Act 2 Scene 2

Act 2 Scene 2

1. STAGE DIRECTION 'An owl shrieks'

   • Lady Macbeth is on edge, we get a sense of her anxiety
     • drink has made her 'bold'
       • 'given me fire'
       • But we also get a sense of her confidence
     • She goes over the steps of the plan - anxious
       • LISTING of all the actions
         • reassuring herself
   • she replies 'Hark, peace!'
     • LANGUAGE
       • use of caesura- jumpy, jittery, unsettled
         • Admits that she would have killed him if he had not looked like her father
           • We see a weaker side to Lady Macbeth- sense of humanity
       • Short sentences
         • Hark!...
         • assumes that everything has gone wrong
         • NOISES
           • 'owl scream'
             • 'crickets cry'
               • onomatopoeia
                 • omens of death
                 • heightens the extent to which they are put on edge by the smallest sounds
           • verbs 'scream' and 'cry'
             • unnatural nature of what has just happened

2. Lady Macbeth is exhilarated by drink- awaits Macbeth's return.

   • She has drugged Duncan's body guards
     • Fears that the murder has not been done

3. Quick interchange- fast paced conversation- sense of their anxiety/stress

   • stichomythia
     • Rapid interchanges- loss in blank verse- increases pace and tension
       • They are both asking a lot of questions
         • 'Did you not speak?'
           • 'When?'
             • As I descended?'
               • Hark, who lies i'th'second chamber? '
                 • paranoia
         • the accumulation of questions highlights the uncertain tone
           • implies a sense of chaos

4. Macbeth's response to the murder

   • 'hangman's hands'
     • one cried 'Murder!'
       • hearing voices- paranoia, mental instability
         • 'I could not say 'Amen'
           • cursed - eternal damnation in hell
     • guilt
   • SLEEP IMAGERY
     • 'sleep that knits the ravelled sleep of care'
       • 'Chief nourisher in life's feast'
         • Listing the goodness/ vitality and importance of sleep
           • reviving nature, it is healing/relaxing/soothing
             • Macbeth is deprived of sleep
   • 'I dare not' - loss of manliness- fear
     • CONTRASTING LANGUAGE WITH LADY MACBETH
       • WATER IMAGERY
         • 'Great Neptune's oceans'
           • 'multitudinous seas'
             • description of vast expanses of water- needed to clear him of the deed
               • contrast to Lady Macbeth 'a little water clears us of this deed'- confidence, calm, self-assured
                 • contrast in the quantitative adjectives- they have been affected by the situation on totally different levels
         • COLOUR IMAGERY
           • Macbeth's repeated references to 'blood'
             • 'incarnadine'
               • 'Making the green one red'
                 • emphasis of the colour red- guilt- vulnerable wants to be cleansed of his sins
                   • However lady Macbeth
                     • 'Shame to wear a heart so white'
                       • metaphor
                         • white- pure- contrast with the devil red
                           • Her lack of remorse guilt
       • Respond differently to the knocking
         • Macbeth questions it
           • 'Whence is that knocking'
             • disorientated, he is confused
           • Lady Macbeth responds
             • 'I hear knocking at the south entry'
               • more decisive statement- highlights her control
               • she is logical and systematic in the situation

5. Lady Macbeth in control

   • use of imperatives
     • 'Give me the daggers.'
       • 'Get on your nightgown,'
         • she shames and chides Macbeth
           • 'Be not lost so poorly in your thoughts'
             • adverb 'poorly'- presents Macbeth as the weaker figure- mocking him
               • she is dominant
               • STAGING
                 • Lady Macbeth exits and renters in a short space of time
                   • commotion and activity on stage
                     • presents her as the leading/instigating role
                       • Contrast to Macbeth who is stiff and frozen in a trance like state