Macbeth: A Dagger of the Mind

Shakespeare's Personalities

by Harold Bloom

From the greatest Shakespeare scholar of our time, comes a portrait of Macbeth, one of William Shakespeare’s most complex and compelling anti-heroes—the final volume in a series of five short books about the great playwright’s most significant personalities: Falstaff, Cleopatra, Lear, Iago, Macbeth.

From the ambitious and mad titular character to his devilish wife Lady Macbeth to the moral and noble Banquo to the mysterious Three Witches, Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s more brilliantly populated plays and remains among the most widely read, performed in innovative productions set in a vast array of times and locations, from Nazi Germany to Revolutionary Cuba. Macbeth is a distinguished warrior hero, who over the course of the play, transforms into a brutal, murderous villain and pays an extraordinary price for committing an evil act. A man consumed with ambition and self-doubt, Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most vital meditations on the dangerous corners of the human imagination.

Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom investigates Macbeth’s interiority and unthinkable actions with razor-sharp insight, agility, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character: Just as we encounter one Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are seventeen and another when we are forty, Bloom writes about his shifting understanding—over the course of his own lifetime—of this endlessly compelling figure, so that the book also becomes an extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity.

Bloom is mesmerizing in the classroom, wrestling with the often tragic choices Shakespeare’s characters make. He delivers that kind of exhilarating intimacy and clarity in Macbeth, the final book in an essential series.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction, Criticism, Literary Criticism, Books About Books, Essays, Audiobook

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 2, 2019

About the author

Harold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world." After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.

Reviews

[Darwin8u · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Something in us dies with MacBeth: call it ambition or the iniquity of an imagination that does not know how to stop."
- Harold Bloom, MacBeth: A Dagger of the Mind



This is the last of the five books Bloom wrote directly about Shakespeare's big personalities. He wrote five books in his series Shakespeare's Personalities:

Falstaff: Give Me Life (1) ✔
Cleopatra: I Am Fire and Air (2)
Lear: The Great Image of Authority (3) ✔
Iago: The Strategies of Evil (4)
Macbeth: A Dagger of the Mind (5) ✔

I've now read 3/5 and should finish the last two in a few months. In many ways this seems like something Bloom may have intended to write more of. I can't see these as being the only worthy personalities in Shakespeare, but time is fickle, the grave beckons, and Bloom was definitely a man of letters and varied interests.

Jumping back into this series, they also seems a bit weak on Bloom's analysis. There are some charming turns of phrases and some unique insight, but a large section of this small book is basically just defining terms or phrases, giving some background, and quoting the Bard a lot. Which is basically the framework of any good commentary, just not a GREAT commentaries. I'll finish the last two because they don't cost much in time, they are interesting (I didn't feel my time was wasted), and I'm a sucker for completing something I start.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read any other books in this series where Harold Bloom writes about Shakespeare's most significant characters. But I sure will after this. Very interesting and informative to read eitputh being too worldly or at all boring.

[Mark Fulk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a eulogistic quality, as Bloom through the series of five books on Shakespeare's characters says goodbye to years of teaching and writing about Shakespeare (he is 88). When the bluster against any movement in literature that is not essentially formalist is gone--and it is herein--we remember what a clear and sensitive reader Bloom can be.

[Carol Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Macbeth is just as weird as the Weird Sisters who prophesy to him, according to noted Shakespearean scholar Harold Bloom. This book is Bloom's portrait of the character Macbeth.

As a Shakespeare geek, I devoured the book. It contains large sections of the play, but nevertheless it feels fresh. One insight I gained was that Macbeth had a spy in every thane's holding. There is a line in the play to that effect, but I had always passed over that. The obsessed tyrant was trying to see everywhere, to control everyone.

Bloom has the conventional idea that Lady Macbeth became mad but Macbeth did not. It seems to me the his portrait of Macbeth is a study in insanity. I also take issue with Bloom's contention that the Macbeths were the happiest married couple in Shakespeare's plays. Bloom postulates that Macbeth has a problem with premature ejaculation and that Lady M is taunting him over it. Happy? Yes, Macbeth loved her, but I'm not sure the reverse was true.

