In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth's visions and hallucinations play a significant role and contribute to the development of his character. In the play Macbeth, a man is driven to kill his king and his companions after receiving a rather ambiguous prophecy told by three witches. Although it was the witches who triggered the series of events that later helped Macbeth descend into complete madness, Macbeth is portrayed from the beginning as a fierce and violent soldier. As the play progresses, several internal conflicts within Macbeth become clear. After performing several bloody tasks, the madness within Macbeth is unmistakably visible to everyone around him. As a result of this madness, he has visions and hallucinations. Every time Macbeth hallucinates, he sinks further into madness which is essentially caused by misguided ambitions, fear, and guilt. Macbeth has three key hallucinations that play a considerably important role in the development of his character: a dagger, the ghost of Banquo, and four apparitions when visiting the prophesying witches. Macbeth's first hallucination and sign of madness comes directly before his wife and the murder. King Duncan. After hearing from the witches that he will become king and talking about it with his wife, the two decide that they must kill Duncan. From the beginning of the play, we see that Macbeth is a loyal, if ferocious, warrior who has no problem killing. It is in the first scene that Macbeth's brutality is illustrated. An army captain reported: “For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name), Disdaining Fortune, with his steel brandished, That smoked with bloody execution, Like valor's servant, he hurled his way Till he faced the slave ; ..... middle of paper ....... His madness was the result of an ambition carried too far, an ambition changed and transformed into evil by internal as well as social conflicts; Macbeth's wife did nothing to prevent Macbeth's illness and in fact helped the problem develop. From his ambition came actions that filled his mind with conflict, fear, suspicion, and guilt. It could be said that Macbeth was mad from the beginning, from the moment the witches appeared to him in the third scene of the play or even from the moment he cut his bloody passage in battle. Whether Macbeth has been mad all his life or only from the moment he first saw the imaginary dagger, it is indisputable that his visions and hallucinations only helped to supplement his madness. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Network. 3 September. 2015.