Macbeth Act 2 Quotations

Act 2, Scene 1

• Banquo calls on the "merciful powers" to "restrain" his own ambitions • Banquo warns Macbeth to keep his "allegiance clear" • Macbeth fears his dagger comes from a "heat oppressed brain" • Macbeth compares himself to Tarquin, the Roman who raped Lucrece when he was supposed to be protecting her Act 2, Scene 2

• Macbeth cannot say "amen" and hears the guard say "Macbeth doth murder sleep" • Macbeth says the blood on his hands will turn the "green one red" • Lady Macbeth says "a little water clears us of this deed" Act 2, Scene 4 It is useful to know the strange things that happen in the natural world: • “dark night strangles the travelling lamp” – personification • Duncan’s horses eat each other • a “towering falcon” was killed by an owl • there was a violent storm – pathetic fallacy