In Act 2 Scene 2, Lady Macbeth's master plan to promote her husband to the throne finally comes to fruition. However, for the first time in the play, Lady Macbeth reveals a degree of weakness in her inability to murder Duncan with her own hands. Before this act, it would seem likely that Lady Macbeth would be the one to commit the murder, but in scene 1 it is revealed that the ringing of a bell will be the signal for Macbeth himself to enter and kill the king. The first indication that Lady Macbeth might be more vulnerable than she appears to be is her frightened reaction to her husband's approach in scene 2. Her first inclination is that the guards awoke before Macbeth had was able to complete the act and she expresses her fear that “the attempt” is not the act that confused the Macbeths. Even more surprising is why Lady Macbeth did not kill Duncan herself. She said: “If he hadn't looked like my father in his sleep, I wouldn't have done it. » This is particularly unusual for a character who has thus far been portrayed as cold and heartless. Apparently, Lady Macbeth has a certain respect, even love, for others, and the fact that she compares Duncan to her father seems to indicate that she also has a suppressed affection for him. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Despite her momentary lack of confidence, Lady Macbeth still maintains her bold but calculating role as Macbeth's driving force throughout the rest of scene 2. In a way, she almost crosses his consciousness, but in reverse; a negative and perverse side of his personality, but imbued with logical reasoning. She is determined to follow the plan to the end, and when Macbeth refuses to bring the daggers back into the room to plant them on the guards, she calls him a "cripple." Her next lines are particularly chilling, as she refers to the "sleeping and the dead but in image form" and confidently takes the daggers into the room herself. Upon her return, she tells Macbeth that "his hands are your color", referring to blood, then remarks "but I am ashamed to wear such a white heart." As demonstrated in Act 1, Lady Macbeth knows that her husband fiercely defends her courage. Thus, she is a master of manipulation, able to pull Macbeth's strings with just a few simple words. Her view of murder is also much more practical than her husband's. Throughout the play, Macbeth is constantly distressed by this act, wondering what impact it will have on him on a spiritual and psychological level. Lady Macbeth, however, sees this as only a passing event. This contrast is best depicted in the way both characters deal with the bloodstains on their hands. Macbeth, shaken by a mysterious knock at the door, wonders: "Will all the ocean of great Neptune wash this blood from my hand?" In the following lines, Lady Macbeth ironically tells her husband that "a little water cleanses us from this act." How easy it is. It is therefore clear that Lady Macbeth does not approach her husband's fears on the same level as his thoughts. While he is faced with mortal sin, she is simply concerned with the logistics of a quick, fleeting event. The most memorable "mental image" of this act is the illusory floating dagger that Macbeth "sees" near the end of scene 1. Macbeth's "vision" is interesting, because on the one hand it echoes the supernatural themes of act 1, while at the same time it is clear that this is not a ghostly event, but a "dagger of the spirit", created by the character's ownMacbeth. troubled imagination. This illustrates how embroiled Macbeth was in the plot to kill Duncan. Macbeth sees a dagger floating right in front of him, but when he catches it, his hand goes through it. Today this effect can be achieved on stage, but in Shakespeare's time it is likely that there was nothing physically in front of the actor playing Macbeth. The creation of the scene would have relied primarily on the way he delivered the lines and then extended into the air. In some ways, this could have produced the desired effect better than any special effect, provided the actor was able to act as if he was actually seeing something in front of him. After completing the murder of Duncan, Macbeth begins to moralize on a level not seen in Act 1. During the early parts of the play, Macbeth is depicted as a fearless warrior who brutalizes his country's enemies without hesitation. In Act 1, Macbeth seemed confident in his plans and firmly believed that his actions were the right course of action. However, after Duncan's murder, Macbeth begins to question himself and it seems that his former boldness has given way to self-loathing and self-doubt. The force of will that led him to murder Duncan disappears as soon as the act is committed and, apparently, was just a facade for a mind in turmoil. This is demonstrated by Macbeth's response to Lady Macbeth's request to return to the scene of the murder to place the daggers on the king's guards. Even though Macbeth has just killed his king in cold blood, he responds that he "shall not enter [the king's chambers] again...I fear to think of what I have done." Macbeth is a man consumed by guilt, and Shakespeare uses his periods of madness to illustrate this point. In Act 2, Scene 1, Macbeth's guilt is already beginning to pile up, despite the fact that the king is still alive. The fluttering dagger near the end of the scene and Macbeth's description of his "heat-oppressed brain" show that madness is already beginning to take hold of the once sane Thane of Cawdor. Even after killing King Duncan, he cannot complete the plot by planting the daggers on Duncan's guards. Instead, Lady Macbeth must put the finishing touches on the murder herself. His guilt becomes even more apparent in scene 3: Macbeth's dialogue, previously grandiose and poetic, has been reduced to short sentences when he discusses Duncan's murder. When asked about the king, his answers are very brief: "Hello, both... not yet... I will take you to him." Lennox offers a complex description of the night's events and weather, but all Macbeth can bring himself to say is "it was a difficult night." As in the second scene, when Macbeth mentions that he could not bring himself to say "amen" in prayer, he seems mute, paralyzed by guilt and unable to fully express himself. Perhaps the most tragic effect of the events of Act 2 is the fact that life has now lost its meaning for Macbeth. In scene 3 he states: “There is nothing serious about mortality: everything is just toys. » Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Due to Macbeth's moral dilemma, he eventually comes across as more of a tragic hero than a villain. From the beginning of the play, it is clear that he was a noble and courageous man, but he had two major flaws: his vicious courage and his "show-jumping ambition." Lady Macbeth clearly recognized these flaws from the beginning and exploited them to the fullest, forcing Macbeth to choose between cowardice and murder. Ironically, he becomes all the more cowardly because he gives in so quickly..'