Act 2, Scene 2

Summary

  • Lady Macbeth waits for Macbeth to come back from killing Duncan in the night.
  • He comes back with the daggers and is horrified at what he has just done, and didn’t leave them with the servants as Lady Macbeth had planned.
  • Lady Macbeth puts the daggers with the servants and smears blood on them.

Quotes

‘Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t’ - Lady Macbeth

  • Shows that she has some heart
  • Could imply that Lady Macbeth can’t kill someone above her (her father) as she is a woman
  • Links to patriarchy

‘Methought I heard a voice cry’ - Macbeth

  • He is already going insane
  • Could be the influence of the witches

‘Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care’ - Macbeth

  • Trochaic stress
  • Breaks iambic pentameter
  • Represents his poor mental state
  • Personifies sleep - it repairs the damage of the day

‘Give me the daggers’ - Lady Macbeth

  • Commanding
  • Shows she has the authority in the relationship
  • Due to iambic pentameter, ‘me’ is emphasised

‘the sleeping and the dead’ - Lady Macbeth

  • Due to iambic pentameter the word ‘dead’ is not stressed

  • The word ‘dead’ not being stressed implies that she doesn’t see the significance of the idea

  • Telling Macbeth not to worry about the murder

‘That fears a painted devil’ - Lady Macbeth

  • Criticizes Macbeth for fearing something that could be not real
  • ‘painted’ - images of the devil may be painted on the church walls to keep people in their place
  • Challenges the idea of Christianity - controversial in the Jacobean times
  • Ironic as she seems deeply religious towards the end of the play and Macbeth isn’t
  • Macbeth isn’t worried about hell as much as Lady Macbeth is and doesn’t argue with this statement

‘all great Neptune’s ocean’ - Macbeth

  • Rejects Christian God and references Pagan God
  • Shakespeare challenges the role of God and intended for the audience to question faith

‘wear a heart so white’ - Lady Macbeth

  • ‘white’ - links to innocence/symbol of surrender
  • Ironic as Lady Macbeth surrenders in the end and commits suicide
  • Criticises Macbeth for his weakness that will get him caught