macbeth notes

In this essay I will be writing about two different scenes from Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The scenes i will be writing about are; act2 scene2 and act5 scene5. I will be writing about how Macbeth reacts differently in each scene. in act 2 scene 2 he murders King Duncan and regrets it. in act 5 scene 5 lady Macbeth and dies and he doesn’t really seem to care about anything.

In act 2 scene 2 Macbeth murders Duncan because the witches told him he was to become king. Macbeth talks about the guards who were praying and how he couldn’t say amen with them. ‘But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’? I had most need of blessing and ‘Amen’ stuck in my throat.’ He asks why he couldn’t say amen and that he really needed a blessing but the word ‘amen’ was stuck in his throat. ‘will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’ He becomes all disturbed and paranoid when he keeps on looking down at his hands and hates that the blood is there. He knows killing Duncan was wrong and he feel so bad about it all. He hates what he has done. When he first came back to lady Macbeth after he had killed Duncan he seems jittery and agitated. Asks lots of questions. ‘who’s there? What ho?’ this was before he appeared on stage as he descended from murdering Duncan. He fears that someone has heard him or have caught him doing ‘the deed’.

{When lady Macbeth asks him to return the daggers back to the murder scene, Macbeth says ‘ I’ll go no more, i am afraid to think what i have done; look on’t again i dare not.’ [explain this]} LOIFNT

But in act 5 scene 5 when Lady Macbeth dies Macbeth has a different attitude towards her death. Since the death of Duncan Macbeth’s character underwent a complete metamorphosis. He talks about her death and the nature of life. The whole scene is really depressing.
‘she should have died hereafter; there would have been time for such a word.’ He says she should have died later because it would have been a better time to announce her death. Macbeth says something about life being a walking shadow, a rubbish actor, who walks around worrying and stressing. That your life is equal to an hour and then its nothing. Its just a story told by and idiot, and life signifies nothing. Everyone’s life is insignificant. Nobody cares. This reaction is different to Duncan’s death because when Duncan died he was really scared and worried but now its as if he doesn’t care as if he has ‘almost forgot the taste of fears;.’ He’s so used to horror as its ‘familiar to my slaughterous thoughts cannot once start me’ the horror no longer startles him as he is so used to it all. The reaction he has to the death of his wife and the death of Duncan may also be different because he murdered Duncan but he did not murder his wife. The fact that he actually physically murdered Duncan made him so scared about what would have happened if he had gotten found out, but he didn’t physically kill lady Macbeth so he didn’t really feel threatened in any way. Some people would say that he kind of did kill his wife because of the things he put her through and made her do.

From writing this essay i have learnt the Macbeth goes through a major personality change from being noble and brave to being scared and worried to being fear-free and murderous. His reactions to death change in a short space of time and he turns out to be pretty heartless.