Act 2, Scene 2: the murder of Duncan
Macbeth and his wife react differently to the murder
Act 2, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Macbeth presents the murder of King Duncan - the play’s key event that propels Macbeth on to greatness as well as doom. In this scene, the Macbeths meet inside their castle at night, immediately after Macbeth has stabbed the sleeping Duncan to death.
At this point, the spouses react very differently to having killed the King. Macbeth is horrified at what he has done. He seems lost in thought as he talks about hearing someone saying a prayer when he had just killed the King. Macbeth was unable to reply “amen”, as you should: “I had most need of blessing, a…
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Their language helps characterize them
The way a character speaks often holds vital information about that character. Grammatically, Lady Macbeth sometimes uses the imperative. Already in Act 1, Scene 5 we saw her commanding evil spirits to obe…
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The murder functions as Macbeth’s point of no return
The dramatic function of this scene is to presen…
