IS THIS A DAGGER?
Review Macbeth's "Is this a dagger" soliloquy. This speech is famous for the imagery it
evokes, and the ambivalence of this imagery: is Macbeth really seeing a dagger, just as he
has
seen witches? Is he hallucinating? Should the audience see what he is seeing, or should we
have to imagine it?
ACTIVITY: STORYBOARD A SPEECH (DVD 17): You are the director of a short-film
illustrating this soliloquy. Create a "storyboard" to plan your shots. Draw 15-20 images
that illustrate particular moods, words, or phrases from a section of text that interests
you. For example, you might draw a close-up of Macbeth's eyes ("mine eyes" II,i.44),
then a wide-shot of a group of fools laughing ("the fools o' the other senses" (II,i.44),
followed by an image of Macbeth's face in which the eyes are "worth all the rest"
(II,i.45)—i.e., an image in which Macbeth's face has been stripped of ears, mouth, and
nose, and only eyes remain. Feel free to explore alternate meanings or unusual
representations of the text.
b. Tone/Mood - How would you read this soliloquy? What tone would you use? How would Macbeth
sound? Have a student read the soliloquy in a fearful way –is there any other ways the soliloquy can be
read?
vi. Prompt- Have students summarize in a paragraph what we learn about Macbeth from this soliloquy,
have all of them share afterwards – this can also be expanded into a prompt that asks students, based on
the soliloquy, how Macbeth feels about the murder beforehand and why he commits to the act. Based on
how he feels beforehand, how do you think he will feel afterwards?
6. What is the effect of Duncan’s murder being set offstage? Would it have been more effective if it were
done onstage? By not seeing the actual murder, the deed seems more terrible, because we are imagining
it (use the example of being afraid of the dark – we are afraid of that which we cannot see, because we
create our own fears and horrors in that darkness)
Spoken by Macbeth, Macbeth Act 2 Scene 1
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.
Based on the soliloquy, how does Macbeth feels about the murder beforehand and why
does he commit to the act? Based on how he feels beforehand, how do you think he will
feel afterwards?
How does Macbeth feel about the murder
Why does he commit to the act
How do you think he will feel after he murders Duncan?
ii. We know that in Act II, Macbeth is committed to the murder. How do we know this? He has already
promised Lady Macbeth that he will murder Duncan; what would happen if he turned back now? How
would Lady Macbeth think of him? She would call him unmanly, cowardly, and Macbeth, from who we
have seen in Act I, has enormous pride in his bravery and masculinity. It is because of his pride that he
remains committed to the murder, but how does he feel about it?
** Macbeth’s character flaw is his pride and his ambition. What does he have pride in? It’s the same thing
that Lady Macbeth used to convince him to kill Duncan – she called him unmanly, cowardly. Macbeth has
pride in his bravery and his masculinity, and in his eyes, both of those things are on the line if he doesn’t
kill Duncan. Macbeth is also overly ambitious – he wants what is not in his power to have. He should be
content with the promotion of Thane of Cawdor, but his greedy ambition causes him to commit evil in
order to secure the throne.