Examples Of Hallucinations In Macbeth

On one shoulder sits an angle and on the other sits a devil; they are in a constant battle to win your approval over a dilemma. Other people call it their little voice in their head that helps them decipher right from wrong. Regardless of what you call it, when someone goes against what they know to be right they develop a guilty conscience. Sometimes a person can even develop hallucinations from their guilt. Just like in William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Macbeth he shows how a guilty conscience leads to characters imagining things from daggers, ghost, and even blood. Even the thought of doing a wicked deed is enough to bring on hallucinations. When Macbeth realizes that the only way for him to become king, just like the witches predicted, he fantasizes a dagger in front of him. In an aside Macbeth says, “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?”(2.1.36-39). Macbeth sees the dagger and is unsure if it is real or fake because he feels guilty about plotting to kill the current King Duncan. Though before he saw the dagger Macbeth was unsure if he wanted to kill Duncan and take his throne, but after seeing the …show more content…
The definition of a mood-congruent hallucination is, “Any hallucination whose content is consistent with either the depressive or manic state the person may be in at the time. Depressive themes include guilt, death, disease, personal inadequacy, and deserved punishment.”(). A breakdown of the definition is, any person who is depressed or not in their right mind may experiences hallucinations caused by guilt, death, disease, personal inadequacy, and deserved punishment. Saying that guilt is a factor when it comes to the hallucinations that are experienced throughout the