Macbeth's Hallucinations And Irony

William Shakespeare is known for being “The Man” of playwriting. Born to a glove maker in Stratford-on-Avon, he most likely attended King Edward VI Grammar School. Shakespeare was mostly known for his dramatic works and his sonnet sequence of 154 poems. He didn’t just write with skill, but also with speed, spending only twenty-three years to produce forty plays. He was also a diverse playwright, creating tragedies, histories, and comedies. Two of the most famous tragedies are Macbeth and Hamlet. Theatrical elements that Shakespeare utilized was appearances versus reality that he artfully employs in his works Macbeth and Hamlet. By using appearances versus reality, Shakespeare is able to cast the events of Hamlet and Macbeth in doubt, as well as questioning truth itself.
The theme of the play is shown from the beginning of the play till the end. The witches open the play up with saying “Fair is foul, foul is fair.” (I, i, 11). The quote foreshadowed what could be known as a the beginning of the play. When King Duncan shows up to the castle of Macbeth he says “This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.” (I, vi, 1-2). Unknowingly Duncan was murdered later that night in the ‘peaceful’ castle by Macbeth. In act two, scene one, thirty-three through thirty-four Macbeth experiences his first hallucination with saying “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.” The hallucinations follow Macbeth making him doubt what is real around him what is his own