73 pages • 2 hours read
William ShakespeareMacbeth
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1623A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Act IIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Scenes 1-2 Summary
In Macbeth’s castle, Banquo and his son Fleance walk through the halls. Though Fleance is tired, Banquo cannot sleep. Lately, his nightmares have kept him awake. They come across Macbeth and Banquo notes his surprise to find that Macbeth is still awake. The king, Banquo explains, is asleep. Banquo and Macbeth discuss the witches and the prophecy, though Macbeth claims not to have thought about the matter at all. They agree to talk later, and Banquo and his son exit. In the hallway, Macbeth sees a vision of a dagger that floats in the air. He cannot determine whether it is real or a “fatal vision” (2.1.36); the handle points at Macbeth and the tip points at the room where Duncan is asleep. Macbeth decries the hallucinatory dagger as a metaphor for his unease over what he must do. He finds a renewed resolve. A bell tolls elsewhere in the castle. It is a signal from Lady Macbeth, a sign that Duncan’s chamberlains are asleep. Macbeth heads for Duncan’s chambers.
Lady Macbeth appears in the hallway that he husband has just left. She imagines Macbeth murdering the king and—hearing Macbeth make a noise—worries that the chamberlains have awoken. Lady Macbeth does not believe that there is any chance that her husband could fail, as she has prepared the plan meticulously. She even admits that she would have committed the murder herself, but Duncan reminded her too much of her own father.
Macbeth re-enters the hallway, his hands stained with blood. He has “done the deed” (2.2.14), he tells his wife. Macbeth is evidently distraught and admits that he heard the chamberlains stir, saying their prayers before they returned to sleep. When the chamberlains said amen, he could not say the word with them. Macbeth heard a voice mentioning his name when he killed Duncan. Lady Macbeth becomes angry at her husband’s carelessness: He has not placed the bloody daggers next to the sleeping chamberlains to frame them for the murder. But Macbeth refuses to go back into Duncan’s room. Lady Macbeth takes the daggers there herself, admonishing her husband’s cowardice. When he is alone, Macbeth hears a strange knocking sound. As the knocking continues, Lady Macbeth returns and leads her husband away to wash the blood from his hands.
Scenes 3-4 Summary
As the knocking continues, a drunken porter stumbles to answer the knocking at the door. Macduff and Lennox enter; Macduff criticizes the porter’s slow response. The porter apologizes, comically explaining that the victory party dragged late into the night.
Macduff asks Macbeth him about the king. Macbeth informs Macduff that the king is asleep, but offers to take Macduff to Duncan’s chambers anyway. Lennox tells Macbeth about the chaotic night that has just passed, as people claim to have heard “strange screams of death,/And prophesying with accents terrible” (2.3.30-31). Macduff exits Duncan’s chamber, horrified. He shouts that the king has been murdered. Macbeth and Lennox rush into the room, Lady Macbeth bemoans that this happened in her home, and the entire household descends into chaos. Lennox tells Malcolm and Donalbain that their father is dead. Lennox adds that the chamberlains are the likeliest subjects, as bloody daggers were beside them, but no one can question them since Macbeth killed them in a fit of rage. Malcolm and Donalbain are suspicious, worried that whoever killed their father will now try to kill them. Lady Macbeth faints. As Banquo and Macbeth try to bring order to the chaos, Malcolm decides to flee to England while Donalbain will head to Ireland.
Outside the castle, Ross and an old man discuss other strange events. Ominous signs appeared around the castle: a falcon killing an owl and Duncan’s horses cannibalizing one another. Macduff emerges to tell Ross that Macbeth has declared himself king. Macbeth now plans to ride to the Scone of Stone in order to be crowned formally. Macduff worries that someone paid the chamberlains to kill Duncan. He suspects Duncan’s sons, because they have now disappeared. Macduff returns to his home in Fife while Ross attends the coronation.
Act II Analysis
Although the play depicts numerous types of violence, most of them occur offstage. The murder of King Duncan is one of the most important plot elements in the play, but the audience doesn’t see it. Instead, the play only shows us the build-up and the aftermath of this crime. This ensures that the audience remains focused on the emotional impact of the murder—the tragedy of Macbeth—rather than being titillated by the spectacle of the act.
Macbeth’s doom is so total that his corruption manifests outwardly. In the lead up to the murder, he has a vision of a bloody dagger, the first of many ominous portents that surround the murder. While Macbeth is able to interpret the dagger as a manifestation of his doubts, the signs Ross discusses in the days after the murder are more difficult for the characters to interpret. This is an example of dramatic irony: the audience understands why nature is expressing chaotic displeasure after Macbeth overturns the laws of liege loyalty and guest right, but the other characters do not. They attempted to read the omens are laden with fatalistic irony: They guess that the chamberlains were paid assassins or that Duncan’s sons may have been involved. Part of Macbeth’s tragedy is seeing signs that warn him not to proceed, but not averting his course. Even as the environment begins to reflect Macbeth’s inner turmoil, Macbeth’s inability to stop himself becomes the focus of the play.
Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth recedes in importance. Her pretense that Duncan’s bedroom has caused her to feel faint is a ploy built on a foundation of real horror. Duncan looked too much like her father for her to murder him while he slept. It is possible that the sight of the dead king has now stirred up regret. Even at the height of her manipulative powers, Lady Macbeth is starting to buckle under the reality of the situation and her attendant guilt.
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By William Shakespeare
