What Is The Effect Of Act 2 Of Macbeth

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Act 2 starts in Macbeth's castle with Macbeth, Fleance, and Banquo talking. When they are done talking and Macbeth is alone he sees an imaginary dagger. In scene 2 of Act 2, after Macbeth finishes killing King Duncan he brings the daggers back with him to the meeting place between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. He and Lady Macbeth talk and he admits that he is scared of looking at the murder scene so Lady Macbeth goes and puts the daggers back at the scene. Then they hear knocking. In scene three at the door a porter let’s in the people knocking, but he is drunk and goes on a rant before he answers the door. After that they discover the murder of King Duncan. When they start talking about the murder and the dead servants, Macbeth admits to killing the servants. A little after that, the princes Donalbain and Malcolm flee the scene out of fear of dying themselves. In scene four Macbeth is declared King and the princes get the suspicion of everyone else who think that the princes killed their father.

In act two, the tone gets set up as dark and foreboding. “The moon is down…there’s husbandry in heaven; their candles are all out. Take thee that

Back then this could be inferred as evil lurking about. He also says that he is tired but cannot sleep, as if he knows something bad has happened. Another example of the tone being dark and foreboding is this quote; “’…Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’- the innocent sleep”(lines 33-34, pg 235). This quote is really dark and could be inferred as that Macbeth ruined the peaceful rest of death when he murdered Duncan, or it could be foreshadowing Banquo’s ghost when Macbeth kills him. It could also represent the fact that Macbeth won’t be able to sleep because of guilt. There are several other quotes and sentences available from act two that would be able to represent the dark and foreboding tone that act two starts for the rest of the