Macbeth, Act II - Mood and Atmosphere

Shakespeare uses many devices to set the scene and the overall mood of each Scene in his tragedy of Macbeth. The overall mood of this particular Act is edgy, scary and darkly themed. The scene is inside Macbeth's castle, but Shakespeare uses other devices to further this setting, and to engage the audience into fear or agitation.


The Act starts when Banquo tells his son Fleance ''A heavy summons lies like lead upon me and yet I would not sleep.'' The audience is led to believe that this is the doing of the Witches, as in act one, the First Witch tells of how she cursed a sailor so that he would not sleep, and also because Banquo reveals to Macbeth a little later on in the scene that he ''Dreamt last night of the three Weird sisters.'' This lack of sleep is either then a curse on Banquo, or an internal conflict on what is good or bad about his prophesy, exactly like Macbeth's internal struggles throughout the play, shown through his soliloquy and private discussions with Lady Macbeth.


As the Scene progresses, Macbeth's famous soliloquy of ''Is this a dagger I see before me...'' shows newly developed elements of his character. The illusion of the dagger is the result of the Witches' meddling, and can only be explained through madness or the supernatural; both of which are uneasy topics in a play, even today. This provokes a fear of the unknown from the audience, and makes them question the heroic Macbeth that they were introduced to by the Captain and other such characters in the play, as it in fact paints the nobleman in a confused and dazed state, from his failure to grasp his current situation.
He says ''art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation...from thy heat-oppressed brain?'' to show his questioning of the reality of his vision. The very fact that Shakespeare uses words such as 'blood', 'dead', 'wicked', 'witchcraft' and 'murder' scares the audience, as Macbeth is openly talking about these things, but has no emotive response. He is consumed with wonder and bewilderment at the vision he beholds. He becomes alienated from the rest of the audience, and indeed the other characters.


The transformation of a ruthless Lady Macbeth, to a nervous Lady Macbeth also alienates her from the audience. Earlier in the play, she tells Macbeth that if he decides not to kill the King, he will be less of a man, and calls on evil to make her into a hard-hearted killer. But now, she needs drink to make her go through with her part of the plan - and she is still frightened by the slightest sound.
She quotes, ''what have made [the guards] drunk hath made me bold; what hath quenched them hath given me fire. -Hark!- Peace!'' and ''Alack, I am afraid they have awaked...The attempt not the deed confounds us.'' Interestingly, the Lady also quotes, ''Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I would have done't'', which is interesting, as it seems to show the Lady as developing a conscience, and feeling fear. This alienates her from the audience, as they know her as a maybe evil, and definitely over-ambitious, silver-tounged woman; and yet here she is, drinking for false courage, cowering at an owl's distant screech, and developing feelings of sympathy for another person.


Finally, Shakespeare's Porter scene has a comic relief aspect to it, but he has written it skillfully, allowing an air of evil to linger in the background of this scene. The repeated Knocking creates an air of mystery, and the unknown aspect is of course who it is that knocks at the door. Or is it in fact the witches doing, and the nocking is just to scare the Macbeths, or confuse the Porter. Also, the porter's use of drunken language contrasts the everyday language of society, particularly in the god-fearing age of Shakespeare's time. For instance, the porter asks ''who's there i'the name of Belzibub?'' as opposed to the normal 'in Jesus' name'. Lennox also enters the scene when Macbeth enters the scene, and reports that the ''chimneys were blown down'' and that he heard ''strange screams of death'', to signify that all is not well in Scotland, because of Macbeth's actions. This therefore sets the scene not only in Macbeth's castle, but also on a national scale, frightening the audience even more so.

Through these devices, and Shakespeare's skillfully written dialogue, he manages to set the scene all the way through his Second Act, as a dark and creepy place, shrouded in mystery and alienation of both audience and main characters.

