MacBeth Quotes Act 2

(Banquo to Fleance) It is very dark out this evening. ‘Husbandry’ meant cheapness. There is cheapness in heaven, they’re being stingy with their candles. It’s dark; something bad is going to happen. There’s husbandry in heaven; their candles are all out.
(Macbeth soliloquy) He sees a hallucination of dagger. It is a way of showing mental turmoil over the act of murder. It starts with no blood, by the end it has blood on it. He starts off timid but grows bold in the end, comparing himself to Tarquin. He eventually kills Duncan. Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle toward my hand?
(Lady Macbeth to Macbeth) Lady Mac says that Duncan looks like her father. This is why Lady Macbeth couldn’t kill Duncan herself. First time we see her “soft side.” Has he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done it.
(Macbeth to Lady Macbeth) Macbeth won’t be able to sleep anymore because of what he has done. This foreshadows his guilt and Lady Macbeth’s lady problems with somnambulism(sleep walking). Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.
(Macbeth to Lady Macbeth) Lady Macbeth asked Macbeth to go wipe blood onto the grooms. He can’t bring himself to terms to what he just did. I’ll go no more; I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on’t again I dare not.
(Macbeth to Lady Macbeth) Macbeth feels like nothing in the world could ever rid him of the guilt of killing Duncan. He says that he could not clean the blood off his hands if he had all the water in the universe. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand.
(Lady Macbeth to Macbeth) Lady Macbeth says the guilt of the murder is easy to get rid of. This foreshadows her lady ramblings about not being able to wash the blood off herself. A little water clears us of this deed. How easy it is, then.
(Macbeth to knocking at the door) Macbeth expresses guilt for this action and regrets killing Duncan. He hears MacDuff knocking and wishes that it would wake up Duncan. He knows it won’t, this is more lamenting over the deed. Wake Duncan with thy knocking; I would though couldst.
(Macbeth to Lennox, Donalbain, Lady Macbeth, Macduff, Ross, and Banquo) He wants others to think he is innocent. Also implies he might have been happier if he died than if he had killed Duncan. The old, ‘I wish it were me” bit. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time.
(Macbeth to Lennox, Donalbain, Lady Macbeth, Macduff, Ross, and Banquo) No longer wants to live because Duncan is dead. From this instant there’s nothing serious in morality.
(Malcolm to Donalbain) Malcolm doesn’t trust the other men and suspects their pity is just a show. He talks about how he and his brother have no yet digested the act and can’t show their pain, but the other Thanes weep openly. Doubts their true feelings. To show an unfelt sorry is an office which the false man does easy.
(Donalbain to Malcolm) Not everyone who is being nice to them is their friend. Also, those close to the king are in mortal danger. Whoever stands a chance at taking the throne is a target. There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near blood, the nearer bloody.
August 26, 2019