Paragraph - Macbeth Shakespear

While reading Macbeth Shakespeare was trying to convince the reader that Macbeth was mad and around scene two was when characters in the book started to notice the signs that he was mad as well. He is being to see things that are not really there and is talking to himself about things in his head. "Is this a dagger which I see before me/ The handle toward my hand? Come let me clutch the:/ I have thee not, and yet I see thee still./" (2.1 line 1) Macbeth is seeing a knife floating in the air, handle stretched out to him. But he is aware of the knife not really being there, at the same time is confused with its realness floating in front of him. "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?" This statement proves he is aware of the false appearance of the imaginary dagger. Hence Macbeth may in fact be mad but he does know that he’s going mad so truly that makes him not mad.

Being a director I would have put the dagger scene after Macbeth had committed the murder instead of before because putting the scene before the murder gives the reader the impression that Macbeth is mad and not simply cracking under the stress and guilt of murdering his own friend. Putting the scene before the murder makes it look like he was crazy before he even committed the murder. So I myself do not think Macbeth is mad but the way the play portrays him all of his subjects are under the impression that he is.