When Lady Macbeth enters onto the stage she will have no spotlight on her, as she would be aiming to stay in the shadows and not be noticed. The only light on the stage will be from fire torches, put high up on the wall, burning low outside King Duncan’s room, which is not visible from the stage. These will provide enough light for the audience to see the characters on stage and will also cast flickering shadows across the stage, adding to the tense, secretive atmosphere of the scene. These torches will be on one side only of the stage, meaning the other side is in darkness. This darkness means the dramatic effect of the scene is intensified. It also allows Macbeth to enter onto the stage with the audience only being able to see the outline of his body, as if he was a shadow. The darkness echoes the theme of evil and if the audience are unable to see the characters it will add to the mysterious, hidden feeling of the scene.
When Lady Macbeth first starts to speak she will move around on only the lit, left half of the stage. The sound of a distant owl shrieking will then echo, hauntingly across the stage. Lady Macbeth will shrink back into dark shadows, shocked by the quiet noise. This reaction will show how anxious she really is about what is happening. When she hears the owl she says ‘Hark’, telling herself to listen. Then when she says ‘peace’ she is telling herself to be quiet so no one hears her, also so she can listen to hear whether anyone has woken. These two words will be said with a short pause between them and will contrast in the way they are spoken. ‘Hark’ will be said louder than lady Macbeth was speaking before, as from the shock she has forgotten to be careful. She would then be annoyed at herself for making a noise and ‘peace’ would be spoken in a harsh whisper. Lady Macbeth’s reaction to the owl shriek demonstrates Elizabethan beliefs. Owls were associated with death, she takes the owl shriek as an omen and that Macbeth is about to commit the murder.
Macbeth will enter the stage after having committed the murder on the right side. The audience will be unable to see him or the daggers he is carrying, covered in blood, clearly. Lady Macbeth is also unable to see him. She hears a voice, but not knowing that it is Macbeth, will shrink into the darkness, thinking the guards have woken. Saying ‘Alack I am afraid they have woken’ to herself quietly. Lines 8-13 display to the audience Lady Macbeth’s thoughts and her feelings about Macbeth. She fears for her husband, ‘had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t. My husband?’ She talks of how she wishes she had gone to commit the murder, but King Duncan resembled her father. This shows the audience the Lady Macbeth is not as strong as she is pictured to be. When Macbeth informs his wife that he has ‘done the deed’ a low spotlight will be shone onto the two daggers. The audience will then be able to see the weapons clearly and his body will be slightly clearer, but his face and expression will still remain hidden in the dark. This will show the audience that Macbeth is trying to hide both his face and what he has just done. However the image of the daggers and what they have done will always be clear in Macbeth’s memory.
Macbeth then asks his wife whether she heard a noise. She says ‘I heard only the owl scream and the crickets cry.’ The way she describes these words demonstrates how the evening has affected her. The owls ‘scream’ and the crickets ‘cry.’ Both these words can be related to how someone being murdered would sound and both animals in Elizabethan times were related to death. It is clear that all both Macbeth and his wife can think about is what has just happened. Macbeth is finding it difficult to cope with the psychological consequences of what he has done. He thinks he is hearing voices and that some one has woken and found out what happened. Lines 14-23 are not written in verse but in continuous prose. The short abrupt questioning that takes place here shows how edgy and anxious they are. These words will be spoken quickly and quietly to emphasise the secrecy of the pair. The audience will be able to see Macbeth fully when he walks towards Lady Macbeth standing in the light. They will be able to see his remorseful, terrified face and really empathise with him. He will appear to them as a weak man lead by his wife, who although has no power in society, has great control over her husband.
The conversation in this scene between Macbeth and his wife is important because it starts to show the audience his instability. Later on in the play the audience will be able to watch as Macbeth and his wife change and relate it back to where it all started at the beginning of the play. In this scene Lady Macbeth maintains power and control, whilst Macbeth appears weak. As the play progresses Macbeth gains more power, but his wife continues to have control over him. Then in Act 5, Scene 1 Lady Macbeth, fast asleep, tries to wash imaginary blood from her hands, the murders of King Duncan, Banquo and Lady Macduff haunt her like the death of King Duncan and Banquo haunted Macbeth at first. Before she dies she is shown to be a fragile woman. As the play reaches its end although Macbeth is shown to be a murderous tyrant, he has power and control over both himself and other people, which he did not have at the beginning. He realises this when Lady Macbeth’s haunting scream echoes through his castle in Act 5, Scene 5, ‘I have almost forgot the taste of fears.’ This line contrasts with his earlier words in act2, scene2 ‘how is it with me when every noise appals me?’
