This scene marks the climactic moment of the play's first movement and reveals the immediate psychological consequences of regicide. Shakespeare masterfully builds tension through dramatic irony — the audience knows Duncan has been murdered while the castle's inhabitants sleep unaware. The juxtaposition between Macbeth's psychological torment and Lady Macbeth's practical focus exposes their fundamentally different responses to guilt and evil.Macbeth's deteriorating mental state is evident in his fragmented dialogue and his fixation on religious imagery. His inability to say "Amen" suggests his crime has severed him from divine grace, while the voice crying "Sleep no more!" represents his conscience condemning him to permanent insomnia. The metaphor of sleep as "the innocent sleep" and "balm of hurt minds" emphasizes what Macbeth has destroyed — not just Duncan's life, but peace itself.The blood imagery reaches its peak with Macbeth's famous lines about Neptune's ocean, where Shakespeare employs hyperbole to show how Macbeth's guilt feels infinite and indelible. The contrast with Lady Macbeth's dismissive "a little water clears us of this deed" reveals her attempt to minimize the moral weight of their actions, though her earlier admission that she couldn't kill Duncan because he resembled her father hints at her own suppressed humanity.The...
Scene Summary
Following the murder of King Duncan, which takes place offstage, Macbeth returns to his chamber with bloodied hands and the murder weapons still in his possession. He is deeply shaken by what he has done, describing strange voices and sounds he heard during the deed. Most disturbing to Macbeth is his inability to say "Amen" when he heard Duncan's guards pray, and a voice that seemed to cry "Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep."
Lady Macbeth maintains her composure and immediately focuses on practical matters, chastising her husband for bringing the daggers away from the scene and for his obvious distress. When Macbeth refuses to return to Duncan's chamber, she takes the daggers herself to plant them on the sleeping guards and smear them with blood to frame them for the murder. While she is gone, persistent knocking at the castle gate fills Macbeth with terror, and he agonizes over whether all the ocean could wash the blood from his hands. Lady Macbeth returns, hands also bloodied, but maintains that "a little water clears us of this deed" and urges her husband to compose himself before they are discovered.
"I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?" — Macbeth (2.2.14)
"Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done't." — Lady Macbeth (2.2.12-13)
"I could not say 'Amen,' / When they did say 'God bless us!'" — Macbeth (2.2.26-27)
"Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep'" — Macbeth (2.2.32-33)
"Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care" — Macbeth (2.2.35)
"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?" — Macbeth (2.2.58-59)
"My hands are of your colour; but I shame / To wear a heart so white." — Lady Macbeth (2.2.61-62)
"A little water clears us of this deed" — Lady Macbeth (2.2.64)
"To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself." — Macbeth (2.2.70)
"Wake Duncan with your knocking! I would thou couldst!" — Macbeth (2.2.71)
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