Response 3: Macbeth, Act II

At the end of Act I Macbeth agrees to go along with his wife’s plan to kill Duncan. Act II starts out at night with Banquo and his son Fleance up late at night. Banquo says hes been having "cursed thoughts" (II.i.8) and that he cant sleep. Macbeth enters and has a brief conversation with them. Banquo mentions the witches and Macbeth says he hasn’t been thinking about it. Macbeth then says "when we can entreat an hour to serve, we would spend it in some words upon that business" (II.i.22-23). I think that this makes it seem like Macbeth has something planned for the night. Once they leave Macbeth starts hallucinating. He sees a dagger floating in the air and pointing to Duncans room. Then it turns bloody. Macbeth wonders if it is real but decides its just his imagination. Then the signal goes off. This ends sene 1.

In scene 2 Lady Macbeth enters and says that she has done everything in the plan except murder the king. She couldnt do it because he resembled her father. All of sudden they skip what happens and Macbeth enters and says that hehas killed Duncan but he left the dagger. He also mentions that he couldnt say amen. His wife gets mad then goes to get the dagger. After that we get some comical relief in scene 3 with the porter and his part. Then the others find out that the king has been murdered. When Malcom and Donalbain find out that their father has been murdered they do what they think is best, and flee the scene. In scene 4 we see that overall the plan went well for the Macbeth's since the chamberlaigns were the ones blamed for the murder. Since the two sons fled the scene people also become suspicious of them. All of this helps Macbeth because less eyes are on him now but he still has to worry about Malcolm and Donalbain.