he is dealing with another vision which is being projected to him by his imagination.
The reason why this would already be the most obvious thing is that, at this point, he still finds himself in a trance-like state and, being entirely lost in thought, he is currently engaged in processing the – even for him – sheer unbelievable deed of regicide, which clearly afflicts him heavily. This knock on Macbeth’s castle gate now leads us from the depth of what he experienced back onto the surface where the events of the external plot continue (see Naumann, p.388, l.37f.).
The deed affects him like an unreal horror into which he has put himself – actually against his will. He seems to be in an empty room in which the voice of retribution is resounding (Naumann, p.388, l.13-14) and when he then looks down at his hands, he suddenly startles heavily since they seem to be alive. They move and want to pull out his eyes. As if out of his senses, he asks himself: “What hands are here? Ha: they pluck out mine eyes.“ (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2, l.60) – in disturbed assumption that these are not his hands at all. However, right after that he manages to debunk this too as mere imagination after taking another look. Thus, in this case as well, “it is his soul speaking in the only shape in which it can speak freely, that of imagination (Bradley, p.298, l.17-18) which again pushes the real events completely aside and, in the truest sense of the word, eclipses them.
Additionally, Macbeth is now plagued by severe self-doubt: “To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself.“ (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2, l.74). He experiences the apparentness of his own existence because he does not want to accept that the world he lives in is irrevocable. This world is like a nightmare to him which he would preferably escape (Kott, p.121, l.6-11). Only too gladly would he live in another world, in which he would be free of anxiety and nightmares so that he could enjoy his life as king.
In Macbeth’s apostrophe of the night (Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2, l.47-57) the disparity between imagination and reality also becomes evident. Here, in his delirium he summons the darkness as if it was acting on its own and ready to perform the crime instigated by him – being the murder of his companion Banquo, immediately following this scene:
“Come, seeling night, / Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day / And with thy bloody and invisible hand / Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond / Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, […] / Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, / Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse. […] Things bad begun, make strong themselves by ill.” (Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2, ll.47–56).
In the course of this a kind of frenzy, almost a feeling of pleasure, resonates in the air; a strange mixture of shudder on the one side and happiness, even a certain fascination with evil – which will be expressed in the following criminal deed – on the other side; just like during an experience of something holy. The night and the misdeed committed during it have an ecstatic, numinous character for Macbeth (see Naumann, p.391, l.30-31; l.34-37). His invocation of the night shows how he is not only open, but prone to the world that surrounds us, of which we are shielded in normal life through the governance of our mind. His character is in agitation, which breaks through the shell of the usual consciousness and, therefore, is capable of visions of the extra-human, such as the now following apparitions of Banquo’s ghost and later the incantation of the witches (Naumann, p.392, l.1-8).
9.1.4 Macbeth’s Vision of Banquo’s Ghost During the Banquet Scene
He now displays an experience of passion, the utmost excited disposition, which does not stand under the control of guiding rationality anymore and, therefore, perceives beings and apparitions that surround us in the dark. This ability, along with its dread and threat, is now being demonstrated to us by means of the appearance of the ghost.
This scene (Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4, ll.38-106), being the peripeteia or turning point, constitutes – next to the dagger-monologue covered above – the second climax of Shakespearean introspection into the psyche of the protagonist within the drama, which once again impressively illustrates the disparity between imagination and reality to the audience.
Out of all things, the murdered Banquo– whom Macbeth should no longer be fearing – appears to the new king in the middle of the banquet. As soon as Macbeth mentions him and hypocritically bemoans his absence, Banquo becomes physically present to him – but not for the others – due to the mention and the conception created by it and appears in the gruesome state in which he is now, namely murdered. Just like already before, Shakespeare here again illustrates the horror of inner-worldly loneliness and menace through a projection in daily external life (Naumann, p.392, ll.25-33).