This is a thought-provoking book, probably a must for those of us who are obsessed with Shakespeare's plays.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, nothing says “October” better than Macbeth. 👻 🎃

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bloom argues Macbeth’s grandeur gives him a certain goodness. I agree but the argument needs an ethical theory he doesn’t provide.

[Matt McCormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Macbeth to be the best in Bloom's series on Shakespeare's personalities. More than in the previous three I've read, Macbeth reproduces the text of the play and intersperses Bloom's commentary in bite-sized pieces. The passion of the play is reflected in Bloom's voice. As always, he is an insightful critic.

What this series has done for me is to provide a way to understand the play in a rereading that is deeper and more complex. Like a lot of people, I stumble in understanding language and the many antiquated phrases and often feel that I have only a broad sense of what's transpiring. Bloom's critique supports a reader trying to understand why the characters are unique, what their place is within the corpus of Shakespeare and literature in general. More basically, understanding their place in the specific paly itself.

One more to go - Iago

[amax · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I respect Bloom's scholarship, and have enjoyed other of his work, this reader's digest of Macbeth falls short of expectations with very little insightful commentary or analyses scattered in between the long quoted passages. I expected this type of book to be a deep character analysis of Macbeth, but it ended up being a beginner's guide to the play.

I would not recommend this book to fellow scholars who are looking for critical insight into Macbeth. However, this would be a good introductory look at a complex play, and it might make the work more accessible to every day Shakespeare readers and enthusiasts.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this commentary and it helped me understand the play better. I would have liked more commentary though. Large parts were just the play itself with 1 or 2 thoughts after and then another large section of the play. While this was enjoyable, I choose the book for the commentary and insight.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely included quite a few deep and (inevitably, from Bloom) eloquently-elaborated insights, but the chronologicality is a little plodding and doesn't provide much structure to the analysis. So it was vivid enough to conjure scenes well, but not polemical enough to alter my perception of the play significantly. But that may be too stringent an expectation.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Macbeth is great, but this adds little to its greatness.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little book that does what literary criticism should do: explain what the work is about and extol a work that is great

[L.H. Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Macbeth is one of my favorites.

Reading this book actually helped me understand it more then I already did. An indepth examination of a classic play.

[Laurel Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long life of reading, loving, and teaching Shakespeare gave Bloom a richness of understanding that he has passed down to us. He will be missed.

[John Matthew IV · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on Macbeth. Bloom knows his subject. He goes through the play almost line-by-line, sharing his commentary.

An index would have been a great addition.

Recommended!

p. 5: The motto of Macbeth, both play and person, could well be: "And nothing is, but what is not."

p. 8: Long ago I remember characterizing the Macbeths as the happiest marriage in Shakespeare. That can be seen a grim jest, yet it is veracious.

p. 8: Lady Macbeth is a widow.

p. 9: Shakespeare is a great master of ellipses, of leaving things out. He relies upon our mature imaginations to fill out what is only suggested.

p. 11: In a drama of two thousand lines, "time" is employed in fifty-one instances.

p 22: When Banquo departs, Macbeth suffers a hallucinatory soliloquy:
Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 33-39
MACBETH:
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?

p. 28: Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 34-35
LADY MACBETH:
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

She is prophetic and indeed will go mad, yet he will not. It fascinates me that she is the stronger of the two in will and audacity, yet the cost of that will gradually diminishes her. Macbeth, virtually useless in this aftermath, will recover and surge on from enormity to enorimity.

p. 33: The wonderful ironies of the Porter are antiphonal to the incessant knocking at the gate.
"alternate or responsive singing by a choir in two divisions."

p. 47: Colmekill is the island of Iona

p. 61: The third murderer is a spy sent by Macbeth.

p. 64: The escape of Fleance is the onset of the fall of Macbeth.

p. 68: Unique among Shakespeare's ghosts, the spirit of Banquo is voiceless, but its nod is eloquent.

p. 80: The word "strange" is used twenty times in this short play.

p. 80: Indirectly, Lennox accuses Macbeth of both assassinations, Duncan's and Banquo's.