Lady Macbeth says to her husband ‘a foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.’ She is telling her husband to not have ‘foolish’ thoughts’, but he is too caught up in his hallucinations. It is here in the play that her control over her husband begins to weaken. In Act 1, scene 2 she has enough power to convince her husband to commit the murder. In this scene, although she clearly has control, Macbeth is not responding to her as he is too affected by what has happened. In this part of the scene Macbeth will be leaning against a wall, staring past Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth will stand in front of Macbeth, watching him on the floor. This will show the strength there will be a red light on the stage that will spin round slowly. It will represent Macbeth’s hallucinations and all the blood he has seen on this night.
When Macbeth talks of his inability to say ‘Amen’ he will have his hands over his face, as if he was trying to hide from what he has done. He will speak in a high whisper; fearful of someone finding out it was him who murdered the King. The strong belief of Religion held by the Elizabethans is demonstrated here. Macbeth is worried that God has found out and is angry with him; he fears he has lost his religion, as he is unable to say ‘Amen’. Macbeth then talks of how he has ‘murdered sleep’. He praises sleep as ‘innocent sleep, but seems sure that he who has murdered an innocent man in his sleep, will not sleep again. At this point in the play Macbeth is revealing his fears to the audience. He uses powerful language to describe sleep, ‘sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care’, depicting it to the audience as if it was something that is pleasant and loving, something he wants but can’t have. He will be close to the front of the stage, still leaning against the wall. As he speaks he will slide down to the floor, with his head in his hands. This will show how he has weakened in this scene. In the beginning he was scared but he had control over himself, keeping his voice quiet so no one heard him. As the end of the scene comes closer Macbeth will lose control over his voice changing from loud to quiet, showing the audience his instability.
This scene shows Lady Macbeth’s strengths against Macbeth’s weaknesses. Whilst Macbeth is being dramatically affected by what has happened, Lady Macbeth is calmer, taking control. She tells Macbeth to wash his hands of blood, the ‘filthy witness’ to their crime. She then sees the daggers Macbeth brought back with him. She tells him he must take them back, put them with the grooms and to smear the grooms with blood so it will look like they murdered the King. Macbeth is paralysed with the horror of what he has done, freezing on the stage, refusing to return to the chamber of King Duncan. Lady Macbeth is scornful of her husband. She takes the daggers and will tell him in a quiet bitter whisper that she is not afraid of the sleeping or the dead and will finish the job. Her power and control here is clear, she dismisses her husband and takes over his role. Before she leaves the stage, to finish what they have started, Lady Macbeth will have both the bloody daggers in one hand. The other hand will be pulling Macbeth’s, trying to get him to come to his senses and remove any traces of the murder from his body.
Once Lady Macbeth has left the stage a knock, louder than the owl shriek, will echo across the stage. Earlier in the scene Lady Macbeth’s guilty conscience meant she panicked on hearing the owl shriek which was much quieter than this knocking. Macbeth is frightened by the knocking but doesn’t do anything about it; instead he just stares at his hands that are still disturbing him. This obsession with his hands is reflected in Act 5, scene1 when Lady Macbeth is sleep walking and she is trying to wash imaginary blood off her hands.
When Lady Macbeth re-enters her hands will be covered in the blood of King Duncan. She says to Macbeth that her hands are the same colour as his but she would be ashamed to be acting the way he is, like a coward. This shows again Lady Macbeth’s strength of mind compared to Macbeth early on in the play. As the audience watch the end of the play they will be able to see how the characters have changed roles. Lady Macbeth became unable to handle all the pressure of knowing about or taking part in murders throughout the play and ending up similar to the way Macbeth was in this scene. On the other hand Macbeth learnt throughout the play to control his fears and near the when the shrieks of Lady Macbeth were heard the audience see how he has changed.
Shakespeare has created themes that run throughout the play. The main theme of this play, and also of this scene is evil. In Act 2 Scene 2 evil is represented by darkness. Light and darkness is a theme that is used in this scene in both text and staging. The characters refer to night and sleep, while the stage has little lighting, making it appear dark. The idea of crime and punishment is also present in this part of the play. Macbeth murdered someone and was punished. Most of the themes within Macbeth are based on good against evil and that the consequences of evil are not desirable. The dramatic way Macbeth was affected is shown through his directions of voice, movement and in the text. He moved slowly, never really focusing on anything but the blood, he also lost control of his actions as he lost control of his mind.
Overall I think the directions written for this scene are effective in portraying the images created in this scene. The dark stage echoes the theme of night, good and darkness, evil, while Macbeth’s anguish is clear through his actions. The balance of power in this scene is also made clear in this scene with Lady Macbeth shown as a strong character.
