The dagger scene
 
In the novel Macbeth, by Shakespeare, Macbeth proves that he is having a battle inside his mind and is going insane. Macbeth is being taunted with the desire to kill the king and take his throne. "Is this a dagger which i see before me? / The handle toward my hand?" (2.1.34-35)This suggests that he has a great desire to make himself king of Cawdor by killing Duncan. He is willing to kill anyone that could stop him of getting his crown. “And on the blade and gouts of blood/ which was not so before." (2.1.46-47) Macbeth understands that the dagger will bring death and distrust from his friends, and make his life better if he succeeds, and so much worse if he fails, and is willing to take the risk. Macbeth is having trouble with his life altering choices going through his head and is going insane with the desire of the crown.




If I were the director


If I were a director in the play Macbeth, with the dagger scene I would prove that he is having no more than a conversation with himself about an imaginary blade. I would exclude a real dagger for the effect of him going insane as he talks to himself on killing the king to take the throne. "A dagger of the mind, a false creation." (2.1.38) This justifies that he sees the dagger yet knows that it’s not real or present. The dagger symbolizes a war raging inside him and he needs to choose what side he’s on, and with this problem crowding his mind he is slowly going insane. “Who’s howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace” (2.1.54) I would have him close his eyes in imagining his words for the audience to understand that he can see everything that he is talking about only in his mind. With him knowing that he is seeing something that’s not there he understands that this burden is affecting him and is going insane.