![]() ![]() ![]() His wife tells him he's a fool, but his mind has already jumped to something else. After worrying about this noise and that, Macbeth suddenly says something is a "sorry sight." Editors always explain it by inserting a stage direction, " Looking on his hands," which are covered with blood. This last remark of Macbeth's shows how his mind is jumping around. His wife answers that Donalbain has that room, and Macbeth says "This is a sorry sight" (2.2.18). But now he thinks he hears something else, and asks who's sleeping in the bedchamber next to the King's. ![]() Then he asks her if she was talking as he came down the stairs from King Duncan's bedchamber, and she says she was. He asks his wife if she heard a noise, and she says she heard only the owl and some crickets. For one thing, he is hearing things, or thinks he is. But though he has done the deed, he can't handle the psychological consequences. And she's thinking that she should have done the job herself, which she would have, if the King hadn't looked like her father.Īs Lady Macbeth is thinking that she would be a better killer than her husband, he appears, and says, "I have done the deed" (2.2.14). She's thinking that maybe her husband is so addled that he can't find the grooms' daggers, even though she put them in plain sight. Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done't" (2.2.11-13). ![]() She says to herself, "I laid their daggers ready / He could not miss 'em. She also assumes the worst about her husband. Immediately, Lady Macbeth assumes the worst, that the grooms have awakened before the murder has been done, and that all will be lost. Just as Lady Macbeth thinks she heard something, so now Macbeth thinks he hears someone, and he's trying to check it out. But suddenly she hears her husband say-probably in a hoarse whisper- "Who's there? what, ho!" (2.2.8). Therefore, Lady Macbeth believes that because she has just heard the owl's screech, her husband must be "about it," doing the murder at this very moment. After she listens, she decides that she heard a screech owl, and she takes that as a good omen, because the screech owl is nature's own "fatal bellman." A "fatal bellman" is a night watchman who rings a bell at the door of a prisoner scheduled for execution in the morning, and an owl does the same job in nature, because-according to folklore-the screech of a screech owl foretells the death of a person. When she says "Hark!" she's telling herself to listen, and then when she says "Peace!" she's telling herself to be quiet, so that she can hear what she's listening for. Lady Macbeth herself has also had some wine, but she feels bold and fierce, not drunk and sleepy.Īt this moment she thinks she hears something and says, "Hark! Peace! / It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, / Which gives the stern'st good-night. It's something you would drink just before going to bed, to help you sleep, but Lady Macbeth has drugged the grooms' possets, so that their sleep is the next thing to death. The "them" whom she refers to are the King's two personal servants, his "grooms." She has given each of them a "posset," a mixture of wine and milk. She is very excited, and says of herself, "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold / What hath quench'd them hath given me fire" (2.2.1-2). The courtyard is apparently quite near the King's bedchamber, and she listens intently, as though she could actually hear the murder being committed. Now, where Macbeth waited for his wife's bell, she waits for the news that he has killed the King. In the previous scene Macbeth had an ostensibly casual conversation with Banquo, but as soon as Banquo went to bed, it became apparent that Macbeth was awaiting his wife's signal (a bell) to go do the murder. This scene, like the previous one and the next, is usually shown as taking place in the courtyard of Macbeth's castle. ≺ knocking at the castle gate frightens Macbeth, and his wife comes to lead him away, so that they can wash the blood from their hands. Macbeth announces that he has done the deed, but he is so shaken by the murder that he brings the bloody daggers with him, and Lady Macbeth takes them from him, to place them with the sleeping grooms. Lady Macbeth waits for Macbeth to come with the news that he has killed the King. Detailed Summary of Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2 ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |