MACBETH

There is an ominous sense of foreboding in the air. Guests are settling in for the night. Fleance feels this and says that he cannot sleep because of "cursed thoughts". The weather is stormy; Macbeth sees a floating dagger, ("Is this a dagger I see before me?") So, Shakespeare is definitely setting the scene for something evil to happen! The dagger, of course, is merely an allusion projected from Macbeth's "heat oppressed brain" (emotional stress). It represents both his dark intentions to kill the king as well as his apprehension for committing such a vile deed.