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Macbeth- act 2: scene 1 - Coggle Diagram
Macbeth- act 2: scene 1
This scene takes place during the "night" which is representative of darkness and therefore evil. It is foreshadowing of the evil that the play will be encased in from now on
"the moon is down"
This is an example of pathetic fallacy. The idea of the moon being depressed and sad is reflective of Macbeth's soliloquy in act 1: scene 7 when he claims that killing Duncan would make his "virtues weep like angels". It also represents how the Great Chain Of Being would have been shifted due Macbeth's regicide and therefore the world is no longer the same, as the natural order have been disturbed
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"a friend"
In this scene, we wonder if Macbeth is being duplicitous when he addresses Banquo as his "friend" because at this point, Macbeth had not yet descended into a tyrannical madness that he had by his coronation and so, therefore, he would have no reason to not meant it.
"if you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, it shall make honour of you"
Macbeth's words are deliberately vague. Shakespeare uses ambiguity in Macbeth's speech here to create tension with the audience- we assume this is a comment about him asking Banquo to join him (when he become King) but it could also just be a friendly piece of advice or even Macbeth making a joke about the witches, at Banquo's expense. With no tonal indicators, it is up to interpretation and this changes the overall tension of this scene.
Banquo's response to Macbeth is also oddly vague but serious. Banquo is suspicious of Macbeth but he has no concrete reason to be (the prophecy didn't outright say that Macbeth would kill anyone) they are still friends. He also doesn't want to count anything out at that moment as he doesn't know how things will progress and therefore his response is ambiguous.
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Neither of them are open during their discussion and both speak ambiguously for the same reason of not making themselves seem duplicitous or suspicious. Macbeth doesn't want to alert Banquo to the guilt and shame he already feels for what he is going to do; Banquo doesn't know how fate will change things and therefore keeps all doors open for himself and his son
"is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand?"
In Kurzel's 2015 production, they use the shadow of an upside down cross to represent this metaphorical dagger. The dagger is meant to be representative of the supernatural taking over Macbeth's mind and coercing him into doing the bidding of fate
An usdie down cross is often associated with witchcraft and paganism, which links to the idea of Macbeth being an agent of the devil/ supernatural and shows he is under their control
"art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight"
Macbeth is torn between following his ambition and his loyalty and is asking, potentially to God, which, if so, is highly ironic, what he should do. He wants a physical sign.
"a dagger of the mind, a false creation"
This scene descends Macbeth into moral and emotional darkness that he won't return from. The hallucination of an evil sign is the first symptom that he has damned his soul to Hell.
"and on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, which were not there before"
Macbeth opens his mind to the idea and so pictures the murder in his mind, where by himself thinking about it or a supernatural force making him see it
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"while I threat, he lives; words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives"
This is Macbeth preparing to damn his soul and face whatever punishment will lie ahead in either this life or the next. there isn't a word to describe what Macbeth is feeling in this scene.
He is not only going to commit regicide but he is about to betray his friends, be disloyal to those who trust him and dishonour himself and everything he has worked to achieve but he is also damning Scotland, his home, to the same fate as him and cause suffering to many people as he will disrupt the great chain of being that a contemporary society believed held the very fundamentals of their society together
"hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell"
This line is comedically ironic as a Knell is a funeral bell and the bell Lady Macbeth is ringing is is quite literally his funeral bell
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