P. 85: To analyze it would be pedantic.

p. 88: The augmenting blood-madness of Macbeth befits this drama, where "blood" or "bloody" occurs forty-one times, second only to "time" itself. He begins to believe that anyone alive must be killed, children in particular.

p. 95: threnody: a poem, speech, or song of lamentation, especially for the dead; dirge; funeral song. (dictionary.com)

p. 101: Some critics condemn the next scene (4.3), where Malcolm and Macduff, in the proximity of the court of King Edward the Conessor, have a rather long and complex exchange.
-- Critics like me!

p. 113: There is a prolepsis of Macbeth's doom by the sword of Macduff.
"the representation of something in the future as if it already existed or had occurred" (dictionary.com)

p. 134: The younger Siward is the final sacrifice to Macbeth's fury.

[Paul Reichstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Bloom. I grieved when he passed a few years back, but what a gorgeous legacy he has left of a life dedicated to reading, devouring, unpacking, scrutinising and celebrating the English language’s most important dramatist/poet.

I read this alongside of rehearsals for a production of Macbeth, in which I play Macduff, so these words of Shakespeare are so heightened in my mind. What a companion piece it is to whet the whistle and fire up the passion, but compared to Bloom, I have none! He speaks of these characters as if they were neighbours and his intimacy with the text and its resonance across eons is addictive. He is scholarship with joy, academia with a pulsing heart and he possesses such a deep admiration for his subjects that they feel always just so relevant. “Why do we continue to read Shakespeare?” my students often ask. I want them to work it out for themselves and try to pave the way for them too, but often I just want to hand them Bloom.

Bloom continues to paint these plays as eternal and absurdly modern and this one volume about the so-called ‘Dagger Poet’ with the absurdly fertile mind and imagination is almost scary in its celebration of someone so tyrannical. Bloom wastes no time in bridging the gap between ‘us’ and ‘him’ and celebrates Shakespeare’s ability to place ourselves complicit in the actions and the words of Macbeth. As he states at the end, “yet for all his negativity, Macbeth’s vitality survives in our hearts. We cannot love him, since we are not Shakespeare, but absorbing him heightens our sense of being.” Just so true. When a playwright forces you to find similarity between self and essentially a child-killer and maniacal ways, there's something pretty special going on. "I am torn between admiring Shakespeare's everliving art and wincing at its effect on me."

Along with Emma Smith, Bloom is my favourite Shakespeare scholar. I look forward to delving into the rest of these reader-friendly little volumes, because his deep love of the playwright is inspiring and always asks me to rethink, dig deeper and spend more time in the perfect canon of work that is William Shakespeare.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ive not read a lot of formal literary criticism outside of educational settings, so it was an interesting endeavour to read this after Macbeth. Bloom is famously a Shakespeare authority, but this little book was both very approachable and also insightful, for the more casual reader. It shows Bloom's quality both as an academic, but also as a teacher that he can make his thoughts this accessible to the layman.

There might not be much in here for the English lit post-grads/doctorates etc, but for you and I, this book had some excellent talking points and additions that go beyond the notes in the Norton Critical Edition of Macbeth that I read. I realize this isn't for everyone, but I'm glad I have the Cleopatra volume, and will probably dive into that sometime soon also.

In reality a large portion of the book is reproductions of the play, and maybe only like 45% of the book is Bloom's writing. Some will find that a waste of money, but I appreciated being able to follow that journey without having both books open. Having read this book, it felt like I had sat in a lecture with bloom going over the play at a good level of detail, but with lots of opportunities or nuggets laid out for me to dive into in my own time with further reading.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, Harold Bloom, criticism's favorite crank. I haven't read Bloom since college, but I just finished Macbeth with my students, so I was in the mood for some commentary on it. This was... fine. I learned a few things and gathered some different perspectives to consider, but I didn't find this to be a well-supported when it came to interpretation. Many times, Bloom just asserts something with absolutely no evidence. I'm not a Shakespeare scholar, so I can't speak to what is considered common knowledge, but some of these interpretations raised my eyebrow a bit.

