of being a man. This makes him want to prove her wrong and redeem himself from being called a coward. The third point is the one that finalises Macbeth’s decision; this is when Lady Macbeth says:‘I have given suck, and knowHow tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me;I would, while it was smiling in my face,Have pluck’d my nipple from its boneless gums,And dash’d the brains out, had I sworn as youHave done to this.’This means that she’d never break a promise and always keeps her word. She is implying that Macbeth doesn’t know how powerful a promise can be to a person, and how far you should go to keep one. To give an example of this, she uses a foul and disgusting way of expressing how far she would go to keep a promise that she had sworn on. The example she gives of beating the brains out of her own child just proves that she is beginning to go insane and psychotic. All of this abuse from his wife defeats him and immediately alters Macbeth’s final decision and so he has agreed with his wife to kill the King. By now, Macbeth is starting to show signs of stress, for out in the courtyard, he seems to speak few words in reply to Banquo’s comments and questions. Also, he is very confused about what is going on and what he is about to do in the near future. He is convinced that he is living in his own nightmare. Macbeth is alarmed when his imagination first creates the dagger, because it is a part of his conscience and his deteriorating mental state. The hallucination he is experiencing is caused by stress. What makes the situation worse, is that his conscience is almost certainly lost now, and instead of helping him, it lures him further down the corridor. As Macbeth follows the floating dagger, it is as if the pace of his words slows down as he walks along the corridor. This is a good use of language because it makes it sound as if his steps are getting heavie...
