Banquo's Ambition In Macbeth

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“I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done;/ Look on ‘t again I dare not” (Act 2, Scene 2, lines 49-51). In The Tragedy of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, there are three witches, whose predictions lead Macbeth to murder King Duncan. Macbeth is a Scottish general, and he is power-hungry, so he decided to kill King Duncan for the throne. In comparison to Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth is more ambitious. In their relationship, Lady Macbeth seems like the one who is in control; she persuaded Macbeth to murder king Duncan when Macbeth was contemplating about it. Banquo is general who encountered the three witches with Macbeth, and the witches prophesy that Banquo’s son will be king. The witches’ prophecies about Banquo…show more content…
When Macbeth was about to kill King Duncan, he said “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” (Act 2, Scene 1, lines 33-35). In this quote, Macbeth’s ambitions were fully represented, because he wanted to hold the dagger. In fact, he tried to hold the dagger, but he was not able to because the dagger is his imagination. Then, Macbeth said “Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going,/ and such an instrument I was to use” (Act 2, Scene 1, lines #42-43). When Macbeth said that the dagger is leading him to King Duncan’s room, this shows that it is actually not the dagger that is leading; it is actually his own mind. The dagger in this case represented Macbeth’s thought, because the dagger is imaginative, so anything he saw is his…show more content…
Before Macbeth murdered King Duncan, he saw a bloody dagger. Macbeth said “Mine eyes are made the fools o’the’ other sense,/ 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” (Act 2, Scene 1, lines #44-49).The bloody dagger shocked Macbeth and it foreshadows what he is going to do. When Macbeth saw the bloody dagger, he hesitated about killing King Duncan, but Lady Macbeth’s bell signal wake him up from the hesitation. After the bell rings, Macbeth said “I go, and it is done; the bell invites me./ Here it not, Duncan, for it is a knell” (Act 2, Scene 1, lines #62-63). In this case, I think Macbeth hallucinated about the bloody dagger because he feels guilty about what he is going to do. His conscience is trying to warn

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