ACT 2 SCENE 3 MACBETH ANNOTATIONS SERIES

' and 'The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood / Is stopp'd.

Note that the literal truth of Macduff's announcement - 'Our royal master's murdered' - is preceded by several lines in which the murder is depicted in a figurative or metaphorical fashion, almost as if Macduff dare not name the deed: 'Murther hath broke ope / The Lord's anointed Temple,' 'destroy your sight / With a new Gorgon,' and 'see / The great doom's image!' It's interesting to compare these lines of Macduff's, spoken in all innocence, with those of the all-too-guilty Macbeth, who also approaches the matter metaphorically: 'The wine of life is drawn. Is Lennox's subsequent line - 'My young remembrance cannot parallel / A fellow to it' (64-65) - intended to be spoken with puzzlement at Macbeth's reaction?Īt this moment, the dam breaks. Macbeth's response - a rough night' - is so anticlimactic as to provoke incredulity. His catalogue of unnatural events - high winds, screaming and wailing voices, the calling of birds, and tremors in the earth - is apocalyptic in character and suggests a direct connection between the events of the universe at large and the events within the castle.

While Macduff goes to wake the king, Lennox remarks upon the extraordinary weather of the previous night. Then Macbeth enters, apparently at ease, to direct Macduff to the king's room.

ACT 2 SCENE 3 MACBETH ANNOTATIONS SERIES

The humor continues when the porter unbolts the door to Macduff and Lennox and offers a series of bawdy jokes, momentarily distracting the audience from the fact that Macbeth must at this very moment be washing his hands of the blood of the previous scene. So the porter's examples are not entirely without significance, even though they may be unintentional. Many examples of ambiguous language are heard throughout Macbeth, and of course the words of the Witches themselves are not entirely clear. The conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, may have been encouraged by a Catholic convert called John Garnett, whose nickname was 'farmer.' The practice of lying in court about one's religion by employing confusing or ambiguous language was known as equivocation. A few months before Macbeth was performed at court in front of the Protestant King James I, the infamous Gunpowder Plot (the aim of which was to murder the English king) took place. The first two examples he uses (that of a farmer and an equivocator) have specific religious and historical connotations. In a private game with the audience, he engages in a piece of stand-up comedy in which he imagines himself as that beleaguered servant, opening and closing the gate on the damned. The porter of Macbeth's castle, drunk from the previous night's revels, complains that his job is worse than that of the porter of hell. This busy scene begins with a moment of light comedy, which serves to heighten the suspense. Duncan's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, thinking themselves open to the charge of murdering their father, plan to flee to England and Ireland. The assembled thanes of Scotland resolve to avenge the act of treason. On hearing the terrible revelation, the Macbeths' acts are beyond suspicion, but Macbeth admits to having killed the guards of the King's chamber - not part of the original plan - and Lady Macbeth faints.

Only a moment passes before the news breaks: King Duncan has been murdered. One who is not is Macbeth, and he directs Macduff to the king's chamber. It is early morning, and most of those in the castle are still asleep. Eventually, however, he opens the door to Lennox and Macduff, who have been commanded to call upon the king to arrange the royal departure. Instead, he plays a game with himself in which he imagines himself as the porter of hell and jokes about the kind of sinners he might let in. The knocking continues, but the porter does not immediately open the door.

Act 2 scene 3 macbeth annotations