotten the guards drunk, hallucinates / imagines that a dagger is floating before him. Keep in mind that he is waiting to murder the king– and we already know that he realizes the gravity of such a sin and its consequences – and now, as the drama builds, he likely feels unsettled about what he is about to do …
He begins by asking if the dagger he sees actually exists – the “dagger’s” handle points towards his hand
To verify whether it is real, he grabs at its “handle.” To clutch is to seize and / or grasp firmly
He verifies that he can see it – but he cannot touch / grab it
He asks the dagger--- which he calls vision that relates to the impending fatality (murder) of Duncan that he waits to commit--- whether it can be felt as well as seen (both are senses – thus “sensed”)
OR is it just a “dagger of the mind” – a dagger that is made up by his state of mind, a dagger is the weapon he will use – it is something he must grab and use …
Later in the play he refers to his mind being full of scorpions – and that they have tortured minds
He names the source as a false creation – one that is not real (quite paradoxical)
One that comes from his “heat-oppressed brain” – implies a fevered mind / a mind that is ill
He is deciding whether this dagger is real – he repeats this a couple of times –
I see thee yet, in form as palpable Thee = you
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' the other senses, O’ = of
Or else worth all the rest;
He still sees his hallucination of the dagger – and its form is the same as the dagger he now draws
The dagger is pointing in the direction he is already going in (to Duncan’s chamber)
He realizes the “dagger” he sees is the same kind of weapon he will use to murder Duncan
He decides that either his eyesight is making the other four senses fools
Or his eyesight are more important / valuable / capable than his other senses
He is continuing to question his senses versus the trick his mind is playing on him
I see thee still, Thee = you
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Thy = your
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Thus = this
One more time he recognizes that the “dagger” is till there – and now its has gouts (drops) of blood on its blade and dudgeon (handle)
Which suggests that he is seeing the blood that is related to what he will soon do with a dagger when he murders a sleeping Duncan
He recognizes that the blood was not n the dagger when he was “looking” at it before
And then he realizes that it is the “bloody business” of what he is about to do that brings this hallucination to him
He has finally realized / decided the dagger is not there
Having realized this he now turns to the darkness of the night he waits in
Now o'er the one halfworld O’er - over
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates Curtain’d = curtained
Pale Hecate's offerings,
He turns to the world he is in as he waits to murder Duncan. And, once again, we can assume he still realizes the gravty of the sin he is going to commit.
He says that half the world is asleep – “dead” referring to a little sleep (as if we die every night / go unconscious when we sleep). This use also relates to the death of Duncan who will be murdered while he is asleep.
Nature in this case refers to the material world that surrounds humankind and exists independently of human activities (but humans are also asleep).
So all things seem (as if ) they are dead (not dead – just seems that way – much is asleep at night / not conscious)
That half of the world that is asleep experiences wicked nightmares (terrible, awful dreams) abuse those who sleep– abuse the curtained sleep (you should feel protected – but nightmares make it so you do not feel protected)
The sleep is curtained (1. people used to use curtains over their beds 2. curtains make it so people cannot see what is happening)
And as that half of the world is asleep– the other half is moving around in the night (which Macbeth waits in to kill Duncan)
In that night, witches bring offerings to the Hecate (the goddess of the witches) – they celebrate her with these offerings
and wither'd murder, Wither’d = withered
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Alarum’d = alarumed
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace. Howl’s = howl is
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost.
Next, Macbeth uses a metaphor and compares murder to an old man who is sneaking about in the night (withered referring to old age)
Murder is an old man because it has been murdering for so long …
Alarumed = an alarm, esp a call to arms // Sentinel = a soldier stationed as a guard to challenge all comers and prevent a surprise attack
Murder is called to action (to murder) by his guard the wolf – who makes its announcement by howling
Also the wolf’s howl is its watch (meaning what it is supposed to protect)
This is paradoxical – one does not announce it is time to murder the person who you are protecting
But such is the case with murder – plus one must remember that people were very superstitious and scared of wolves– and when they heard a wolf howl, they felt something horrible was happening or would happen
Next murder sneaks around stealthily (quietly, hidden , with the intention of not being detected) – pace = the speed you walk
And murder with the ravishing strides of Tarquin moves toward his goal as if a ghost
Ravish = rape Tarquin = A tyrannical Roman leader who snuck into Lucretia’s chamber in the night and raped her. Lucretia, like Duncan was known for her great virtue. Thus– Macbeth, like Tarquin, will be sneaking into the chamber of a virtuous person and committing a great sin – he will murder the virtuous Duncan in Duncan’s sleep – Tarquin raped the virtuous Lucretia in her sleep)
A ghost moves quietly and unseen
So– Macbeth ponders murder as an old man committing an unspeakable sin– one that he himself will commit.
This soliloquy also brings in the presence and references to creatures of the night (wolves– and later beetles, bats, owls, etc)
These are creatures that prey upon weaker creatures in the darkness of night
Thou sure and firm-set earth, Thou = you
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, Thy = your
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.
He now speaks to the earth / ground (personification / apostrophe) which he calls firm (castles were made of stone)
He asks the ground to not hear his steps / to not notice and hear which way he will be walking (to soon kill Duncan) – to not take away the silence that is present
This, of course, refers to the sound of his footsteps
He does not want the ground to prate (chatter / make noise) that gives away where he is and where he is going
By personifying the ground in this way– he refers to the inevitable noise that footsteps make as one walks (especially at night when there are few or no sounds to hide the sound of his footsteps)
He fears that those sounds (his footsteps), if heard by others, will remove the horror that should be associated with this moment and the moments that will follow (which implies he will be heard and he will be stopped – he will be caught)
It also implies that this horrible silence in the dark is appropriate for what he is about to do.
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. Thee = you
While I worry, Duncan still lives
Words / thoughts “cool” the actions – if he stands around thinking too much, he might not be willing to do it anymore
In acts 1-4 – Macbeth is constantly thinking about what he might do, what he is going to do, what he has done – not until Act Five does Macbeth stop thinking – until the final soliloquy when he ponders Lady M’s death and what all of this has meant (in the “Tomorrow” soliloquy.
Then he hears Lady Macbeth ring the bell, indicating that the guards are now drunk and Macbeth can proceed …
He states that he goes it is done (completed) – done gets repeated throughout the play (keep note of those as I go over the play)
He tells Duncan to not hear it for the bell is a knell (the sound made by a bell rung slowly, especially for a death or a funeral)
And that bell is calling Duncan to either heaven or hell (in a Christian context -- one faces judgment after death)
However, Duncan is clearly going to heaven because he is so virtuous– so this brings forth some interesting questions … that can, perhaps, be best answered by thinking about Macbeth who realizes he will jump the life to come by killing Duncan … and, therefore, Duncan goes to heaven for being virtuous – and Macbeth goes to hell for committing such a heinous sin (and, perhaps, Macbeth still has the opportunity to choose between the two moments and not kill Duncan all of this is implied – NOT STATED)
All of the language in this soliloquy suggests that Macbeth has a clear understanding of the gravity and horror of what he is about to do. By killing Duncan, he rips apart the world order of Scotland. His fevered, fractured mind (microcosm of the play) reflects the fractured world (macrocosm of the play) he will rule over until he is killed by MacDuff and order returns to Scotland.
