However, her comment also places the responsibility for the physical murder solely upon Macbeth. Macbeth emerges from Duncan's chambers, covered in blood. Duncan's actual murder is never seen in the play, only the events leading up to it and its aftermath. Clearly shaken by what he has done, Macbeth rambles on about how he has "murdered sleep" and how disturbed he was that he could not say "amen" to the guards' prayers.
He feels haunted and cursed. Lady Macbeth scolds him, enraged when she sees that he has bought the murder weapons with him. She calls him a coward and takes the daggers from him, delivering them back to the scene of the crime. She returns, also covered in blood, and remarks how easily water will wash away their crimes. Meanwhile, a knocking sound can be heard throughout the castle.
At the end of this scene Macbeth states, "wake Duncan with thy knocking, I would thou couldst. Scene 3 marks a distinct change of pace. Shakespeare often incorporated scenes of comic relief into his plays, especially his tragedies. These scenes are designed to break the dramatic tension with a short, humorous scene. In the case of Macbeth , the comic relief comes in the form of the doorkeeper to the castle, the porter.
He is clearly hungover from the revelry of the night before, and he pretends that he is the gatekeeper of hell. He does eventually open the door, letting in Macduff and Lennox, two of Duncan's thanes. The porter continues to ramble humorously on about the effects of alcohol to them.
Macbeth enters the scene, and Macduff asks if Duncan is yet awake. Macduff goes off to see the king, and Lennox remarks on the fierce storm that raged the night before. Macduff comes running back to report that Duncan has been murdered. Immediately, all of the thanes rush to Duncan's chambers, of course finding him dead. Lady Macbeth arrives at the scene, feigning her own disbelief, even going so far as to pretend to faint. Macbeth emerges, his hands covered in blood, and says that the deed is done.
Badly shaken, he remarks that he heard the chamberlains awake and say their prayers before going back to sleep. He refuses to go back into the room, so she takes the daggers into the room herself, saying that she would be ashamed to be as cowardly as Macbeth. As she leaves, Macbeth hears a mysterious knocking. As Lady Macbeth reenters the hall, the knocking comes again, and then a third time. She leads her husband back to the bedchamber, where he can wash off the blood. We realize that if Macbeth succeeds in the murder of Duncan, he will be driven to still more violence before his crown is secure, and Fleance will be in immediate and mortal danger.
Act 2 is singularly concerned with the murder of Duncan. We see the scenes leading up to the murder and the scenes immediately following it, but the deed itself does not appear onstage.
This technique of not allowing us to see the actual murder, which persists throughout Macbeth, may have been borrowed from the classical Greek tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles. In these plays, violent acts abound but are kept offstage, made to seem more terrible by the power of suggestion. She claims that she would have killed Duncan herself except that he resembled her father sleeping.
This is the first time Lady Macbeth shows herself to be at all vulnerable. Her comparison of Duncan to her father suggests that despite her desire for power and her harsh chastisement of Macbeth, she sees her king as an authority figure to whom she must be loyal.
The dagger is the first in a series of guilt-inspired hallucinations that Macbeth and his wife experience. The murder is also marked by the ringing of the bell and the knocking at the gate, both of which have fascinated audiences. The knocking occurs four times with a sort of ritualistic regularity. It conveys the heavy sense of the inevitable, as if the gates must eventually open to admit doom. In short, clipped sentences, Macbeth says that Duncan is still asleep.
He offers to take Macduff to the king. Macbeth and Lennox rush in to look, while Lady Macbeth appears and expresses her horror that such a deed could be done under her roof.
General chaos ensues as the other nobles and their servants come streaming in. As Macbeth and Lennox emerge from the bedroom, Malcolm and Donalbain arrive on the scene. They are told that their father has been killed, most likely by his chamberlains, who were found with bloody daggers. Macbeth declares that in his rage he has killed the chamberlains. Lady Macbeth suddenly faints, and both Macduff and Banquo call for someone to attend to her.
Malcolm and Donalbain whisper to each other that they are not safe, since whoever killed their father will probably try to kill them next. Lady Macbeth is taken away, while Banquo and Macbeth rally the lords to meet and discuss the murder. Malcolm declares that he will go south to England, and Donalbain will hasten to Ireland.
Ross, a thane, walks outside the castle with an old man. Macduff emerges from the castle and tells Ross that Macbeth has been made king by the other lords, and that he now rides to Scone to be crowned. Macduff adds that the chamberlains seem the most likely murderers, and that they may have been paid off by someone to kill Duncan.
Suspicion has now fallen on the two princes, Malcolm and Donalbain, because they have fled the scene. His good-natured joking with Macduff breaks up the mounting tension of the play and also comments obliquely on its themes.
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