There is a lot of "long passages with a short discussion following" and I was left wanting more depth. It also definitely has a "you've been cornered by someone at a party and they're going to talk at you about their passion" vibe to it. I imagine this is what being a professor is like for some anyway, although it was not my experience in higher ed, generally.

I'll still read some more of his work, but I wasn't overly impressed. I guess I did enjoy just going with the flow of following his meandering thoughts on the play and wouldn't mind doing so again, but I can't say he convinced me on his interpretations.

[Zico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third Harold Bloom book on Shakespeare's characters that I read after Lear and Hamlet; it is my favourite so far. It increased my appreciation of the play incrementally with each chapter. After finishing Macbeth last week, I gave it a 3 star rating on Goodreads. Half-way through A Dagger of the Mind, I had to increase my rating to 4 stars, as Harold Bloom kept unfolding more and more of Shakespeare's magic to my uneducated mind. Two chapters before the end of the book, I changed my rating to five stars and added Macbeth to my favourite books of all time. As I was reading this book, I kept going back to the play and adding more highlights and notes as Bloom untangled the mystifying prose for me and drew my attention to the subtleties and nuances of Shakespeare's language.

TLDR; I would NOT have understood and liked Macbeth half as much without this book. I would give it five stars if not for the tiny size of it. Harold Bloom is at his best when he talks about Shakespeare. His explanations are crystal-clear and his passion is contagious.

[Mina E · Rating 3 out of 5]

كنت بجاحة لقراءة ادبية بسيطة ، فاخترت كتاب لهارولد بلووم، بروفيسور العلوم الانسانية في جامعة Yale
الكتاب ممكن يكون مدخل لفهم مسرحية ماكبث لكن بالنسبة لمن قراها سابقا لن يكون اضافة كبيرة ، لانه في فقرات كثيرة منقولة من النص الاصلي لكن هو بسطها و شرح معانيها مثلا الدائرة الذهبية تعني تاج الملك..

هو يرى ان ماكبث و زوجته اسعد زوجين في مسرحيات شيكسبير, يتشاركان الجشع ووالطموح و الشغف كلها امور ادت لتعلقهم الجنسي ببعض رغم انه من وجهة نظر المؤلف كان يعاني ماكبث من القذف السريع ، لا اعلم كيف استنتج ذلك😂..و يعتبر ان رغبتهما بالسلطة تندمج مع الرغبة المتبادلة..

هو تحدث عن ان شيكسبير اعتبر المتلقي هو ماكبث لذلك فقط ماكبث و المتلقي يسمعان الساحرات في مشاهد معينة( اللواتي تنبأن بطريقةموته و توليه الملك قبلها ..

ايضا تحدث عن حالة عن مسرحية شيكسبير ماكبث ، انه مهما شاهدناها نبقى متعلقين ، و فعلا انا قراتها بالاعدادية اكثر من مرة، ثم في مرحلة العشرينات و شاهدتها بعمل سينمائي و ما زال الشغف موجود

هو لم يرى ان ماكبث ارتكب عمل غير اخلاقي بخيانة الملك لكن برايي انه كان يجب ان يشرح هذه الفكرة اكثر ،
نيتشه يعتبر ان تجسيد ماكبث للطموح الصاخب و موته بسبب طموحه هو ما يجعل هذا العمل بهذه الروعة.
تقييمي ٣ نجوم للكتاب

[Blaze · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this as I taught Macbeth to my juniors this year. I think this would be a really useful resource for them, or for anyone reading Macbeth for the first time. My issue with this book (and I almost rated this 3 stars) was that so many of the comments Bloom put in were mere translations of Shakespearian English into a more modern form. Again, useful for the new reader, but not really helpful to someone who knows the play front to back (though seeing someone else's take on the language is interesting). There are several flashes of brilliant analysis in this text, though. From what I have read of this book's other reviews, Bloom's other offerings in the vein are better than this one in terms of his own thoughts and contributions to the study of that text. I will have to read them and see!

