Macbeth

II Act

Scene 1: It takes place at the court of Macbeth's castle.

The beginning of the scene is characterized by a dialogue between the general Banquo and his son, Fleance. It's past midnight: “the moon is down” and the “candles of heaven” (the stars) “are all out”. Right from the first lines, the reader perceives a radical changing in the atmosphere of the play; indeed the glorious atmosphere due to the arrival of king Duncan at Macbeth's castle has turned into something dark and evil, that is very well expressed by the nocturnal setting.

After a few lines, the two characters are joined by Macbeth and his servant; Banquo is surprised because his friend is not yet in bed and tells him about king Duncan's happiness to have been received very well from Lady Macbeth. He also adds that the day before he dreamt about the “Weird Sisters” (the three witches that appear at the beginning of the forst scene) and asserts that the three women told something true to Macbeth, who answers saying that “he thinks not of them”. This is of course a lie: since he sent a letter to his wife, telling her everything about the three sister's premonition, he hasn't done anything apart from thinking about his ambition to become king.

After Banquo and his son have gone to bed, Macbeth sees a strange apparition: a dagger is floating in front of him, with “the handle toward his hand”; the manifestation of his darkest thoughts and desires. This is the final motivation that pushes him to commit a terrible action, sending king Duncan “to heaven or to hell”.

Scene 2: The setting is the same of the precedent scene.

Lady Macbeth is alone upon the stage, while her husband is killing the king. She tells to the reader (or to the spectator) that she drugged the sentinels and that what made them drunk made her “bold”.

After a few lines Macbeth joins her and tells her the result of his action; the king's death is also announced by heart-wrenching verses of two animals of the night: “the owls-scream and the cricket's cry”. The tragic meaning of that night is also underlined by Macbeth's words at lines 22-23, who says that “there's one laugh in's sleep, and one cried “Murder!”. Thus, the reader may perceive that the crazy and insane atmosphere due to Duncan's murder has affected both humans and animals. Furthermore, this aspect is highlighted by Macbeth's inability in answering “Amen” to the prayer of a man that was saying “God bless us”, as the atrocity of his action had put him completely out of charity. Indeed, even though his desire to become king is stronger than anything else, he feels obsessed by the cruelty of his action and starts to become crazy, hearing everywhere phrases that always seem to be connected to what he has done (line 35: “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”). An other strong imagine that underlines the emotive impact that Duncan's murder has on Macbeth's conscience is the final part of the dialogue between the future king and his wife; he feels guilty and “afraid to think what he has done”: “every noise appals him” and his hands “pluck out his eyes”. The red colour of his hands is so impressed in his flesh that he asks himself if the great Neptune's ocean will be able to clean it.

Scene 3: The setting is the same of the previous two scenes.

The beginning of the scene is characterised by a knock, a sound that ties together this part of the play with the end of the second scene. The character that opens the play is a porter that opens the door of Macbeth's castle to some people who knock insistently; the frenetic atmosphere that characterizes the porter's monologue is underlined by the repetition of the phrase “Knock, Knock!” (that is repeated by the man every time somebody knocks at the door) and by the frequent references to the figure of the devil (“Belzebub”). Indeed, he imagines himself as the porter of hell and jokes about the kind of sinners he may meet. However, at line 21 he lets enter the characters of Macduff and Lennox, who had fun and drunk “till the second cock”. It's early morning and Macduff asks Macbeth to see the king, because he had ordered him to wake him up early. While Macduff goes out of the scene to see Duncan, Lennox refers to Macbeth that “the night has been unruly”: the chimneys were blown down by the wind, someone heard “lamentings” in the air, “the obscure bird clamoured the live-long night” and “some say the earth was feverous and did shake”. In this way, the reader realizes that Macbeth isn't the only one who had a strange night and heard strange screams and noises; the unruly and dark atmosphere of this night of murder and cruelty has affected all the human beings and the nature around Macbeth's castle.

After that, an upset and shocked Macduff enters and announces the king's death, while Macbeth pretends not to understand what he is saying (line 69: “What is't you say? The life?”).

The other characters that join the group are Lady Macbeth (who, like her husband, pretends not to know anything about Duncan's death), Banquo, Lennox, Ross. Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's sons, respectively decide to go to England and to Ireland to keep them safer: they don't trust in anybody and assert that it's easy to pretend for a false man. They also add that “There's daggers in men's smiles” recalling the imagine of the dagger that in the first scene guided Macbeth to Duncan's bed.

Scene 4: The scene takes place outside Macbeth's castle and begins with a dialogue between the character of Ross and an old man, who tells the baron that during his seventy years of life he has seen a lot of strange things, but this night “hath trifled former knowings”. To underline this expression there's the fact that, even though the clock says it's day, the sky is still dark and the night doesn't want to leave its place to to the daylight. Indeed, the old man asserts that is seems as if the unnatural act that took place a few hours before were reflected in the unnatural longness of the night.

After line 10, there are other references about the madness that influenced the world of animals, in this case a falcon was killed by an owl and Duncan's horses ate each other; so the reader may imagine that the poet wAanted to use the theme of murder in the world of animals to make the atmosphere more tragic, as if Macbeth's act had influenced the entire nature and every human being and animal. The last character who joins the group is Macduff, who communicates to the two man that the two sentinels killed by Macbeth are thought to be the king's murders and that Donalbain and Malcom have left the country, “which puts on them suspicion of the deed” (line25-26).