“ I dreamed last night of the three weird sisters” Banquo is afraid of the thoughts provoked by the witches’ prophecies.
Banquo leaves and Shakespeare heightens the tension by Macbeth having a vision of a dagger and all his doubts and anxieties are explained in his long soliloquy. Macbeth sees a dagger covered in blood and hallucinates, about killing the king.
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand? Come let me clutch thee”
“And on thy blade dudgeon gouts of blood”. This is the first reference to blood, which is an image that reinforces the evil of the story.
But Macbeth could not get hold of the dagger. Macbeth thinks it was a sign to kill king Duncan, and in doing so he will become king; or it could be the witches that he saw in Act 1 and could be getting the same thing as Banquo did, but Macbeth think it is his brain that is playing tricks on him because he said,
“To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” The scene ends with Macbeth going off to kill Duncan.
In scene two the tension and suspense increases as we do not see the murder but just the discussion between the two main characters.
Lady Macbeth has to persuade Maspeth to kill king Duncan because she is very selfish and she wants more than everyone else, so as she is married to Macbeth who would be come King of Scotland she would become Queen of Scotland.
Lady Macbeth waits excitedly for Macbeth to come back. But she is startled by the loud noise that he makes. The audience shares her worry that someone will come and discover what they have done. Macbeth returns with two bloody daggers he felt at the time anxious, nervous and guilty because he had just killed the king, and two guards which was unprovoked by them, because they were all ready on the floor drugged. Lady Macbeth has done her part in the murder and is waiting excited, thrilled and energized to hear whether Macbeth has murdered King Duncan. Macbeth returns with blood on his hands, his face was horrified and pale. He is devastated and horrified by what he has done. An owl was shrieking when Macbeth entered the room of Lady Macbeth, this was to create more tension in the atmosphere and to make Macbeth more jumpy and more aware of his surroundings. Lady Macbeth was so mad, angry and annoyed that she tells him that the daggers need to be returned and the blood must be washed off from your hands. Lady Macbeth must return to the murder scene with the daggers and smear blood on the faces of the grooms. They need to hurry because there is knocking at the gate. Lady Macbeth feels thrilled, ecstatic and very strong in what she has done. After she has done the deed she said,
“That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold; what hath quench’d them, hath given me fire. This means she feels very strong in what she is doing and what she has done. She now feels that she wants to do more killing.
Macbeth has a very guilty conscience and is regretting what he has done, by killing the king. Macbeth can’t get to sleep because he is thinking about what he has done in connection with this, he said,
“Still it cried, ‘Sleep no more’ to the entire house; ‘Glamis hath murdered sleep’, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more”: Macbeth shall sleep never again; because when he does he has the worst nightmares ever imagined. The bad nightmares make him cry. Macbeth now wishes that he had never murdered the king because he knows that he is going to be king but will have the guilt for the rest of his life. He will be hallucinating, having nightmares and if someone finds out that it was he he would be executed. When he is in his bed there is a constant knocking at the door but he is to scare that they might have found out all ready about who has killed the former king (Duncan). No one is actually at the door, but he doesn’t answer the door, the sound that he is hearing is in his head and he can’t block the sound it is driving him insane. Shakespeare has written this in to the stage directions to build up tension, and fear in the reader, and Macbeth.
Scene 1, lines 1-37, the tone of the actors was eerie, still, dark. Banquo seems suspicious. False politeness as Macbeth and Banquo skirt around the subject. The reader’s reaction was uneasy and tension. When Macbeth was hallucinating about the dagger floating in the air, the tone was fearful and uneasy atmosphere as Macbeth reaches for the dagger. Supernatural references add intrigue. The reader’s reaction was fear, tension, anticipation and excitement. Scene 2, lines 1-14, the tone of the actors was tense and hyped mood as lady Macbeth was waits for her husband. Softer tone as she explains about her father. The reader’s reaction was of tension and intimacy. When Macbeth had come back with the two bloody daggers, the tone of the actors was Macbeth raves incoherently having done the deed. Lady Macbeth tries to restore order to the chaos in a practical way. There is a knocking at the door. The audience’s reaction was confused, horror, anxiety and tension. There is a constant knocking at the door but he is to scare that they might have found out all ready about who has killed the former king (Duncan). No one is actually at the door, but he doesn’t answer the door, the sound that he is hearing is in his head and he can’t block the sound it is driving him insane. Shakespeare has written this is to the stage directions to build up tension, and fear in the audience, and Macbeth. An owl was shrieking when Macbeth entered the room of Lady Macbeth, this was to create more tension in the atmosphere and to make Macbeth more jumpy and more aware of his surroundings Shakespeare has done this because he has used it for effect, to make it spooky and to represent that it was at dead of night. To increase the tension the knocking continues and the audience wants to know if they will be able to get the dagger back, wash the blood from their bodies, change there clothes before they are discovered.
