The next few lines are focused on Duncan as a king and how his subjects will miss him. “So clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels.” When Macbeth says “and pity, like a naked new born babe.” He means that his subjects will think of him as an innocent baby who didn’t deserve to die. In the last few lines of his soliloquy he says, “That tears shall drown the wind. – I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself.” The first sentence shows that there will be lots of tears shed by his subjects. But he then says that this won’t stop his ambition of being king.
At the start of the soliloquy Macbeth seems to be anxious to get the murder over and also seems anxious to prevent trouble afterwards. You then see how much Macbeth wants to be king when he says that he would risk his afterlife to be king. This is backed up at the end when he says he has a vaulting ambition to become king.
In Macbeth’s second soliloquy he is about to go through with the murder and the first thing he says, “Is this a dagger which I see before me”. He is hallucinating here and is showing signs of delirium. He then says, “Art though not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight.” This means that he wanted to know whether he could touch the dagger as he could see it. He then realises that the dagger was a false creation and pulled out his own. When he says, “Mine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses, or else worth the rest”, Macbeth is trying to work out whether what he is seeing is real. Macbeth then says, “And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood.” He is thinking about the murder and all the blood on the dagger. He also pre-empts the murder when he says, “The curtained sleep” which gives a clue to how the murder will be conducted. By saying “the curtained sleep”, Macbeth is saying that he will murder Duncan while he is sleeping. He then talks about the pace of the death by saying, “Whose howls his watch, thus with stealthy pace.” He then compares what the murder is like by the fast walk of the roman emperor Tarquin as he went to rape his friends wife, when he said, “With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design.”
As in the first soliloquy Macbeth speculates the possible consequences of the murder in his second soliloquy. When he says, “Thou sure and firm-set earth, hear not my steps” you can see that Macbeth is anxious about whether god is watching his moves and thinking about punishing him for what he is doing. Macbeth then says, “For fear thy very stones prate of my where-about.” This means that Macbeth doesn’t want anything he walks on to alarm the earth of what he is about to do. Then on the last line Macbeth says, “Whiles I threat, he lives: words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.” Macbeth is saying here that while he talks about the murder Duncan is still alive, so he must get on with the murder soon. A bell then rings to signify that the murder has taken place and Macbeth then re-enters. He says, “I go and it is done.” He is talking about the murder. The last line before he exits reads, “Duncan; for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or hell.” Macbeth is saying that Duncan is dead and his funeral bell will summon him to either heaven or hell.
In this soliloquy Macbeth seems to be tempting himself to murder Duncan. For example when he hallucinates the murder he is tempting himself because he knows how to proceed with the murder and that it can be done successfully. Although he does show concern for his safety when he says, “Thou sure and firm-set earth, hear not my steps.” This shows that the earth might punish him for what he is about to do. But this apprehension doesn’t change his mind, and he goes through with the murder of the king.
The reason why Shakespeare used these soliloquies’s during Macbeth is because most of the time in the play Macbeth is either lying to someone (for example Duncan) or he is under influence and isn’t saying what he actually wants, for example when he is around the witches or lady Macbeth. This means that the soliloquies are the only way for Macbeth to convey his true feelings to the audience. This is also a way for the audience to get some information that the other characters do not know, so this makes them feel a part of the play. Another reason is so Shakespeare would be able to create dramatic irony, as the audience already know certain things.
The first soliloquy is situated in the castle and what Macbeth is saying is “aside” so nobody else can hear it. The soliloquy takes place after Duncan enters and after Lady Macbeth greets him. The last line before Macbeth’s soliloquy is Duncan saying, “Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly, and shall continue our graces towards him.” This has been put there because the next line is Macbeth plotting to kill Duncan and this creates a dramatic irony. Between the first and the second soliloquy Lady Macbeth is persuading Macbeth to go through with the murder by first calling him cowardly, and by then reassuring him that nothing will go wrong. This is why Macbeth’s mind is made up by the time he starts his second soliloquy. Also between the 2 soliloquy’s Macbeth meets Banquo. Banquo starts talking about the 3 witches but Macbeth didn’t want to talk about them and after a brief conversation Banquo goes.
Shakespeare has put the soliloquy during the murder so the audience knows exactly what is going on in Macbeth’s mind before the murder. It also allows for the audience to know exactly when the murder takes place.