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Macbeth - Visions and Hallucinations

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?Macbeth’s visions and hallucinations allow the audience an insight into the characters mind. Macbeth saw a bloody dagger right before he was going to kill Duncan, he also saw Banguos ghost after he hired people to kill him and his son Fleance, but Fleance escapes. Later on Macbeth is visited by three apparitions. The visions of the bloody dagger showed up right before Macbeth was going to kill Duncan, but it was also pointing to Duncan’s room. This foreshadows Macbeth’s murder of Duncan. Initially, the bloody dagger is “showing” Macbeth what must be done. Showing him an imaginary dagger is just one way of attempting to ameliorate the severity of his crime. Macbeth cannot help himself. He is hypnotized by a vision that is leading him into the death chamber against his will. Before Macbeth sees Banguo’s ghost he is already paranoid. Not only does he ask the murderers who killed Banguo twice if Banguo really is dead, but he also admits that he is uneasy because Fleance got away. Macbeth is the only one who can see Banguo’s ghost leading many critics to conclude that Banguo’s ghost is not ‘real’, but a delusion-a manifestation of his evil sub-conscious and the fear and guilt that have completely overwhelmed paralyzed him. Shakespeare uses the appearance of Banguo’s ghost as a means of revealing to his readers the mental turmoil of Macbeth. Banguo’s ghost sits in “Macbeth’s place” clearly signifying the fact that although Macbeth might be the king of Scotland now, in the future it is the children of Banguo who will be the kings of Scotland. As soon as Macbeth sees Banguo’s ghost he is completely devastated by fear and guilt and in the presence of Ross and Lennox and the other lords he virtually confessed to murdering Banguo: “Thou canst not say I did it: never shake/thy gory looks at me.” The suspicions of Ross and Lennox and the other lords that Macbeth is a treacherous usurper are aroused and they deci

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