[Guina Guina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this as I taught Macbeth to my juniors this year. I think this would be a really useful resource for them, or for anyone reading Macbeth for the first time. My issue with this book (and I almost rated this 3 stars) was that so many of the comments Bloom put in were mere translations of Shakespearian English into a more modern form. Again, useful for the new reader, but not really helpful to someone who knows the play front to back (though seeing someone else's take on the language is interesting). There are several flashes of brilliant analysis in this text, though. From what I have read of this book's other reviews, Bloom's other offerings in the vein are better than this one in terms of his own thoughts and contributions to the study of that text. I will have to read them and see!

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be seeing The Scottish Play again at Oregon Shakespeare Festival later this year, so I thought I'd check out this new book and see what Harold Bloom has to say about the doomed monarch.

It's a short book, 140 pages, and walks through the play, quoting copiously throughout, with brief explanations and opinions. It's fine for what it is, but it's probably intended as an introductory text rather than an in-depth analysis. I could see it assigned to college freshmen reading the play for the first time. It's a step up from "Macbeth for Dummies" if such a thing were to exist, but doesn't hold much enlightenment for those who are well familiar with the play.

[Downward · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's fine but it's basically bloom doing his bloom thing, a line by line interpretation of the text with nothing really revelatory and a leaning toward the most anodyne (and likely correct) read of the text while providing historical context and investigating things like metaphors individually. again, it's fine. if you're aching for more macbeth content in your life it'll do. I read looking for a little extra juice because im currently teaching macbeth and it didn't really bring anything to the table for me except for solidify some basic ideas that were already fairly concrete.

[Alexander Asay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deep dive into Shakespeare's tragic hero, offering fresh insights into Macbeth's psyche.

Macbeth: A Dagger of the Mind concludes a series on Shakespeare's characters by focusing on one of the Bard's most enigmatic and haunting figures. The book provides a thorough, scene-by-scene analysis, exploring Macbeth's ambition, his prophetic imagination, and the psychological torment that defines his tragic arc.

Bloom reads Macbeth as a visionary, driven by a "prophetic imagination" that both propels him towards kingship and leads to his downfall. Insights into Lady Macbeth's role and the symbolic significance of the witches add layers to the play's exploration of power, guilt, and the human psyche.

The prose is both scholarly and accessible, making this volume a valuable resource for both seasoned scholars and students approaching Macbeth. However, some analyses venture into speculative territory, such as musing over Macbeth's possible sexual inadequacies as a reason for the absence of children, which might stretch the imagination of some readers.

[Gabby Zabek · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this book did provide a good summary of Macbeth and occasional literary analysis, I honestly felt like the author chose to go a mile wide but an inch deep. So often the author would just explain what is being said in the play instead of analyzing the themes or metaphors etc. If I wanted a translation I’d have used spark notes. I would so much rather read a long indepth analysis on a few key passages in the play instead. I mean Harold Bloom is a Harvard and Yale English professor, specializing in Shakespeare. Give me something that speaks to those credentials.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a long essay more than a book, half the pages taken up by Shakespeare's text, nevertheless it's a great analysis of key passages and the work as a whole. His deeper approach to the play within Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, 23 years before, is more scholastically penetrating and shares more of the thought of other critics as well. But it's always a delight to read Harold; I'll miss him.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this 3 stars because I'm not a Shakespeare scholar or fanatic...but for those who are, this is basically a version of the old Coles/Sparks notes students used in the past to short cut their way to understanding literature. But this version is written by a genius...and one who knows how to make his observations straightforward and concise, yet somewhat lyrical. It's a decent enough read for pleasure, but as a research tool it's invaluable.

[African Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the first line, I was certain this would be a 5-star read. The first few chapters increased that certainty. Unfortunately though, as we progress through the play Bloom's comments become more and more shallow, more and more scant. I enjoyed them, and some were definitely profound, but for the most part they seemed to be asides.

Read this book, you'll learn a lot. Just not perhaps as much as you'd like.

[James King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harold Bloom is an incredible intellect, that being said this is not a great book. I expected a great commentary on Macbeth, and, occasionally, it is that. The book is a short 139 pages and is overwhelmingly simply quotes from the play itself. I am not sure what else to say other than I was disappointed.