Macbeth - Act 1 Reading Journal

Scene 1
- First characters are the Witches. They apear to be planning, and speaking in rhyme (mystery, poetic)
- Thunder & Lightning = Goithic setting of darkness, mysery and an element of danger
- ''Fair is Foul, Foul is Fair'' quotation shows the twisted beauty in the poetic dialogue of the witches. Also portrays their enjoyment of causing death and creating madness
- Witches can predict future? Their dialogue foreshadows later events
- Scene shows the elements of the supernatural, scary and poetic language

Scene 2
- Enter a ''Bleeding Captain'', the first appearence of the theme of blood in the play. Very Gothic
- Captain portrays Macbeth (who still has not appeared in the play) as ''brave Macbeth'' and a ''cannon overcharged with double cracks''. Heroic warrior
- ''carved out his passage'', ''unseamed him from the nave to the chops'' and ''fixed his head upon our battlements'' portray gruesome images to the audience. Also, the last quote can be seen as a foreshadowing to Macbeth's own demise
- However, can the Captain be a reliable messenger? first, he is adressing the king, and will not wish to dissapoint him, second he is dying from his wounds and may be confused/disorientated
- The king bestows honour onto Macbeth for fearsome deeds, showing that How the battle is won is juat as important as Who won it.

Scene 3
- Witch two explains how she cursed a woman's husband with no sleep because she refused to give her chestnuts, and ripped off the thumb of a pilot. grotesque goings-on with the witches
- a drum sounds when Macbeth enters the scene. furthers the air of mistery.
- Witches prophesy over the kingship of Macbeth and Banquo. Unholy Prophesy furthers the possibility that they may have an insight into the future
- Macbeth shows signs of internal conflict, between ambition and loyalty, greed and fear. Banquo advises him not to think of such things
- 'Witches Vanish' stage directions show they are definately a supernatural element of this tragedy
- ''Cannot be ill, cannot be good'' shows how confused Macbeth has become by the witches' statements
- ''look how our partner's rapt'' after Macbeth's aside speach shows the audience that the other charcters of the play have noticed how mesmorised Macbeth has become

Scene 4
- Shakespeare's structure; 'a gentleman on whom I built absolute trust' enter Macbeth 'O worthiest cousin!' - Irony
- ''The service and loyalty I owe...'' Is he genuine to the king? What is he really thinking?
- the aside speach is in rhyming couplets. Macbeth is not supposed to have done this on purpose, but Shakespeare uses it to make his lines stand out here.
- ''I must fall down or else o'erleap'' Macbeth knows that it is a 'do or die' situation. he either acts quickly or not at all. he is still contemplating wether or not to do what must be done to obtain the throne of scotland

Scene 5
- Inroduction of Lady Macbeth:
1. We dont see how she behaves before she reads Macbeth's letter, so we are led to beleve that how she acts prior to reading the letter is how she always acts
2. Lady Macbeth is the first person who actually mentions killing the king to obtain the throne. Is she actually smarter than Macbeth, or just more devious?
3. Lady shows dominance over Macbeth, telling him that he is not man enough to kill the king
4. Question - Has shakespeare made a single-track minded beast, or an actual person with a concience, in Lady Macbeth?
- Faith/Relegion dilemmas and quotations; “Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark” – doesn’t want God to see and/or signs of a sense of guilt? “Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t” – reference to the Garden of Eden Serpant (Satan).
- Letter sent ahead of Macbeth shows secrecy and limited disclosure of information
- the Doppleganger - are Macbeth and Lady supposed to reprisent 2 sides of 1 person?
- She seems to be the driving force behind fulfiling the witche's prophesy, in that she drives Macbeth to kill Duncan. Is she just a sort of catalyst?
- Gothic language - Raven, Blood and Battlements
- Lady as a 'Femme Fatal' to Macbeth

