The Dagger Soliloquy

Act 2: Scene 2: Lines 33 - 61

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-oppressèd 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' th' 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 half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate’s offerings, and withered murder, Alarumed 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.

Is this a dagger I see? Positioned with the handle open to my grasp? Come, let me clutch you. And yet I do not hold you, although your remain visible. Are you not able to be felt as well as seen? Or are you an illusion of my mind, a false creation, produced from my over heated brain, a mirage? I see you still, just alike as this real dagger which I draw now. You direct me in the way I had intended, and are in the form of the instrument I was about to use. My eyes are made foolish to my other senses. I now see you drenched in blood, despite moments ago bearing no such condition. This cannot be possible! It is this bloody business that causes this vision! Though half the world would sleep, and nightmares arrive in their minds, while witches celebrate sacrifices to their gods. And the spirit of murder, alerted by his guard wolf's howls, moves towards his target stealthily, like a ghost. I plead this earth to quiet my steps, lest the sound giveaway my position, and the horror of this action be seen to early. Duncan continues to live, while I wait here, muttering threats of cold deeds in the dark.

In this soliloquy, Macbeth hallucinates seeing a dagger, which leads him to Duncan's chamber, and shows blood being spilled. This is useful to the play because it allows Shakespeare to foreshadow the gruesome and horrifying scene of Duncan's death, but leaves the actual scene of the killing to the imagination of the audience. Much like suspense movies such as Alien, leaving a death offscreen, to the imagination of the viewer, is often more effective than simply showing the death itself. This scene is important to generate suspense, using the imagery of night spirits to its advantage, and also to demonstrate how distraught Macbeth still is about killing Duncan. The dagger represents the idea of treachery in his mind, and its illusion represents how he cannot truly be evil until he has completed this task.