Macbeth — Act 2
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Who is he?
Duncan’s murderer. He gains a route to the crown but immediately struggles with terror, guilt and loss of peace.
Actions and development
Act 2 · 1: 2.1: Alone before the murder, he sees a dagger and questions his perception.
Audience / reader: The dagger scene builds anticipation and exposes his unsettled imagination.
Act 2 · 2: 2.2: He returns with bloody daggers, cannot pray and hears an accusing voice.
Audience / reader: His horror after the offstage murder can provoke alarm as well as recognition of guilt.
Act 2 · 3: 2.3: He kills the guards and performs grief when Duncan’s body is discovered.
Audience / reader: Dramatic irony makes his public performance of loyalty difficult to trust.
Act 2 · 4: 2.4: Scotland’s disturbed natural order reflects political disorder; Macbeth goes to be crowned.
Audience / reader: Suspicion and flight leave the audience uncertain about Scotland’s future.
What the character says — “Is this a dagger which I see before me”
Macbeth · 2.1
Method: Rhetorical question; soliloquy
His imagined weapon makes an inward desire theatrically visible. Uncertainty about sight does not remove his decision to approach Duncan.
What the character says — “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood”
Macbeth · 2.2
Method: Hyperbolic question; classical allusion
The enormous ocean cannot cleanse a small hand. Blood becomes moral contamination rather than a stain that water can easily remove.
What the character says — “To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself”
Macbeth · 2.2
Method: Repetition of knowing; divided identity
Awareness of the deed becomes unbearable self-knowledge. His wish to escape himself contrasts with the confident warrior praised in Act 1.
What the character says — “I do repent me of my fury”
Macbeth · 2.3
Method: Public performance of remorse
He explains killing Duncan’s guards as passionate loyalty. The audience knows that silencing possible witnesses also protects him, creating dramatic irony.
What others say or describe — “Sleep no more”
Voice reported by Macbeth · 2.2
Method: Auditory disturbance; repeated command
Macbeth reports a voice accusing him of murdering sleep. Peace and innocence seem destroyed along with the king; the voice is not an objectively confirmed supernatural speaker.
Structure and dramatic choices
The murder takes place offstage; sounds, reactions and blood make the consequences immediate.
Private guilt contrasts with the performance of shock before the other nobles.
Relevant context
Setting: medieval Scotland. Jacobean audiences associated the murder of a rightful king with a threat to political and religious order.
The language of blessing and prayer connects his crime with spiritual exclusion.
Check your understanding
How is the dagger connected to Macbeth’s mental conflict?
Why is his speech about killing the guards open to doubt?