Hallucinations

• hallucinations serve as reminders of Macbeth and his wife‘s responsibility for the growing death toll
• the bloody dagger that Macbeth sees shortly before killing Duncan represents the bloody course that Macbeth will take by murdering the king
• Banquo‘s ghost that is sitting on Macbeth‘s chair at the feast reminds Macbeth of the fact that he has killed his friend in his endeavour to become king
• Lady Macbeth eventually starts sleepwalking and believes that her hands are covered in blood that can‘t be washed away with water
• it is not clear whether those hallucinations are real; nevertheless, the hallucinations are signs of the guilt that the Macbeth‘s have imposed upon themselves
• also, the hallucinations are the reason for Macbeth and his wife to slowly becoming insane

Violence

• Macbeth as a violent play
• action starts with a bloody battle in which Macbeth defeats the invaders
• the story ends with a bloody battle in which Macbeth is beheaded by Macduff
• in between, a lot of murders take place: King Duncan and his chamberlains are killed, Macbeth instructs some hired murderers to end Banquo‘s life, and the same fate befalls Lady Macduff and her son
• Duncan‘s horses eat each other after Duncan‘s death
• in the end, violence begets violence

Prophecies

• the witches‘ prohecy sets the whole plot in motion as it predicts Macbeth‘s thaneship of Cawdor
• almost all of the witches‘ prophecies come true in the play: only the prophecy about Banquo‘s heirs will be fulfilled after the play
• it is argueable whether the prophecies are self-fulfilling
• the prophecies are to be interpreted as riddles as they are not clear in their message
• Banquo at one point warns Macbeth to be careful about those prophecies, yet Macbeth believes that he will never have to prepare for moving woods or someone not born of a woman