Scene 6
- ''The air is delicate.'' Enter Lady Macbeth. More of Shakespeare's purposefull timings, introducing irony
- The  king kisses Lady Macbeth as a sign of gratitude and greeting. Deceitfull beauty, Femme Fatal for Duncan etc
- does Macbeth's soliloquy that he is just as 'ambitious' as Lady Macbeth? it makes her look less evil in comparison
-  He has a conscience, and it troubles him much more than Lady Mc's does 
-  Lady Macbeth mocks Macbeth's manhood.
- Distorts innocence; “And dashed [babie's] brains out”
- Macbeth enters alone. needs time alone to think, dosen't have to hide how he feels
- Lady Macbeth; passionate, or faking? -‘thy love’
- the God-fearing/rational part of his mind tels him to forget about it all, proving the existence of a conscience (“No Further in this business”)
- manipulative Lady (blackmail?)
- “be so much more the man” – convinces him that he needs to man-up
- “False face must hide what the false heart doth know” ncourages him to be as deceitfull as her.

Gothic elements of Act I of 'Macbeth'

There are obvious elements of the Gothic in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, such as the weather, characters and castles. But Shakespeare uses other devices that may be more subtle it the text, but are of equal importance to the play. Here, I will adress these elements in Act I.

The part of Lady Macbeth is crucial in the development of many gothic elements. We first see her alone on the stage, reading a letter from her husband, Macbeth. She immediately becomes enveloped in the letter, obsessed with how they can rise to the power of king and queen of Scotland. This causes two things – One, the audience has not seen how she normally conducts herself before reading the letter. They are therefore led to assume that the spoken thoughts she says after reading the letter is how she always thinks, giving a dark side to her character. And two, the fact that Macbeth has sent a letter ahead of him, and that his wife reads it alone, gives an air of mystery and secrecy between the two. The audience cannot be sure on their first impressions of Lady Macbeth, but they know to be wary of her.

Lady Macbeth is also portrayed as an exceptionaly abnormal female character for a play, especially in the time of Shakespeare. Other gothic texts show the rolls of women to be ones of innocence, that can be corrupted, or of love or trust that has been misplaced in another character. Lady Macbeth, however, is clearly seen as a violently driven woman, which is more often seen in male protagonists like her husband is, when he is described in battle. Her quote, ''I would while it was smiling in my face have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out'' works to shock the audience with the extremity of her violent use of typicaly masculine language. The gender-reversal element of her character, along with the abnormaly violent language, is quite typical of gothic texts.

The Captain's description of Macbeth's war antics also has lots of gothic elements in it. The captain describes in detail the bruitality of Macbeth's onslaught, telling the King of how he ''carved out his passage'' and ''unseamed him from the nave to the chops, and fixed his head upon our battlements.'' The captains tale is probably exadurated, but the way that he describes the acts of Macbeth, even in the exaduration, makes it sound like a Folk tale being told - another typical element of gothic texts. Folk tales often inspire gothic authors to write their texts, such as Bram Stoker, who was inspired by the folk tale of the Transyvanian born Vald the Impaler/Vald Dracula, to name his villan 'Dracula'.

Macbeth's aside speach after being hailed as king by the three witches, shows an element of self-conflict within himself. Macbeth is puzzled and shocked (''this supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good''), and yet he also seems to be intrigued, and entertains the idea of Kingship (''if chance will have me crowned king, why chance may crown me without my stir''). Macbeth is further still self-conflicted after speaking to his wife, first saying to her ''we will proceed no further in this business'', but then scheiming that he could frame the king's guards - ''...used their very daggers, that they have done't''. Self conflice can be a verry typical theme in gothic texts, some referring to multiple personalities of the same person. It has even been suggested that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are reprisentatives of two sides of one person's mind.

The witches are the most instantly recognisable gothic element of the play. The supernatural element of witches is not, however, their main gothic focus in the play - their use of rhyme and repetition is key to 'freaking out' the audience, as it underlines their belief that ''Fair is foul, and foul is fair''. The poetic wording puts a twisted beauty on their dialogue, adding to the strange mentality of the wierd sisters. The quote ''when shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain?'' almost does not make sense, in the fact that one cannot have thunder without lightning, or rain without stormclouds. It could be interprated that the witches bring foul weather with them, literally taking the gothic setting with them wherever they go.