Act 2 Scene 2 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Act 2 Scene 2 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth

The main theses in Act 2 Scene 2 are good and evil, light and dark,

ambition, time, clothing, blood, sleep and chaos and order. The whole

atmosphere of Macbeth is one of violence horror and fear, and this

atmosphere is accomplished by use of darkness. Darkness symbolizes

chaos, evil, treachery, disorder and going against nature which is

seen as the light, innocence or the good. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

are creatures of the dark. The murder of the King is set at night;

this immediately gives us a feeling of foreboding. The noises of the

night, the shriek of the owl and the eerie noise of the crickets that

herald death, increases the tension as Lady Macbeth waits for her

husbands return.

“It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman which gives that

stern’st good-night”.

This quote shows Lady Macbeth comparing the bird of the night with the

man who rings the bell outside prisoners’ cells who are condemned to

die. This is an ominous sign of things to come. Perhaps she is

anticipating their future punishment. God symbolizes good and light

and Macbeth after hearing the two servants in prayer tell his wife

that he is unable to respond with “Amen”. He is leaving the world of

good and light and can not utter religious words. This leaves us with

a feeling of suspense as we wonder what will happen to him now. The

knocking at the end of the scene disrupts the evil and darkness, which

is both physical and psychological and represents daylight approaching

with its treat of retribution. Again we are left with a feeling of

suspense as we wonder what form this retribution will take.

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...is jerky speech shows her agitation and it also

build sup a great sense of suspense. The language of guilt is

important in this scene, for example Macbeth repeating “Amen” and his

dwelling on being unable to say this outside the servant’s door shows

this guilt. This overwhelming guilt can also be seen in his repeated

references to sleep and how he has “murdered” it. He is obsessed with

blood representing guilt. These repeated images of guilt are also

conveyed by the way they are spoken, sometimes short and broken which

suggests agitation and sometimes long images which suggests tormented

inner thoughts.

In Act 2 Scene 2 Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of suspense and

foreboding by using images of blood, death, retribution, light and

dark, murder, and chaos. He also uses language and imagery to create

this mood.