Taylor Svete

British Literature/ Mrs. Smith

Macbeth quote responses Act II

10/20/09

“Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more!/ Macbeth does murder sleep…”

(Scene ii, lines 34-35)

Macbeth‟s guilty conscience has been bothering him since even before he committed the

act of killing Duncan. Before, he thought he saw a dagger, but when he reached out to it, it was

not really there, and now, he is hearing voices calling out what he has done. The voices say that

he has murdered sleep and sleep here symbolizes innocence; the king was innocent and Macbeth

murdered him.

“I’ll go no more./ I am afraid to think what I have done;/ Look on ’t again I dare not”

(Scene ii, lines 49-51)

His wife‟s persuasion doesn‟t work on him this time, Macbeth is feeling too guilty and

bad about what he did to do anymore. His wife calls him a coward, but even that does not

convince him, which is why it is a surprise later when he kills the guards. Lady Macbeth faints

when she heard what Macbeth did because she had not expected anything like it out of her

“coward” or a husband.
 “My hands are of your color, but I shame/ To wear a heart so white.”

(Scene ii, lines 63-64)

Lady Macbeth does not feel the same guilt that Macbeth does. She says her hands are of

his color, meaning that they are too covered in blood and therefore guilt of the crime, but she

would be ashamed to have a heart so cowardly as she thinks Macbeth‟s is. “To know my deed,

„twere best not know myself” Macbeth says, further revealing his nagging conscience. Lady

Macbeth does not respond to this because she does not care to hear anymore about his guilty

feelings when she herself does not share them.

“Who could refrain,/That had a heart to love, and in that heart/ Courage to make’s love

known?”

(Scene iii, lines 117-119)

This is ironic because Macbeth gives his reason for killing the guards that he loved the

king and had courage to kill the men who killed Duncan. But really, it was Macbeth who killed

Duncan. Is Macbeth now taking out his guilty feelings on other men, looking for someone to

blame since he cannot bring Duncan back? Macbeth says he did it out of love for the king, but

how can he have loved the king when he is the king‟s murderer?