Macbeth Act 2 Revision: Question and Answers

The deed refers to the murder of Duncan. Macbeth says this to Lady Macbeth after committing the murder. He has done it almost in a trance. He has been impelled to the deed by the powerful taunting rhetoric of Lady Macbeth. Macbeth lapses into complete self-absorption. He hears noises from within. He hears voices saying “God bless us’, ‘amen’ etc. he has murdered sleep, and he will not sleep anymore. He looks at his blood-stained hands and his eyes come out of their sockets. He thinks that Neptune’s ocean cannot wash the hands clean. He is repentant and remorseful; he wants Duncan to wake up so that he may be free from the sense of guilt. Lady Macbeth is practical and self-controlled by contrast. However, she does not have her earlier ruthlessness. She has taken wine to nerve herself, she thinks of her father’s face as she looks at the face of Duncan. She has, however, command of the situation. She asks her husband not to brood on the deed. She reproaches Macbeth with cowardice when he refuses to revisit the room of dead Duncan. She says that the sleeping and the dead are but pictures. She says to Macbeth that a little water will clear us of the deed. She asks Macbeth to retire to the chamber and wash the hands and put on the nightgowns ‘lest occasion call us’. Lady Macbeth is simple-minded. She cannot understand the voices and visions of Macbeth with her limited imagination and thought. She cannot follow the ravings and remorse of Macbeth.

There were fierce tempest and rains. Chimneys were blown down and strange screams of death were heard. Darkness had pervaded the following day. This is unnatural. A falcon was preyed on by a mousing owl. Duncan’s horses, most beauteous and obedience turned wild; and horses did eat each other. Amazement and mystery pervaded the whole atmosphere. The unnatural act of murder has disrupted the natural and the animal worlds. Order-disorder symbolisms heighten the enormity of the crime.