Macbeth Group
Question:
kierre
Student
High School - 12th Grade
In Act 2 of "Macbeth," how do Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Donalbain react differently to Ducan's murder?
Answers:
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jamie-wheeler Teacher
College - SophomorePosted by jamie-wheeler on Friday March 7, 2008 at 2:12 PMMacbeth and Lady Macbeth's reactions are quite different. Macbeth can hardly believe what he has done. He expresses the horror of the murder and his nagging conscience to his wife. He looks at his guilty hands and says, " This is a sorry sight." But Lady Macbeth has no such guilt (yet). "A foolish thought," says she, "to say a sorry sight" (2.2.18-19).
Macbeth seems rather in a state of shock and hardly hears his wife's scornful protests. Too vivid in his memory are the cries of the attacked. He recalls, "One cried 'God Bless us' and 'Amen' the other, / As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. / List'ning their fear I could not say "Amen' / When they did say "God bless us."....'Amen' stuck in my throat" (2.2.14-27, 30). Lady Macbeth still dismisses him. "Consider it not so deeply," she advises (2.2.28).
As for Donalbain, upon learning of the murder, his reaction is to flee. He tells Malcom: "Let's away. Our tears are not yet brewed....To Ireland, I. Our separate fortunes / Shall keep us both safe. Where we are / There's daggers in men's smiles. The near'r in blood, / The nearer bloody" (2.2.119, 134-47).
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