Act Two Scene THREE
Speak and behave: Lennox seems more sensitive to portents than Banquo whose preoccupation with the witches distracts him from his job of protecting Duncan. Pathetic fallacy. AUDIENCE share these anxieties as they are aware of the murderous intentions of Macbeth. So the world is in shock and tumult at the divinely appointed King’s slaughter b the greedily impatient and ambitious traitor. Supernatural in the ascendancy. The understatement of Macbeth( irony) shows his hesitation and anxiety in responding as he is waiting for the discovery of Duncan’s death. This contrasted with Lennox’s belief in the singularity of the weather. His sensitivity designates him a loyal subject, just as the abject revulsion and cries of Macduff ‘horror, horror, horror, testify to his nobility and contrast and eventual nemesis to Macbeth. Macduff is opposed to Macbeth dramatically and he reminds the audience about the goodness and sanctity of the King giving representation to the degradation of Macbeth and the witches’ influence which celebrates chaos and ‘confusion’.
The night has been unruly: where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events
New hatch’d to the woeful time: the obscure bird
Clamour’d the livelong night: some say, the earth
Was feverous and did shake.
My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.
Re-enter MACDUFF
O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o’ the building!
Act Two Scene THREE.
Speak and behaves: verb, ‘seem’d carry irony. Are there already doubts around the scene-setting of the Macbeth couple? The recital of details could support Lennox being deceived or the opposite too. Or is Lennox gullible and to be contrasted with Macduff in this extract? It acts as a reminder of what has occurred and as the audience did not witness the murder of the King ( sacrilegious ) on stage, then this description emphasises the horror of what Macbeth has committed.
Macbeth attempts to convince the audience on stage that it was his love of the King that led to his execution of the guards. Yet ironically, the audience beyond the stage know this is all theatre and an attempt to cover his guilt. However, the wondering question by Macduff suggests he is not so easily convinced by the hasty repentance of the ‘fury’ and this Macbeth proceeds to embroider his account of the dead King, attempting to match the horror of Macduff. Lady Macbeth recognises this precariousness balance of this scene’s contrast between the justification of her husband and the disbelief of Macduff, so she strategically faints as a distraction from her husband’s floundering predicament. The supposed care of Macduff’s ‘look to the lady’ could be heavily ironic and he may not be taken in by her performance either. And the audience knows Lady Macbeth is being duplicitous and is not a’ lady’ at all.
Those of his chamber, as it seem’d, had done ‘t:
Their hands and faces were an badged with blood;
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
Upon their pillows:
They stared, and were distracted; no man’s life
Was to be trusted with them.
O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.
Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
The expedition my violent love
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced with his golden blood;
And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature
For ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
Steep’d in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech’d with gore: who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make ‘s love kno wn?
