Macbeth Active Reading Notes: Act II

SCENE I:

• Act II begins quickly after Act I
• Banquo had dreamt of the three witches the night before
• (Macbeth's soliloquy) Macbeth thinks for a moment that he sees a dagger before him; it is safe to say that he has qualms about killing Duncan
• his regretful musings are interrupted by Lady Macbeth's bell--signalling that it is time to kill Duncan
• "I go, and it is done; the bell invites me Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell."

SCENE II:

• "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; What hath quench'd them hath given me fire." 
• Lady Macbeth seems to have drunk some wine to embolden herself

•  "Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good-night."
• "He is about it," Macbeth is committing the murder as the guards sleep
• " Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed Confounds us." Does this mean Lady Macbeth hears her husband, thinks that it is someone else (a guard?), fears Macbeth was unsuccessful, and they were about to be caught?
• "Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't." Even Lady Macbeth is a little human
• Macbeth heard the two sleeping men talking in their sleep
• He could not say "Amen," for his is riddled with guilt/he could not say this phrase used against witchcraft for he had sold himself to evil
• Lady Macbeth tells him to "Consider it not so deeply"

•  Macbeth thinks that he hears a voice cry: "Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd 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,--...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.'" 
• Apparently, Macbeth won't be getting any sleep anytime soon (I swear I've heard complicated school projects whisper similar things to me the night before they're due)
• He must be going a little crazy already

• Macbeth does not want to think about what he had done
• They hear a knocking

SCENE III:

•  More knocking (Jerry Seinfeld voice: What's up with that?)
•  We should go over the Porter's speech in class, just because
•  Macduff asks Macbeth if Mac-duncan is Mac-awake, so Macbeth offers to take Macduff to the Mac-king.
•  Lennox gives a relatively lengthy description of how awful the previous night was; all Macbeth offers in return is, "'Twas a rough night"
• Lennox says that he can't remember another night like it
•  Macduff returns, horrified: he has discovered the dead king
• Macduff is waking everyone and spreading the news of the murder
•  Macbeth says that he was the one that killed the chamber men
• Okay then

SCENE IV:

•  Ross' first lines are an allusion to Elizabethan theatre
• Ross and the old man are discussing the strange phenomena that occurred on the night of Duncan's death: a hawk was killed by an owl, and it was said that Duncan's horses broke from their stalls and ate each other
• Ah, they fell for it! It is believed that Duncan's chamber attendants (those that Macbeth killed for revenge) did in  fact murder him
• However, Malcolm and Donalbain flee--bringing suspicion upon Duncan's sons
• Macbeth is already named the new king