ACT 2 SCENE 2
Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play follows the life of a fictional Scottish Thane Macbeth to show the themes of treason, supernatural and witchcraft. Furthermore, this play is considered as a propaganda player to please King James the first who was originally born in Scotland.
In previous scenes, Macbeth defeated the enemies who threatened King Duncan’s kingship. Shortly after the battle, he met three witches who gave him prophecies alongside with his close friend Banquo. Macbeth wrote a letter to lady Macbeth to explain what has happened to him, which ignited her faulty ambition of overthrowing King Duncan. She persuaded Macbeth to murder King Duncan. After going through a series of mental conflict within his brain, Macbeth committed the murder, but he immediately regretted it. His worries and guilt overwhelm in this scene while lady Macbeth tries to calm him down and let these memories disappear. This scene reveals Macbeth’s mindset after overthrowing the King, which helps the audience to have a more comprehensive understanding of the character. Moreover, Shakespeare emphasises lady Macbeth’s effort on soothing Macbeth, which contrasts to the plot taking place later that she’s one who can’t get over the murder. This contrary adds dramatic elements to the play, engaging the audiences’ attention and interest.
Shakespeare brings out the religious connotation to start off the scene, linking to the popular belief of “the Great Chain Of Beings” during that era. According to “the Great Chain of Beings”, every individual has their fixed position on earth and if this order is violated, nightmares will fall. The righteous King is the representation of God on earth, and hence murdering the King is regarded as against God’s will, which makes Macbeth an unforgivable sinner. Shakespeare implies this idea using the line “I could not say Amen”, which reveals how scared and regretful he is after betraying the order and killing the King. Alternatively, Shakespeare might imply that Macbeth’s is abandoned by his religion as the punishment of his horrendous act. The alliteration “hangman’s hands” provokes a strong imagery of King Duncan’s corpse, visualising this striking, impactful scene for the audiences. Moreover, the “h” sound of these two words conveys a creepy, depressing atmosphere of the murder scene, which resonates with Macbeth’s fears and worries. From the audiences’ side, the religious content will make them feel more relatable to the plot, engaging their attention and interest.
On the other hand, lady Macbeth tries to let him forget what has happened. Her initial response to Macbeth’s worries is “Consider it not so deeply”, which is an example of imperatives. The use of imperatives make lady Macbeth sounds more dominant in their relationships, which helps to establish her manipulative character. Furthermore, this short response contrasts with Macbeth’s long, monotonous lines, which implies her nonchalant attitude towards King Duncan’s death. Her unceasing effort of calming down Macbeth is signified by the line “These deeds…make us mad”, which tells Macbeth the potential consequence of keeping these thoughts in mind. Ironically, it foreshadows lady Macbeth’s tragical transformation. When the play develops, the audiences will find out that she is the actual one who loses her mind because of these bad memories. It contributes to arise dramatic tension to the play while serves as a shocking factor to engage audiences’ attention.
Despite lady Macbeth’s effort, Macbeth’s worries continue to grow. His hallucination “Methought I heard a voice…murder sleep” highlight how fearful he is when committing the murder, which reflects his inner guilts and regrets. ‘Sleep” was very important in Elizabethan era as people believed it would cure life’s problems and provided an getaway after a long day of labour. Sleep is a reward for all the toils of life, and as a result of their bad deeds they have lost the right of natural sleep, their conscience won’t let them rest and they are deprived of all sleep. Macbeth’s condemned sin disallows him to escape from the tortuous memories, which foreshadows his transformation from a warrior “full of human kindness” to a cruel King. For the audiences, the symbolism of “sleep” makes them feel more relatable to the content as this was a popular idea during that time. To highlight Macbeth’s complicated feelings at this stage, Shakespeare uses repetition “shall sleep no more” to provoke a strong sense of regret and guilt within the character himself, which implies that Macbeth believes there is no way for redemption and he will live under endless terrors for his entire life. Macbeth’s emotional response contrasts with lady Macbeth’s calmness towards what they’ve done, which shows that lady Macbeth is more determined to kill King Duncan and hence she is the one to blame for the tragedy.
Eventually lady Macbeth gives up in soothing Macbeth and takes a more direct approach to confront his fears and worries. She abruptly interrupts Macbeth’s lines using an imperative “Infirm of purpose”. The use of strong language highlights that lady Macbeth is in dominating position in their relationship; the use of the exclamation mark emphasises her fury and rage towards Macbeth’s confession, which also contributes to establish her manipulative, calculative personality. Lady Macbeth, in some sort of ways, treats Macbeth like a little child using her strong and frank expressions. In order for him to not get scared, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that dead bodies with blood on them are just like pictures, and it is our imagination that makes it worse. She shows her purpose in this section with the use of a conditional “if he do bleed”, which shows that she is going to put the blood on the servants’ faces and frame them as murderers.
The sudden “knocking” contributes to add dramatic tension to the play by using the sound effect, which is a very impactful way to engage the audiences’ attention and interests. After hear the knocking, Macbeth is afraid that someone might find out what he’s done and he falls into a panicking state again. Shakespeare illustrates Macbeth’s worries and fears by repeating rhetorical questions, which highlights his unceasing regrets after killing the King. As a warrior, murdering and slaughtering are common things for him to do on the battlefield, but now Macbeth just couldn't let this one murder go, which shows his tragical transformation from a brave warrior to a fearful murderer. Shakespeare uses an hyperbole “with all great Neptune’s ocean…hand” to show how much the murder had an effect on Macbeth. Macbeth states that the blood is too much on his hands that all of the water from the ocean can’t wash it off, which visualises how bloody and cruel the murder scene is. Moreover, Shakespeare might imply that Macbeth’s sin is too deep that there is no practical way to redeem himself, which foreshadows his mental suffering and dizziness as well as his character transformation. “Neptune’s ocean” contrasts later in the scene when lady Macbeth says “a little water will clear us of the deed”, showing their different opinions towards the murder.
Overall, this scene contributes to reveal Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s reaction towards the murder, which highlights their different personalities and implies lady Macbeth’s domination over Macbeth in their relationship. The religious connotation also plays an important role in this extract, explaining and signifying Macbeth’s fears and worries based on the common belief in that era.
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