If you were a director, how would you stage the dagger soliloquy and why?

       If I were a director I would stage the dagger soliloquy without showing the dagger. The point of the scene is to show that Macbeth is going crazy. If you can’t see the dagger, but Macbeth is still talking about it, you will be able to distinguish the fact that he is mad. When Macbeth says, “I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” (2.1 35) There shouldn’t be a dagger, but Macbeth should be acting as if it were right in front of him. It makes more sense to show it how other people would see him in that moment, rather than how he would see himself. Without a dagger it shows how mad Macbeth is.

Is Macbeth Mad?

     In Act 2 Scene 1, Macbeth is going mad and it’s starting to be shown in the way he thinks to himself about killing the king. The first quote that proves this statement is when Macbeth thinks “Or art thou but/ A dagger of the mind, a false creation/ Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain.” (2.1 37-39) Macbeth believes he sees a dagger in front of him that will help him kill the king. There isn’t actually a dagger there but he is hallucinating and believes he sees one. Another quote that helps prove that Macbeth is mad is, “There is no such thing/ It is the bloody which informs/ Thus to mine eyes.” (2.1 47-49) He knows that he isn’t thinking properly and he is aware he’s seeing things, yet he still believes everything he thinks he’s seeing. Macbeth is mad and he is fully aware of it.