The Use of Hallucinations in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, we see the slow deterioration of Macbeth from a brave, loyal soldier to a killer with no conscience or sense of reality. William Shakespeare’s inclusion of hallucinations and apparitions in Macbeth allows the reader to get deeper inside Macbeth’s mind, from his sense of guilt to his growing insanity, and finally to his blurred sense of reality which ultimately causes his death. Without these “acid freak outs” the reader would never fully grasp the utter chaos occurring inside the mind of the mighty Macbeth.
Shakespeare first uses hallucinations in Macbeth to illustrate Macbeth’s growing insanity. An example of this would be when Macbeth is on his way to kill Duncan. Just before entering Duncan’s chamber a dagger appears before his eyes and he becomes very frightened. “Is this a dagger which I see before me,/ The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.” (II, 1, 33-34) “A dagger of the mind, a false creation,/ proceeding f...