Act 2 Scene 3 Flashcards
overview of act II scene iii
all is discovered. the porter is roused from his drunken sleep by macduff and lennox, who try and wake the king and find he has been murdered. macbeth panics and kills duncan’s attendants - and duncan’s sons, afraid for their own safety, slip away secretly.
what is the purpose of the porter’s comic monologue?
- to relieve the tension
- but also build suspense before the body is found
what does shakespeare use to increase the audience’s anticipation?
- audience knows that duncan has been murdered, and although the characters don’t know, they can sense evil
what does Macduff discover in this scene?
Macduff finds King Duncan’s murdered body and reacts in horror, waking everyone up.
finish the quote: ‘hell-…
…gate’
porter’s use of dramatic irony
- describes the macbeths’ castle as a ‘hell-gate’ and makes a joke about a man sent to hell who ‘committed treason’
lennox’s use of dramatic irony
- comments on how unruly and stormy the night was
- tells macbeth that the wind sounded like ‘strange screams of death’
- he also says the storm was ‘prophesying with accents terrible/ Of dire combustion and confused events’
- reflects the terrible events that have taken place and foreshadows the events to come
finish the quote: ‘twas a…
…rough night’
finish the quote: ‘not…
…yet’
‘twas a rough night’
‘not yet’
- before duncan’s body was found, macbeth speaks in short sentences
- he seems tense and distracted
- highlights his guilt and nervousness
finish the quote: ‘O horror, horror, horror!…’
‘…Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!’
‘O horror, horror, horror!…Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!’
- Macduff’s reaction to discovering Duncan’s murder
- Expresses complete shock and devastation
- Marks the moment Scotland begins to fall into chaos.
finish the quote: ‘Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had…’
‘…lived a blessed time.’
‘Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time.’
- Macbeth pretends to mourn, but also reveals his guilt
- Suggests he knows his soul is now tainted forever.
finish the quote: ‘There’s daggers in…’
‘…men’s smiles.’
‘There’s daggers in men’s smiles.’
- Donalbain realizes people are pretending to be friendly but are actually dangerous
- Foreshadows betrayal and deception
- Justifies Malcolm and Donalbain’s decision to flee.
finish the quote: ‘The night has been unruly: where we lay, our chimneys…’
‘…were blown down.’
‘The night has been unruly: where we lay, our chimneys were blown down.’
- Lennox describes the unnatural events of the night
- The weather reflects the disturbance caused by Duncan’s murder
- Pathetic fallacy shows nature reacting to the crime.
- Clearly suggests a supernatural origin for it
- Nature in Shakespeare’s work often reflects the tragic or horrible events in human life
finish the quote: ‘Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the Lord’s…’
‘…anointed temple, and stole thence the life o’ the building!’
‘Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence the life o’ the building!’
- Macduff compares Duncan’s body to a sacred temple
- Shows the idea of divine right—the murder is an attack on God’s chosen ruler
- Highlights the horror of the crime.
finish the quote: ‘Shake off this downy sleep, death’s…’
‘…counterfeit, and look on death itself!’
‘Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit, and look on death itself!’
- Macduff urges the people to wake up and face the murder
- Contrasts real death with sleep, reinforcing the theme of deception.
how does LM react to the death?
- macduff says that ‘tis not for you to hear what i can speak’
- suggests LM is too gentle and feminine to be able to withstand the terrible news
- terrible irony for the audience
- ‘woe alas! what, in our house?’ - presents herself as being incredulous
how does macbeth react to the death?
- he spouts incoherent panic
- ‘the wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of’
- being hyperbolic
- dreadful irony of this whole speech
finish the quote: ‘Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, loyal and…’
‘…neutral, in a moment?’
‘Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, loyal and neutral, in a moment?’
- Macbeth justifies killing the guards
- Tries to present himself as emotionally overwhelmed
- In reality, he wants to cover his tracks.
- Questioned so directly, M makes great verbal effort to sound convincing - bunch of metaphors
finish the quote: ‘silver skin…
…laced with golden blood’
how does macbeth’s language change after duncan’s body is discovered?
- he describes duncan’s ‘silver skin laced with golden blood’
- his poetic language seems false
finish the quote: ‘and his gash’d…
…stabs look’d like a breach in nature’
‘and his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature’
- broken boundaries of nature
- unnatural death
how does macbeth confess to killing duncan’s servants?
- out of rage - and when LM hears about this, she faints
- could be to distract the other characters from macbeth’s suspicious behaviour, or she may actually be horrified by macbeth’s violence, which she didn’t help plan
finish the quote: ‘help me…
….hence, ho!’
finish the quote: ‘The wine of life is drawn, and the mere…’
‘…lees is left this vault to brag of.’
‘The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of.’
- Macbeth suggests all goodness has been drained from life
- Shows his growing despair despite trying to act innocent.
finish the quote: ‘which the false…
..man does easy’
finish the quote: ‘where we are/ There’s daggers…
…in men’s smiles’
finish the quote: ‘the near in blood…
…the nearer bloody’
‘which the false man does easy’
‘There’s daggers in men’s smiles’
‘the near in blood, the nearer bloody’
- malcolm and donalbain know who their enemy is
- doubt macbeth and realises he has killed their father
what do Malcolm and Donalbain decide to do?
They decide to flee—Malcolm to England, Donalbain to Ireland—because they fear they’ll be blamed for the murder - they will ‘shift away’ stealthily
why do malcolm and donalbain run away?
- they fear for their lives
- it makes them look guilty and allows macbeth to take the throne
why does Macbeth kill the guards?
He claims it was out of ‘fury’ for Duncan’s murder, but in reality, he wants to silence them before they can reveal anything.
how does Macduff react to the murder?
He is deeply shaken and refuses to attend Macbeth’s coronation, showing his early suspicions.
why was the porter included by shakespeare in the play?
- as well as making many ironic references to macbeth’s heinous deeds, he provides some comic relief for the audience/slap stick
