Macbeth - Act 2 Scene 2
The same.
Lady Macbeth's entrance here is an immediate contrast with Macbeth's exit at the end of 2.1 Where he was solemn and grave, she is literally and figuratively intoxicated, flushed with the success of the plan.
Lady Macbeth's confidence is interrupted by anxiety. In production, the owl's shriek may be a sound effect heard by the audience, or it may be a figment of Lady Macbeth's imagination. Either way, she continues to alternate between confidence and fear.
Lady Macbeth's use of pronouns is confusing here, and may relate to her distraught mental state, as "he" initially refers to Macbeth, and then to Duncan. The detail of Duncan's resemblance to Lady Macbeth's father, and the reminder that he was murdered in his sleep, both serve to highlight her guilt later in the play, when she is haunted by these actions.
Enter LADY MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace!
It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it;
The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugged their possets,
That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.
MACBETH
[Within]
Who's there? What, ho!
LADY MACBETH
Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;
He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done't.
Enter MACBETH
My husband!
MACBETH
I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH
I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
Did not you speak?
As in 1.7, the clipped and terse exchange heightens the tension in the scene, creating the sense of a silent night in which any noise could lead to disaster.
MACBETH
When?
LADY MACBETH
Now.
MACBETH
As I descended?
LADY MACBETH
Ay.
MACBETH
Hark! Who lies i' the second chamber?
LADY MACBETH
Donalbain.
The stage direction was added by later editors, but it seems reasonable that Macbeth would be referring to his bloody hands here, as that image is significant through this scene.
MACBETH
This is a sorry sight.
Looking on his hands
LADY MACBETH
A foolish thought,
To say a sorry sight.
MACBETH
There's one did laugh in's sleep,
And one cried 'Murder!' that they did wake each other.
I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers,
And addressed them again to sleep.
When she was alone, Lady Macbeth had to contend with her own fears. Once Macbeth enters, she seems to gain a confidence in order to help him allay his own terrors.
LADY MACBETH
There are two lodged together.
MACBETH
One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
When they did say 'God bless us!'
LADY MACBETH
Consider it not so deeply.
Once again, Macbeth is concerned with the consequences of his action on a spiritual level, afraid that he has damned himself. Lady Macbeth, in contrast, focuses on practical results, and on the next steps in the plan.
MACBETH
But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
The idea of sleeplessness as a curse was raised by the Witches in 1.3, and here finds a more complete expression through Macbeth. The concept of displaced trauma-- anxiety or guilt which is suppressed in public but emerges elsewhere-- runs through this play, and is often linked to the Macbeths' inability to sleep or rest properly.
MACBETH
Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast –
LADY MACBETH
What do you mean?
MACBETH
Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:
'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.'
The discovery of the daggers is important for the plot of the scene, but causes difficulties in staging. Has Macbeth been holding the daggers the entire time? How did he not notice them when looking at his hands? Has the audience been able to see them all along, or do we only notice them when Lady Macbeth does?
This may be a moment of cowardice for Macbeth, and it certainly comes across as weakness. This reaction underscores the difference between the violence he's used to (open warfare, condoned by a code of honour as well as the politics and religion of the time) and his current actions (secret treasonous murder of his king and guest).
The knocking at the door adds urgency to the scene, and suggests a further passage of time: the dead of night fades into the break of day.
Macbeth begins to shift from terror into despair. Considering himself to be damned forever by this night's deed, he will find it easier to continue along a path of violence and atrocity.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both unified and separated here: both have blood-covered hands, but he is paralyzed with fear while she is active and alert.
LADY MACBETH
Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy Thane,
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brain-sickly of things. Go get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.
MACBETH
I'll go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on't again I dare not.
LADY MACBETH
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt.
Exit. Knocking within
MACBETH
Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.
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.
Re-enter LADY MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Knocking within
I hear a knocking
At the south entry; retire we to our chamber.
A little water clears us of this deed.
How easy is it, then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.
Knocking within
The detail of the nightgown is a reminder of the play's concern with clothing, here used deliberately as a disguise, an outer lie concealing an ugly truth.
Hark! More knocking.
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH
To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
Knocking within
Macbeth's final line here could be an expression of frustration with the incessant knocking, but it could also be a moment of genuine regret, wishing that the murder could be undone.
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
Exeunt