Macbeth Act 2

Scene 1 It is after midnight in Inverness Banquo and Fleance discuss how the night seems strange. Banquo tells Macbeth that he can’t sleep because he can’t stop thinking about the witches’ prophecies. Macbeth claims that he never thinks about them. Macbeth sees a bloody dagger floating in the air; he can’t figure out if it is put there by the witches or his imagination.

Scene 2 Lady Macbeth says the reason she couldn’t kill Duncan herself is because he looked like her father while sleeping. Macbeth kills Duncan and the guards. Lady Macbeth plants the daggers next to the guards. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have bloody hands, but Macbeth feels guiltier than Lady Macbeth

Scene 3 COMIC RELIEF- PORTER scene. Macduff and Lennox are at Inverness to pick up King Duncan. Macduff goes to wake Duncan and finds him murdered. Macbeth says he killed the guards out of rage. Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, flee to England and Ireland.

Scene 4 Ross and an old man discuss the unnatural events happening in the world that night. Macduff and others believe Duncan’s sons had something to do with the murder. Macbeth is named King.

Important Quotes: Macbeth: “Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!/Macbeth does murder sleep- the innocent sleep;/Sleep that knits up the revell’d sleave of care,/The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,/Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,/Chief nourisher in life’s feast” (2.2.34-39). 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” (2.2.59-62). Lady Macbeth: “My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white” (2.2.63-64).