Macbeth: Act TwoThe Deed & The Aftermath

Summary of A2S2

• Lady Macbeth waits tensely for her husband to commit the murder.

• Macbeth enters the room, and his wife urges him to wash the blood of his hands. He has brought the daggers back.

• Lady Macbeth goes back to smear the faces of the drugged grooms with blood as Macbeth cannot bring himself to return.

Macbeth & the Dagger• Consider the following after you

watch the video: –What does the dagger say about

Macbeth’s imagination? –Do you think Macbeth is feeling

stronger or weaker during this scene?

• Write your answers on a piece of foolscap paper.

Possible Answers

Key points of this scene• Lady Macbeth reveals that she would

have killed Duncan herself, if he had not resembled her father as he slept. – This is a humanising element. Lady Macbeth is

not as cruel and heartless as she has been portrayed earlier.

– Is she really as tough as she made herself out to be?

– How diferent is she from Act 1 Scene 5, with the ‘unsex me now’ speech?

Key points of this scene• After committing the murder,

Macbeth passed a room in which a man, calls out ‘Murder!’.

• Turns out it was Donalbain, one of the king’s sons.

• Macbeth had to stand outside waiting for them to sleep again before he could move on.

Key points of this scene• One of them cries, ‘God bless us!’,

and the automatic reply is ‘Amen’ but Macbeth could not say it.

• He hears a voice proclaiming that he has murdered sleep, and that he would sleep no more.

Title

• In Macbeth, the concept of ‘sleep’ belongs only to the innocent.

• After committing the crime, Macbeth says that he has murdered ‘sleep’, and that he will sleep no more.

• This is a foreshadowing of Macbeth and his wife’s suffering later – Macbeth is unable to sleep, and Lady Macbeth ends up sleepwalking out of guilt.

Significance of ‘sleep’ in the play

Title

• Macbeth never answers Lady M’s question, gets distracted by an imaginary noise, asking her another question of his own.

• The cross-questions between them suggests extreme tension.

The Change

Key points of A2S3• Lady Macbeth reveals that she would

have killed Duncan herself, if he had not resembled her father as he slept. – This is a humanising element. Lady Macbeth is

not as cruel and heartless as she has been portrayed earlier.

– Is she really as tough as she made herself out to be?

– How diferent is she from Act 1 Scene 5, with the ‘unsex me now’ speech?

Quick Task• Choose a character among these options: – Macbeth / Lady Macbeth / Macduff

• Based on Act Two Scene III, write a paragraph in the voice of the character, answering the following questions. – What do I want?– What am I willing to do to get it?– What is in my way?– On whom can I rely, and whom do I fear?

Take Home Assignment

• Completion of the worksheet given to you: Answers for compre should be on the worksheet, while essay questions should be written on foolscap paper.

Housekeeping Matters• Please hand-up the Playbill

component of your project work by today. – The hard-copy version should be in by

6pm, in my locker (no. 26). – The soft-copy version should be emailed

to me by Monday.

• Literature Revision Workshop– Next Tuesday: 28 April 2011@ 2.30pm -

Class 2G