Macbeth, throughout Shakespeare tragedy, Macbeth, faces traumatising events and life-changing decisions that have severe consequences on him in many ways. It would seem as if his state of mind was slowly deteriorating over his power-hungry ambition to be king of Scotland. “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” This said by one of the witches in act 1 scene 3. It is what made Macbeth so ambitious to one day be the king of Scotland. The prophecy from the witches predicted that he will be king. In Shakespeare tragedy Macbeth, Shakespeare has adopted many distinctive language features to express how Macbeth’s power-mad ambition to be king, drives his state of mind downhill over the course of the play. Macbeth’s mental state is like a snowball beginning to start rolling down a slope as it goes causing chaos and or confusion as it makes it way down.

Before the death of the king of Scotland, which was Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger hovering before him. You could say he is hallucinating or imagining the dagger. The dagger before Macbeth is all bloody. When he goes to grasp the dagger he can not. Macbeth can not decide whether its a phantom or just his imagination. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? come, let me clutch thee:- ” Macbeth has made the decision at this point to kill Duncan, to then take the crown. The decision to murder Duncan is aided by the prophecies from witches. Macbeth is tormented with the guilt of what he is about to do. The thought of such an evil action keeps racing through his head. It is at this point in time when. Macbeth sees a bloody dagger floating in the air in front of him. What he sees is either phantom or just an imagination of the bloody dagger floating above him. Macbeth observing the dagger convinces him to complete his dire deed as well as his power-hungry ambition to be king. This quote dagger of the mind is Shakespeare using symbolism, which is a language feature used to express Macbeth’s state of mind deteriorating. Symbolism is only one of many languages features Shakespeare uses in the play to show Macbeth’s state of mind coming crashing down.

Macbeth’s power-hungry ambition to be king of Scotland is sending his state of mind to constantly going downhill throughout the play. Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter to subtly conceal the changes in the rhythm of Macbeth’s speech. In Macbeth and in other Shakespeare plays,  characters and other people with higher rank of authority speak in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short or unstressed syllable followed by one long or stressed syllable. Macbeth throughout the play uses iambic pentameter for the majority of the time. But the times where he does not speak in iambic pentameter are the times at servant points in the play where we can observe Macbeth’s mental state continuing to come crashing down. “The castle of Macduff I will surprise;  Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o’ the sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;” This section of Macbeth soliloquy is from when Macbeth is planning to kill Macduff’s family. Since Macbeth killed Duncan at the start of the play his mental state has constantly been getting worse. “seize upon fife……all unfortunate souls” are the two lines from the quote I used that do not follow the iambic pentameter rhythm. The other lines from my quote follow the rhythm. This is the sign that his mental state is deteriorating subtly concealed in the rhythm of his speech. Iambic pentameter is another language feature used by Shakespeare to illustrate Macbeth’s state of mind deteriorating further. However, Shakespeare does not just use the language features symbolism and iambic pentameter to illustrate hidden underlying messages in the play.

Shakespeare has adopted the use of metaphor to help the readers of his plays to understand a concept or concepts. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses metaphor to help show Macbeth’s mind coming crashing down. Over the course of the play, from the moment the witches predicted he would one day be the king of Scotland he got power-hungry. This power-hungry ambition to come to power and be the king of Scotland has had a constant effect on his mental state. Through the use of metaphor, Shakespeare has helped the reader understand and observe Macbeth’s mental state deteriorating throughout the play.  “O full of scorpions is my mind… thou knowst that Banquo and his Fleance lives.” In this quote, the scorpions represent both Macbeth’s uneasiness and his dark desire to murder Fleance and Banquo. The knowledge that Fleance and Banquo are still alive fills Macbeth with anxiety and dread. By saying his mind is full of scorpions, Macbeth means that he cannot rest easy while they are alive. His restlessness comes from the witches’ prophecy that Banquo will have kings in his family line, which is a threat to Macbeth’s throne.

The traumatising events that have severely affected his mental state has been shown through Shakespeare’s use of symbolism, iambic pentameter and metaphor. Shakespeare was very good at portraying an idea or concept through his effective use of language features. His execution of those language features in the play Macbeth, helped the reader of the text to understand the idea that Macbeth’s power-hungry ambition to be the king of Scotland, was causing his mental state to gradually deteriorate. From the moment the witches prophecy said “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”  His ambition gradually made him go mad and insane. You say that Macbeth’s state of mind is like a snowball rolling down a slope, as the snowball picks up more snow it gets faster. The faster it goes the faster it is to come to the bottom of the slope, it then coming to a complete standstill. All broken apart and destroyed.