Setting and Atmosphere: Macbeth

NB this is a PLAY, never a book!

The night of Duncan's Murder, Act 2, scenes i - iii.

Background setting

At the end of Act 1, Macbeth has been persuaded by his evil and scheming wife to kill King Duncan while he is a guest under their roof. This will be a short-cut to Macbeth's ambition of becoming king of Scotland [which the weird sisters had predicted in Act 1 scene 3]. We are shocked by this evil , treacherous intention - especially as we saw Macbeth at first as brave, loyal and heroic.

Setting

The setting is a cold castle, on a black night, past midnight, with the howls of predatory wolves and owls which spring suddenly and viciously on unsuspecting animals. Duncan likes the castle ['a pleasant seat'] but we have heard Lady M say 'never shall sun that morrow see' so we are half prepared for evil and treachery and the atmosphere is one of evil expectation and two-facedness [Lady M has welcomed him at the same time as planning his death!]

Atmosphere

Shakespeare cleverly creates a sense of evil [blackness and blood] taking over Macbeth, his wife and the whole castle. He builds up the tension to breaking point. Finally, he uses daylight and an ordinary, and not wicked porter grumbling about a hangover to restore an atmosphere of normality and relax the tension.

Act 2 sc i

it is pitch black, the colour of evil, and past midnight, the witching hour ['The moon is down']

the stage direction mentions a torch, so we picture flickering, scary shadows

Banquo cannot sleep because he has nightmares ['cursed thoughts']

tension and danger come suddenly with the sound of someone else ['Give me my sword']; Banquo starts (jumps). It is Macbeth! Atmosphere is on a knife edge.

Macbeth appears to try to bribe Banquo ['It shall make honour for you']

now alone, Macbeth hallucinates a dagger pointing the way to Duncan's chamber: this shows how wound up he is, and charges the atmosphere with tension and evil

blood appears ['on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood']

Macbeth reflects that only evil witches and predatory , murderous wolves are still awake; he mentions 'ghost' and 'horror' ['Witchcraft celebrates pale Hecate's off'rings']

the scene ends with Lady Macbeth's signal, a bell which, Macbeth says as if to Duncan 'summons thee to Heaven or to Hell". The use of 'thee' to a King adds to our sense of evil and tension mounts as he paces on.

Scene ii

Lady Macbeth starts as she hears an owl ['the fatal bellman' - a sudden predator under cover of blackness; bells ring when someone dies!]

we wonder: was it Duncan's death cry? Atmosphere is spine-tingling horror

Lady Macbeth's cold-blooded account to us (thinking aloud) of drugging the guards (grooms) and laying their daggers ready shocks us, especially coming from a lady

Macbeth dramatically rushes in, dripping daggers in his hand [red/black=evil] he hears the King's children praying - this adds to the atmosphere of evil as we realise that Macbeth has deprived children of a father as well as a nation of a good King

he cannot say Amen to the boys' prayer because he is evil, unchristian, possessed

he tells Lady M he hallucinated a voice telling him 'Macbeth shall sleep no more' - conscience always disturbs the sleep of the wicked

Lady M tells to get 'some water' to wash his hands

Lady M suddenly sees the daggers - the tension mounts sharply

she shocks us by schemingly, coldbloodedly saying SHE will take the daggers back,

and if the King is bleeding, she will smear blood on the grooms

Macbeth realises the horror and evil of his regicide: 'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this [royal, virtuous] blood? Clean from my hand?'

Lady M returns and maintains the evil atmosphere with her unfeeling cold-bloodedness 'I shame to wear a heart so white'

she is cold and calculating 'retire we to our chamber/A little water clears us of this deed'

Scene iii

Complete contrast: with lower class character, speaking obscene prose [not lines of 10 syllable blank verse] appears in thin daylight replacing the black, evil darkness. His joking conversation with Macduff about the effects of alcohol completely relaxes the atmosphere to a normal one where the worst thing is bad language and obscene jokes ['Lechery, Sir, it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire , but it takes away the performance' ]

We admire the way Shakespeare makes the porter, grumbling as he wakes up, compare Macbeth's castle to Hell itself - little does he know how near the truth he is!