Court of Macbeth's castle.
Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch
Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch
before him
Give me my sword.
Who's there?
BANQUO
How goes the night, boy?
MACBETH
FLEANCE
A friend.
The moon is down; I have not heard
the clock.
BANQUO
BANQUO
And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE
I take't, 'tis later, sir.
Banquo comments
on how dark it is –
darkness is a
recurring theme
during the play,
symbolising evil.
Banquo is uneasy at
Macbeth’s sudden
appearance
What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed:
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess to your offices.
This diamond he greets your wife withal,
By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
In measureless content.
MACBETH
BANQUO
Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose!
© 2001 www.teachit.co.uk
Banquo’s
distrust of
the witches
becomes
fear and he
prays for
God’s help
against
temptation
Being unprepared,
Our will became the servant to defect;
Which else should free have wrought.
BANQUO
All's well.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show'd some truth.
The differences
between Macbeth
(the deceiver) and
Banquo (the
honorable) are
shown. Banquo tries
to fight evil
thoughts an uses
kind words when he
is talking about
Duncan. He wishes
to stay free of guilt
and remain loyal to
Duncan. Macbeth
however, does not
speak the truth. He
is not Banquo’s
friend, he is
prepared and he
does think about
what the witches
have said. This
reflects the
differences in the
pair as soldiers, and
in their reaction to
the witches.
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Page 1 of 5
MACBETH
The indecision that we have already seen in
Macbeth is shown again here as he hallucinates
and sees a dagger floating before his eyes.
I think not of them:
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
We would spend it in some words upon that business,
If you would grant the time.
Macbeth’s double meaning here is
deliberate – he could mean a) if you
BANQUO
follow my advice when we talk, or b) if
At your kind'st leisure.
you will support me when the time
comes.
MACBETH
If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,
It shall make honour for you.
Banquo makes it clear that he will
not stray from his devotion to King
BANQUO
Duncan
So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsell'd.
The theme of the supernatural runs
throughout the play – the dagger is one of
MACBETH
most important symbols of the
Good repose the while!
supernatural.
BANQUO
Thanks, sir: the like to you!
MACBETH
Exeunt
BANQUO and FLEANCE
Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
© 2001 www.teachit.co.uk
The “strike upon the
bell” is a prearranged
signal from Lady
Macbeth for Macbeth
to do the deed.
Exit Servant
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-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
A bell rings
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
Personification
is the applying of
human qualities
to animals or
objects.
Shakespeare
talks about
murder withering
and being woken
by the howl of a
wolf.
Think about how
you would direct
this scene. How is
the dagger going to
be represented? Is
the actor going to
stare into space or
will there be a real
dagger and how is
it to be hung? Will
the media of the
production affect
your decision?
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Page 2 of 5
Act 2, Scene 2
The same.
Enter LADY MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
Dramatic Tension is built
up in this scene. Lady
Macbeth’s recounting of her
preparations, and the
following abrupt changes in
speech result in real
audience empathy.
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.
Hark! Peace!
It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:
The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd their possets,
That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.
A Soliloquy is a monologue spoken by a character
when he/she is alone on the stage. It will usually
reveal a character’s thoughts and feelings. Lady
Macbeth’s soliloquy shows her exhilaration. She is
full of determination and the owl screeching does
not frighten her rather is taken as a good sign (that
Duncan will soon be dead)
LADY MACBETH
Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;
He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done't.
Enter MACBETH
My husband!
Here, Lady Macbeth
begins to doubt her
husband’s capacity
to do the deed. She is
afraid that he may
have only half done
the job and Duncan
is not dead.
MACBETH
I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH
I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
Did not you speak?
MACBETH
When?
LADY MACBETH
Questions, questions?!!
Notice how many questions
Macbeth asks in this scene.
What does this suggest
about his state of mind?
Now.
MACBETH
MACBETH
[Within] Who's there? what, ho!
As I descended?
LADY MACBETH
The Macbeth’s speak to each other
in short jerky sentences, showing
discomfort on Macbeth’s part.
Ay.
© 2001 www.teachit.co.uk
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Page 3 of 5
MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
Hark!
Who lies i' the second chamber?
Consider it not so deeply.
LADY MACBETH
Donalbain.
MACBETH
This is a sorry sight.
Looking on his hands
MACBETH
Who is the dominant partner
here? Does it stay this way
throughout the play? Lady
Macbeth is clearly the one
in control in this scene and
whilst Macbeth appears to
be afraid and weak, things
change later and the pair’s
roles are virtually reversed.
LADY MACBETH
A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
MACBETH
There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried
'Murder!'
That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:
But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
Again to sleep.
Macbeth knows
LADY MACBETH
that what he has
done is evil and is
There are two lodged together.
worried by the fact
that he couldn’t
say Amen.
MACBETH
But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
MACBETH
Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast,-LADY MACBETH
What do you mean?
MACBETH
Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:
'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.'
Macbeth is afraid that
everything will change
now, that he won’t ever
be able to sleep properly
again This examination
of what Macbeth has lost
through not being able to
sleep properly again is
only part of a recurring
theme. Sleep straightens
out worries, is rest after
a day, is a means of
being refreshed, is
Nature’s other form
(meaning that we either
spend our time waking
or sleeping) and is the
meat of a meal (meaning
the second course of a
meal). This is not the
only time in the play
where Macbeth reflects
on what he has lost or
might have lost. In 5:3
he reflects on what he
might have had and what
he actually has.
One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
When they did say 'God bless us!'
© 2001 www.teachit.co.uk
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Page 4 of 5
LADY MACBETH
Re-enter LADY MACBETH
Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brainsickly of things. Go get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
Macbeth on the
The sleepy grooms with blood.
other hand won’t
go back and look
MACBETH
at more blood,
asks if even an
I'll go no more:
Ocean can wash
I am afraid to think what I have done;
away the blood,
Look on't again I dare not.
and realises that
even all that water
LADY MACBETH
will not be enough
to wash away the
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead blood and the
crime it represents
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their guilt.
LADY MACBETH
My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Knocking within
I hear a knocking
At the south entry: retire we to our chamber;
A little water clears us of this deed:
How easy is it, then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.
Knocking within
Hark! more knocking.
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH
The tone and content of
Lady Macbeth’s speech here
shows several points:
• She has no worries
about touching blood
• She is prepared to touch
the blood on Duncan’s
body to put it on the
grooms – she is not
frightened.
• She seems happy at the
thought of having blood
on her hands – she is
happy to share in
Macbeth’s guilt.
• She feels she is braver
than her husband
• She feels that guilt and
blame can be washed off
as easily as the blood on
their hands
To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
Exit. Knocking within
Knocking within
MACBETH
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
© 2001 www.teachit.co.uk
Exeunt
KEY
Lady Macbeth does not recognise the
implications of what they have done.
Macbeth, on the other hand, does.
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Page 5 of 5