Macbeth - Study Notes - Act II

1.Who accompanies Banquo at the opening of Act 2? What is his relation to Banquo?

Fleance is the one who accompanies Banquo. He is his son.

2.What is Macbeth's hallucination before he murders Duncan? What does this mean?

Macbeth's hallucination is a dagger which he wants to grasp but of course he can't, and he realizes that he is seeing the dagger that he plans to use in the murder, a dagger which beckons him toward King Duncan's door, and a dagger upon which appear thick drops of blood. He understands that "It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes" (2.1.48-49), but he is not horrified. Rather, he wants to be as deadly as that dagger.

3.What reason does Lady Macbeth give for not committing the murder herself?

Duncan looks like a father and that is why Lady Macbeth does not want to commit the murder herself.

Lady Macbeth by George Cattermole.

English: Poster of Thos. W. Keene in William Shake...

The sleepwalking Lady Macbeth

4.Why do Duncan's sons decide to leave Scotland?

They doubted something and by leaving Scotland, they'll have a little additional safety, because no one will be able to kill them both at once.

5.In Scene 2, why couldn't Macbeth say "Amen" when a voice said "God Bless Us"?

In Scene 2, Macbeth could not say "Amen" when a voice said "God Bless US" because it was part of his hallucinations.

6.The images of blood and water are interwoven in lines 55-68 of Scene 2. What does each suggest?

It is the blood on his hands that causes this horrible fascination, and he feels that the blood can never be washed away. Before his hands are clean, they will make all the seas of the world turn red. The water usually represents being free of something, wiping away the guilt, and...