Macbeth, Act II

Act II contains the rising action of the play. The "deed" is done in this Act. The setting is Macbeth's castle, and later that day the King's sons come to see their father.

Words to Know:
Suborn
Combustion
Chamber
Summons
Knell
Prate
Stealthy
Palpable

Read Macbeth Act II and complete your 4.03 Plot Guide as you read. If you would like to print out your play, you may open the PDF copy of Macbeth.

Scene i: Banquo and his son, Fleance, are walking in Macbeth's courtyard late at night. Banquo is anxious about going to sleep because he is afraid that he will dream of the witches' prophecies. Macbeth enters and persuades Banquo to talk about the prophecies with him soon. Banquo agrees but says he will speak of nothing that is disloyal to Duncan.

How do you think Macbeth feels about the fact that Banquo was with him when he heard the witches' prophecies?
Answer: Macbeth may feel that Banquo is a possible threat. The witches' prophecies stated that Banquo's sons will be kings. Banquo also may suspect Macbeth of the murder since he does have motive.

When Macbeth is left alone in his courtyard, he sees a bloody dagger before him and begins to wonder if it is a real dagger or just a vision in his mind. The dagger leads him to Duncan's chamber, at which time Lady Macbeth rings the bell, and the time has come for Macbeth to commit the crime.

Macbeth's soliloquy, which is a dramatic speech that the character performs alone so the audience knows his thoughts, in scene i reveals his private thoughts and feelings about killing Duncan. By "eavesdropping" on him, we learn some information that he won't reveal to others in the play. For example, we know that Macbeth is so frightened by the thought of the murder that he is hallucinating about a bloody dagger. A man in his powerful position would never want others to see him showing fear.

The image of the dagger clearly impacted Macbeth. Right before he is about to murder Duncan, Macbeth has a hallucination and sees a bloody dagger that leads him to Duncan's chamber.

"Is this a Dagger, which I see before me,
The Handle toward my Hand? Come, let me clutch thee:
I haue thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not fatall Vision, sensible
To feeling, as to sight? or art thou but
A Dagger of the Minde, a false Creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed Braine?
I see thee yet, in forme as palpable,
As this which now I draw."

Scene ii: In this scene, Lady Macbeth shows that she too is very tense. She needed alcohol to prepare herself for her part in the murder and admits that she could not have done it herself.
"Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done't."
Lady Macbeth looks at Duncan peacefully lying there, and says she would have murdered him had he not looked like her own father.
Macbeth comes back in and states, "I have done the deed."

What is the deed?
Answer: The murder of Duncan.

When a near hysterical Macbeth returns from Duncan's chamber, Lady Macbeth once again takes control of the situation. She realizes that Macbeth has brought the murder weapons back with him instead of planting them on the servants as planned. He is unable to go back to the king's chamber, and Lady Macbeth must do it.

"My hands are of your color, but I shame To wear a heart so white."

Guilt sets in Macbeth as soon as he tells his wife of the murder. He believes he heard Malcolm and Donaldbain talk in their sleep, "There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried 'Murder!'" Macbeth felt so ashamed that he could not say what word?
Answer: Amen.'But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'? I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen' stuck in my throat.'

What is being personified in these lines: "Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep'--the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast." Lady Macbeth thinks he is "brain-sickly" at this point?
Answer: Sleep is being personified by saying it was murdered and that it knits. Day is being personified saying that it dies. Labor is being personified by saying it had a bath. Minds is being personified by saying it is hurt. Nature is being personified by saying it had a second course. Life is being personified by saying it had a feast.

At the sound of a knocking at the door, they return to their room, wash the blood from their hands, and change their clothes. Macbeth is concerned about the fact that the blood apparently wasn't coming off his hands.

"Wake Duncan with they knocking. I would thou couldst." The scene ends with Macbeth's words portraying a guilty conscience.

Scene iii: This scene is the famous "Porter Scene." The castle's gatekeeper is awakened by a knocking at the door. He is drunk and eventually stumbles his way across the courtyard to open the gate. He curses Macbeth, saying that Macbeth is the Devil and that he is the porter of the gate of hell. The porter opens the door to reveal Macduff and Lennox, thanes that Duncan had asked to wake him early.

Macbeth enters, wondering who had been knocking at the door. After Macduff is greeted by Macbeth, he heads toward the King's chambers. Meanwhile, Lennox is talking about the unnatural disturbances during the night. Macduff returns announcing that Duncan has been murdered, and as everyone is awakened by the ringing of the alarm bell, Macbeth and Lennox go to investigate the scene of the crime.

When they return, Macbeth admits to killing the drunken servants in a fit of rage after seeing the king's corpse. The King's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, silently escape because they are afraid the same thing will happen to them. Malcolm goes to England and Donalbain to Ireland saying, "There's daggers in men's smiles."

What do you think the king's son means by that metaphor?
Answer: Donalbain knows that someone in the palace maliciously killed his father, so they would do the same to the brothers.

Scene iv: In this scene more is learned about the unnatural occurrences of the previous night. To add effect to the day after Duncan was murdered, the sun has not risen. Macduff tells Ross that Malcolm and Donalbain are suspected of killing their father, "the King's two sons, are stol'n away and fled, which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed."
Here is another reference to "the deed." Which literary device is portrayed in this scene?
Suggested Answer: Dramatic irony is portrayed because the reader knows that Malcolm and Donalbain didn't do the deed; Macbeth did.

He also says that Duncan's body was taken to be buried and that Macbeth was named king. Ross goes back to Fife to see Macbeth crowned king, but Macduff decides that it would be better not to go back to Fife because he was afraid that the changes being made were for the worse. Why was Macbeth crowned king?
Answer: Dramatic irony is portrayed because the reader knows that Malcolm and Donalbain didn't do the deed; Macbeth did