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