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A PowerPoint Summary
Act 2, Scene 1
• Banquo tells Macbeth he dreamt of the
witches. Macbeth lies to Banquo, telling
him that he “think[s] not of them.”
• Macbeth’s third soliloquy: “Is this a
dagger I see before me, The handle
toward my hand?”
Find Macbeth’s second soliloquy in Act
I. What was Macbeth’s second soliloquy
about?
Act 2, Scene 2
• Macbeth murders the King while his guards are drunk
asleep.
• Lady Macbeth observes that she would have done the
deed herself “If Duncan hadn’t looked so much like
[her] father as he slept.” (She has a weakness, but acts
“tough”).
• Macbeth botches the job. He returns to his chamber
bloody and with the murder weapons, which he was
supposed to plant on the guards.
• Lady Macbeth, after chastising her husband as a “weakwilled creature,” plants the dagger and returns… now
just as bloody as her husband.
• Remember: 1. “Macbeth has murdered sleep.”
2. “Can all great Neptune’s ocean wash
this blood from off my hand?”
Act 2, Scene 3
• In most of his tragedies, Shakespeare balances scenes of
intense drama or action with lighter scenes – which
often contain crude, offensive humor. Macbeth is no
different. Act 2, scene 3 immediately follows Duncan’s
murder and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s unexpected(?)
admission that they feel guilt. This scene is commonly
called the “porter” scene.
• The persistent knocking of Macduff and Lennox (two of
Duncan’s very loyal thanes) wakens the castle’s porter,
who shuffles toward the gate to admit the knocker.
• Why does the porter take so long to open the gate?
Act 2, Scene 3, cont.
• Macduff and Lennox have come to meet Duncan and
leave with him from Inverness (the castle). Macbeth –
who has “just awakened” – tells Macduff to go ahead
and get Duncan. Macduff, of course, comes back
screaming the news that the King’s been murdered.
• Macbeth acknowledges that he killed the King’s
obviously guilty guards – he says he could not restrain
his anger at their treachery.
• Macduff tells Lady Macbeth that the details of murder
scene are so terrible that “the reciting of [them] in a
woman’s ear would kill her as she heard [them].”
• Malcolm and Donalbain – the King’s sons – agree to
leave Scotland.
Malcolm flees to __________ and Donalbain to ______
Act 2, Scene 4
• Outside Macbeth’s castle, an Old Man and Ross
(another thane loyal to Duncan) talk of the strange
occurrences of the night before. “The heavens [were]
troubled by men’s sins, punishing this bloody world.”
Besides the night’s storminess, the two also observed
that the sun was dark – “snuffed out by the darkness of
night” – and that Duncan’s beautiful and well-bred
horses killed each other and became cannibals.
• Macduff and Ross seem to agree that Malcolm and
Donalbain’s quick departure from Scotland makes them
look guilty.
• Macbeth, says Ross, is in Scone for his coronation.
• Macduff makes it clear that he has no intention of
attending. Suspicious, maybe?????