Hallucination Motif In Macbeth

Register to read the introduction… During a banquet in Macbeth’s castle, Macbeth hallucinates Banquo’s ghost. Banqou appears bloody and beaten as a reminder to Macbeth that he had his former friend and ally murdered. These hallucinations show Macbeth’s great guilt over ordering the murder of Banquo and his son. This scene is the climax of the play; it shows Macbeth’s conscience punishing him for his crimes. The hallucinations are very important to the play because they show the overwhelming guilt Macbeth feels. With Macbeth’s apparent fit of insanity; he appears to be mentally unstable to his court and unfit to be King. When Lady Macbeth says, “Sit worthy friends, my lord is often thus / and hath been from his youth. Pray you keep seat,” she is trying to ease the minds of the worried lords (346). Macbeths deteriorating sanity is clearly seen by his court and his status as king is questioned. …show more content…
Through the play Lady Macbeth is a character with seemingly little guilt and she is the driving force behind Macbeth killing Duncan. But towards the end of the play, Lady Macbeth has hallucinations of bloody hands as she sleepwalks. The hallucinations of Lady Macbeth reveal the guilt she has for the bloody actions of her and her husband. Although Lady Macbeth was easy to suggest murder to her husband this scene shows that she had a guilty conscience. With Lady Macbeth’s hallucinations, she was ultimately led to suicide to escape from the tremendous