In this scene Banquo and his son Fleance are talking in the courtyard at Macbeths castle late at night. Banquo is talking about bad feeling he has about the night, he says “There is husbandry in heaven, Their candles are all out,” meaning he thinks heaven is turning its back and not looking at this night. Just then Macbeth and a servant appear and Macbeth and Banquo have a strained and suspicious discussion about the witch’s predictions, Macbeth pretends he doesn’t think about it but it is very obvious he is pretending to brush it aside so Banquo doesn’t suspect him. They all leave for bed and Macbeth says a long sililoque about his thoughts: he is seeing a dagger in front of him, but doesn’t know if he imagining it or not. His mind is still undecided about the act he is about to commit and he is starting to go slightly crazy, probably from fear, confusion, and dark forces (like Witchs?) He gets so paranoid he even starts asking the stones to not make any sound and keep him hidden. Then a bell rings, signaling that Lady Macbeth has knocked out the guards with drunkenness and he can continue with is plan….
PERSONIFICATION IN MACBETH PARAGRAPH
In Macbeth Shakespear uses lots of different language techniques to make the plays more interesting. One example is personification. An example of this is when Macbeth says “Is this a dagger I see before me, The handle towards my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” Making the dagger into a person helps to show Macbeths thoughts by showing that he is still nervous and undecided about his decision to kill King Duncan. It seems like he is making it a person so he can have an excuse to do it, like the dagger is convincing him, and helping him (“handle towards my hand“) to do it, so less responsibility for his actions falls on him. This also shows that he knows what he is about to do is wrong, but is still doing it. Shakespear would have done this to start showing Macbeths downfall (because it is a tragedy….) from a respectable man to (presumably) a dead criminal. he would have used the personifying of the dagger for the same effect as above and also to have an excuse for Macbeth to talk to himself. (It would be a bit boring if he was talking to himself the whole time, and not to someone/something else.)
