dagger, eyes, blood, sleep, witchcraft, wolf, ghost, bell, hell

Transcription

1 Act 2 Scene I Macbeth's Castle 1. Banquo There's husbandry in heaven; their candles are all out merciful powers, restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature gives way to in repose! 2. Banquo This diamond he [Duncan] greets your wife withal 3. Banquo I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: to you they have show'd some truth 4. Banquo still keep my allegiance clear 5 Macbeth Is this a dagger which I see before me fatal vision a dagger of the mind, a false creation from the heat- oppressed brain? It is the bloody business which informs thus to mine eyes. 6. Macbeth Now Nature seems dead witchcraft celebrates pale Hecate's offerings wither'd murder With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design moves like a ghost 7. Macbeth Hear not my steps take the present horror from my mind 1. Banquo refers to the starless night, candles out. This echoes Macbeth s stars hide your fires of Act 1 sc 4. Banquo admits to secret temptations for a dynasty [the line of kings predicted by the witches in Act 1 scene 2]? 2. Duncan s trusting generosity is demonstrated. His gift to Lady Macbeth showss that he still finds the minds construction in the face. It is ironical as she is plotting his death at thatt moment. 3. Banquo dwells on the witches and their predictions-especially the fact that in Macbeth s case they have come true. They have entered his sub-conscious, via his dreams. It is likely, given what he says at the start of Act 3, that they would have eventually corrupted him. 4. Banquo seals his fate when he declares loyalty to Duncan after Macbeth soundss him out providing him honour in the future. 5. Macbeth s conscience causes him to hallucinate a dagger. This illusion is a product of his overstressed mind. It is a sign of guilt at his imminent murder of Duncan. 6. Darkness suspends nature and enables unnatural deeds to be done. It is the time when witches perform evil, when murder is plotted. The reference to a Roman Tyrant who rapes the matron Lucrece creates an atmosphere of danger, a feeling of terrible violation. 7.Macbeth craves secrecy, feels fear despite his wife s encouragement. Imagery in Act 2 Scene 1 sword, heaven, candles, nature, dagger, eyes, blood, sleep, witchcraft, wolf, ghost, bell, hell 11

2 Act 2 Scene ii Court of Macbeth's Castle 1. Lady Macbeth That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold I have drugg'd their possets, 2. Lady M It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman 3. Lady M Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't 4. Macbeth I have done the deed 5. Macbeth This is a sorry sight. Looking on his hands 6. Macbeth But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'? 7. Lady M These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so, it will make us mad.' 'tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil 8. Macbeth Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, chief nourisher in life's feast 9. Lady M You do unbend your noble strength, to think so brainsickly of things 10 Lady M wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? 11. Macbeth I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again I dare not 1. In this world the powerful have servants and guards. Lady Macbeth has paralysed Duncan s guards by lacing their drinks. She feels brave after a stiff drink herself. 2. Symbol of death, sign of fear superstition was normal in Macbeth s world 3. Lady Macbeth must be Duncan s niece. This is how Macbeth is Duncan s cousin and third in line to the throne. 4. Macbeth cannot name the murder of Duncan directly. 5. Duncan s blood makes Macbeth guilty. He acts as if his hands and not his self committed regicide. 6. Macbeth is spiritually dead, as if he has given his soul to the devil. In this world, to kill a king is to kill God s anointed. 7. Ironically, Lady M urges denial of reality as an antidote to madness. She pretends guilt is childish. The eye is a traditional symbol of guilt in tragic drama. 8. Macbeth has offended against nature and God. He believes he is doomed to suffer insomnia. This will make him paranoid and unstable. 9 Lady M appeals to his manliness and self-control. In this world, there is no respect for sensitive males 10 She thinks the solution is simply to remove the evidence. She attacks his failure to plant the evidence on the guards. 11. Macbeth cannot bear to look at the crime scenee 12

3 12. Macbeth What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes. 13. Macbeth Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red 12 He deludes himself that his hand and not his self did the deed. Macbeth wants to inflict self- punishment due to his guilt. He refers to the classical tragic gesture of self-blinding from the play Oedipus The King, by Sophocles. In Sshakespeare s other tragedies, Lear and Hamlet the eye is a key symbol of guilt or blindness. 13. Macbeth is so overwhelmed with guilt that he feels he can t be purified. He imagines his bloody hand will redden the oceans. His corruption will infect the universe. We feel pity at the depth of his guilt, so poetically expressed. 14. Lady M A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it, then! 15. Macbeth To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself 14. Lady M has a superficial attitude to their crime. She suffers her own intense guilt in Act V, expressed in sight and smell. Her Perfumes of Arabia that cannot clean the smell of blood from her hand match his ocean that cannot wash his guilty hands. 15. Macbeth s intense guilt leads to self-hatred after the crime. This will transform him into an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered as Macduff says in Act IV. It is important to understand that Macbeth s later cruelty probably stems from his need to live in denial of all feelings, as the feeling of guilt was too unbearable. He cannot live with his betrayal of Duncan. Fire, owl, daggers, sleep, hands, sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, nature, water, blood, eye, seas, heart, red, green, white. Imagery in Act 2 Scene 2 13

