Macbeth

Study Guide – Act II

Understanding the Play

Scene 1

1.  At the beginning of Act II, how does Banquo show that he is already on guard and fears for his life?

Banquo gives Fleance his sword and tells his son that he is afraid to sleep. When Macbeth and a Servant enter, Banquo calls for his sword.

2.  What sign do you see that, even before the murder, Macbeth is losing touch with reality?

In Scene 1, he experiences a visual hallucination – a dagger.

Scene 2

3.  In Scene 2, why is Macbeth still in possession of the murder weapons?

Macbeth is so unhinged by his crime that he walks out with the daggers.

4.  What happens to the daggers?

Macbeth refuses to go back into the dead man’s room, so Lady Macbeth takes the daggers and places them near the sleeping grooms.

5.  Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth comment on the stains of Duncan’s blood. Compare their reactions.

Macbeth’s sense of guilt is so great that he questions whether “all great Neptune’s ocean” could wash the blood away. Lady Macbeth replies, “A little water clears us of his deed,” suggesting that water will wash both the blood and guilt away.

Scene 3

6.  In Scene 3, Lennox tells Macbeth of several strange events that indicate trouble. What are they?

Chimneys fell during a storm, laments and screams filled the air, owls cried throughout the night, and some people felt an earthquake.

7.  Why does Macbeth kill Duncan’s grooms?

Macbeth says that he kills the grooms because he was enraged to find them, covered with blood and in possession of the murder weapons. Of course, the real reason that he killed them was to prevent them from telling about the events of the previous evening.

8.  Summarize the reactions of the following characters to Duncan’s death:

a.  Banquo: Banquo calls for a meeting to ferret out the murderer.

b.  Malcolm and Donalbain: Duncan’s sons fear for their lives and flee.

c.  Macduff: Because Duncan’t sons flee, Macduff suspects them of killing their father.

Scene 4

9.  In Scene 4, Ross and an Old Man talk of an outbreak of unnatural events that forebode ill. What are these events?

An owl kills a ahawk, and Duncan’s horses go mad and “eat each other.”

Responding to Literature

10. At the end of Scene 1, what does the ringing of the bell indicate to Macbeth? How does Macbeth say the ringing relates to Duncan? What kind of poetic form ends the scene?

The ringing of the bell is Lady Macbeth’s signal to Macbeth that she is finished with the guards, and it is time for Macbeth to come kill Duncan. Macbeth says it is best Duncan does not hear the rining because it is an indication of his impending death, which calls him to either heaven or hell. The final two lines are in the form of a heroic couplet, meaning they are written in iambic pentameter with an AA rhyme scheme.

11. Macbeth describes how he thought he heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth doth Murder sleep…” What is the meaning of Macbeth’s remarks about sleep?

In killing Duncan while he slept, Macbeth committed a crime against “nature’s second sleep, meaning sleep. He describes the restorative qualities of sleep. It soothes troubled minds and tired laborers. For having committed this unnatural act, Macbeth expects he will not be able to sleep anymore. However, Lady Macbeth will be the one who has difficulties sleeping later, another instance of dramatic irony.

12. The Porter’s scene, or the “knocking at the gate scene,” is frequently debated by scholars, but most agree it is a typical scene of comic relief often found in Shakespeare’s plays. Why do you think a scene of comic relief has been place in this particular part of the play? What is its purpose? Why are the Porter’s lines in prose rather than poetry? What lines contain the bawdy humor often found in these scenes?

The Porter’s comic relief scene immediately follows the murder scene, and it is meant to build tension and give the audience a humorous breather before the tension builds again. In nearly all of Shakespeare’s plays, the common people speak in prose; poetry is reserved for nobility and those in the upper classes of society. The porter tells some bawdy jokes by commenting on alcohol and its relationship to sex. He says, “It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance.”