Power of Imagination in Macbeth

Throughout life people are faced with things that they may think are real, but are in fact figments of their imagination. It is when the power of imagination takes over that one’s perception of everything around them changes. It is a powerful tool with the ability to help individuals succeed, as well as destroy them. It is when a person allows their it to take a complete hold of them that things begin to take a turn for the worst. In the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, the author develops the idea that imagination has the power to cloud one’s perception of reality to the point where darkness within them is brought to the surface. Hallucinations have the ability to affect a person’s state of mind and cause them to make unmoral decisions. Macbeth sees the dagger as “such an instrument that [he] was to use”, which further encourages him to carry out the plan of killing Duncan. After seeing the dagger it “marshall’st [him] the way that [he] was going”, as if it is beckoning him towards the castle quickly, commanding him to commit the treacherous deed. “thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, which was not so before”, showing Macbeth what was going to happen when he killed Duncan. The dagger acted as a motivating factor to get Duncan to bring Duncan to his death. When people believe that something is real, they will go to any lengths to convince themselves of it, despite any doubt that they might have. Our mind has the ability to twist things to that we have different views of them, which brings out evil within them that they never knew they had. Imagination has the power to drive people insane and stop them from thinking clearly. As Macbeth stands outside he asks if “art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?”, because he is unable to think clearly about the task at hand. He isn’t even able to tell if what he is seeing is real or not. Macbeth continues by saying that “Now o'er the one half-world nature...