Reading Journal for act two of Macbeth

Scene one

• darkness, torch, banquo and fleance
• 'give me my sword! Who's there?' tense atmoshpere in Macbeths castle - the king is going to die
• Banquo is no longer able to confide in macbeth about the three sisters as he thinks not of them (as he says)
• dagger speak - macbeth begins to halucinate - guilt driving him insane - 'dagger of the mind'
• gothic and paranormal visions in the night

Scene two

• Macbeth kills the king off stage - leaves the death of the king to the viewers imagination - later on in the play more deaths occur on stage - could slowley be revealing more as the play goes on (don't want to give it away all at once)
• could illustrate how macbeth is at first able to put the killing out of his mind (out of sight, out of mind) but then when we see banquos death later on he goes crazy.
• Panicy and blunt dialouge between macbeth and lady macbeth - arguing? tension?
• Macbeth feels increadibly guilty and lady macbeth says 'consider it not so deeply' - she is stronger and more evil - unable to feel guilt
• macbeth accidently brings the daggers back - first slip up - and lady macbeth has to sort it out.
• they clean the blood off their hands - blood is a significant motif in the play

Scene Three

• drunken porter speech - satirical, religious connotations with porter of hell gate - macbeth's castle is now hell
• porter finally answers the door to macduff and lennox, macduff complains of his late answer and the porter comically comments on the effects of alcohol - desire, lacking sexual performance and needing to urinate
• Macbeth enters
• Macduff askes if the king is awake, macbeth says not yet - first cover up, macduff says that the king commanded him to wake him early, macbeth takes him to the king - pretends nothing is wrong - so far macbeth is covering everything up well and not acting at all suspicious
• macduff exits to wake the king. macbeth and lennox left on stage. lennox speaks about the unruly night - premenition? pathetic fallacy - gothic
• macduff finds out the king has died and enters shouting horror horror
• macbeth & lennox both ask what is the matter - macbeth levelling himself with and imitating the innocent
• macduff tells macbeth and lennox to look for themselves and when they leave ring the alarms and informs everyone the king has died
• Lady Macbeth enters and pretends she has no idea what is going on, Macduff is reluctant to tell her what has happened because he feels it unfit for her ears. he thinks it will really upset her - dramatic irony, the audience know what macduff doesn't
• Banquo enters and declares the king has been murdered (he should be the most suspicious of Macbeth because of the incidents with the witches - tension)
• Macbeth says that it is a sick joke and there is nothing worth living for - except he's going to become king
• malcolm and donalbain enter and are told that thier father has been killed - donalbains first question - who did it?
• Macbeth lets slip - he says he killed the guards - why did he not mention this to everyone else before then? why had he been playing dumb? not part of the plan. Sucpision now lies on Macbeth
• He tries to cover it up and Lady Macbeth Distracts everyone by swooning - dramatic, acting. characters help her out instead of questioning macbeth
• everyone decided to exit and get dressed then meet back later to discuss leaving malcolm and donalbain on stage
• Malcolm and Donalbain discuss among themselves - they decide to flee as they are also suspects, suspicious of everyone and likely to be murdered. they take seperate paths - malcolm to england and donalbain ireland - more likely for at least one to survive. quickly made decision - fastly paced scene.

Scene four

• there is a break in the fast paced scene between the main characters - raise and fall of anxiety
• dialouge between an old man and ross - they talk about the suspicious happenings of last night - lead to talking about supernatural - horses eating each other - humans killing each other - theme of animal kingdom, death and murder - cannibalism
• Enter Macduff, they discuss who killed the king, macduff says it was the servants that macbeth killed, then ross comments that they had no motive to
• Macduff says they were paid to. He says Malcolm and Donalbain are prime suspects as they has fled. Macbeth is lucky - not part of his plan but the suspicion has been shifted onto them.
• Macbeth has already been named king