English resources/Macbeth/Act 2, Scene 2
Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2
Macbeth kills the king. His hands are covered in blood. His wife says water will clean them.
Macbeth has 28 scenes in 5 acts, and Act 2 has 4 of them. Act 2, Scene 2 comes after Act 2, Scene 1 and before Act 2, Scene 3. The 4 key lines here come from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
This scene in five words
MacbethmurdersDuncancannotsleep
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What happens, in more detail
Lady Macbeth waits in the dark. She has drugged Duncan's two servants with wine, and she says she would have killed the king herself if he had not looked like her father as he slept.
Macbeth comes back from Duncan's room having done it, and he is shaking. He heard someone pray and could not say Amen, and he heard a voice cry that Macbeth has murdered sleep. He has also carried the bloody daggers away by mistake, and he will not go back. Lady Macbeth takes them back herself and smears the sleeping servants with blood so they will be blamed.
Someone starts knocking at the castle gate. Lady Macbeth tells him a little water will wash the deed away and hurries him off to bed, while Macbeth wishes the knocking could wake Duncan up.
Why it matters: the murder happens offstage, so what we watch is the guilt, and it starts straight away. Blood, hands and sleep come back again and again for the rest of the play.
The quotes
4 big quotes in this scene.
Macbeth does murder sleep
Macbeth · Act 2, Scene 2 · guilt
A voice says he has killed sleep itself. He will not sleep well again.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?
Macbeth · Act 2, Scene 2 · guilt · violence
Can the whole sea wash the blood off his hands? No.
A little water clears us of this deed
Lady Macbeth · Act 2, Scene 2 · guilt · appearance and reality
She says a bit of water will clean them. In Act 5, nothing can.
My hands are of your color, but I shame To wear a heart so white
Lady Macbeth · Act 2, Scene 2 · gender and manhood · guilt
Her hands are as red as his. But she is not scared. He is.
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