4 Act 2 scene iii. Macbeth's castle. 1. Porter this place is too cold for hell. 'll devil-porter it no further I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire 2. Porter Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery 3.Macduff He did command me to call timely on him. 4. Lennox The night has been unruly: strange screams of death, and prophesying with accents terrible Of dire combustion and confused events 5. Macduff O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee! Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! Destroy your sight with a new Gorgon 6. Macduff Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the Lord's anointed temple 7. Macbeth Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time 8. Lennox Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't badged with blood 9. Macbeth O, yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature 10. Banquo let us meet, and question this most bloody piece of work against the undivulged pretence I fight of treasonous malice 11. Donalbainn To Ireland, I; our separated fortune shall keep us both the safer There's daggers in men s smiles. 1. The Porter sees Macbeth s Castle as hell. This is an image of suffering as well as evil. Inverness is unnatural, a hell on earth. Using black humour, he mocks contemporary rogues. His role is to amuse the audience by moaning in his hung-over state about his place of work. He points to the world of The primrose path stands for a life of fun. The bonfire is hell. 2. The Porter emphasises the theme of deception, of moral reversal. He jests at the ambiguous impact of drink on male sexual behaviour. He is a pantomime figure, a jester. 3. Macduff is a trusted ally of Duncan and seems to lead his escort. 4. Nature seems apocalyptic due to the regicide: against the use of nature as Macbeth said about it in Act I sc 3. Alll this echoes o'er the one half world Nature seems dead of Act 2 sc 1 and unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles Act 5 sc Macduff voices dismay and shock at the bloody regicide. It will bring disorder and despair, and inflict hurt on all who view the deadd king classical image. 6. Due to belief in the Divine Right of Kings, regicide is a crime against God. Kingship is sacred in this world. 7. Macbeth s hypocritical words also point to a secret death wish, so great is his guilt. 8. Lady Macbeth s plan to frame the Duncan s guards has worked. 9. Macbeth pretends to have committed a passionate act of revengee and Lady Macbeth distracts all by fainting was it pretence or real? 10. Banquo seeks the truth, a factor in Macbeth s decision to kill him. B. says in 3 i I fear,thou play'dst most foully for't. Later Macbeth says Our fears in Banquo stick deep 11. Duncan s sons decidee to flee as a means of self-preservation. Donalbain echoes the many dagger images, and the theme of equivocation. The brothers split to guard Duncan s dynasty. porter of hell-gate, equivocator, dire combustion, Gorgon, the Lord's anointed temple, badged with blood, breach in nature, bloody piece of work, daggers Imagery in Act 2 Scene 3 14

5 Act 2 Scene iv Outside Macbeth s Castle 1. Ross the heavens, as troubled with man's act, threaten his bloody stage 2. Old Man 'Tis unnatural, even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, a falcon, towering in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. 'Tis said they [Duncan s horses] eat each other 3. Ross Here comes the good Macduff 4. Macduff They were suborn'd: Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them suspicion of the deed. 5. Ross Then 'tis most like the sovereignty [kingship] will fall upon Macbeth 6. Ross Will you to Scone? Macduff No, cousin, I'll to Fife. Macduff Well, may you see things well done there: adieu! Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! heavens, bloody stage, falcon, mousing owl, lest our old robes sit easier than our new! 1. Ross repeats the theme of nature being disturbed. He uses a pagan image of the Gods avenging human evil through disasters. 2. There is a direct parallel between Macbeth and the mousing owl in this image of lower rank killers slaying their betters. Equine cannibalism is also another image of nature gone awry. The Old Man speaks in a riddle or analogy of Macbeth s crime. Nature parallels the human world pathetic fallacy. 3. Note Macduff s reputation and popularity. 4. Macduff voices public opinion as engineered by Macbeth. The official story blames Duncan s cowardly, ineffectual but innocent sons. 5. Ross, who announced to Macbeth his elevation to Thane of Cawdor, informs us that Macbeth will be king. He will succeed to the throne as the next male relative. 6. Macduff keeps his distance from the new king. He refuses to attend the coronation a sign of his dissent. Through the metaphor of costume, Macduff voices his fears that Macbeth s rule will be less agreeable than Duncan s style of rule. In his world, costume showed your social rank. This echoes Macbeth s image of borrowed robes in act 1 scene 2. Each king had a unique style of robe. Imagery in Act 2 Scene 4 15