While reading Act II I noticed several things but the one
thing that stood out the most was nature. After Macbeth kills the king it seems
to me that nature starts spiraling out of control. Okay maybe not spiraling,
but things are definitely strange. For example, in Act II, scene 4, line 6,
Ross tells the Old Man, “By th’ clock ‘tis day, And yet dark night strangles
the traveling lamp.” So it’s the middle of the day but there is some kind of darkness
in the world that, as Ross puts it, “strangles the traveling lamp.” A few lines
down something else is off when it comes to nature. The Old Man mentions to
Ross how an owl somehow managed to kill a falcon. I’m not an owl expert but I
do know that owls usually kill and eat smaller animals like mice, not birds that
are bigger than them. Something else strange about the owl is that owls are
nocturnal beings which means they hunt at night right? But we’ve already
established that it’s somewhere in the middle of the day. So because Macbeth
went against nature by committing murder against the king, it seems that nature
has been thrown off balance.
My questions for Act II are:
Lady Macbeth has always been the one to push and convince
Macbeth that killing the king is right thing. She craves power and wants the
king dead probably more than Macbeth himself. So then why was she not able to
kill Duncan just because he resembled her father? Is there a backstory between
Lady Macbeth and her father? It just seems strange that this power hungry woman
who wants nothing more than the king dead would be unable to accomplish her mission
just because the king bared a resemblance to her father. Based on what I’ve
been able to gather on Lady Macbeth so far, it doesn’t seem like family values
would be very high on her list.
Why is Macbeth unable to take the daggers back to frame the
others for the death of Duncan? Obviously I realize that he is feeling remorse
and guilt for the crime he has just committed but Macbeth seems like the type
of person who would always be trying to save his own skin and getting caught
with the two bloody daggers isn’t the best way to go about that.
An Excellent first post that looks at specific lines and themes and analyzes them. Exactly what I was look for! I also like your discussion questions and I hope that we can address them in class. Indeed nature does seem to echo the chaos in Macbeth's house following the regicide, which would mirror the belief that the King was an extension of divine authority and that killing him was a most horrible sin. Great work.
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