![]() As the knocking persists, the two retire to put on their nightgowns so as not to arouse suspicion when others arrive. “A little water,” she continues, “will clear of th deed” (65). He is guilt-stricken and mourns: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / clean from my hand?” (58-59)? When Lady Macbeth hears his words upon reentering, she states that her hands are of the same color but her heart remains shamelessly unstained. While she is gone, Macbeth hears a knocking and imagines that he sees hands plucking at his eyes. When Macbeth, still horrified by the crime he has just committed, refuses to reenter Duncan’s chamber, Lady Macbeth herself brings the daggers back in. Seeing the daggers he carries, she chastises him for bringing them in and tells him to plant them on the bodyguards according to the plan. Lady Macbeth again warns him not to think of such "brain-sickly of things" and tells him to wash the blood from his hands (44). ![]() Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor / Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more" (33-41). Nonetheless, Macbeth also tells her that he also thought he heard a voice saying, "’sleep no more, / Macbeth does murder sleep. Lady Macbeth’s counsels to think "after these ways” as “it will make mad" (32). He is deeply shaken: as he entered Duncan's chamber, he heard the bodyguards praying and could not say "Amen" when they finished their prayers. ![]() Macbeth enters, still carrying the bloody daggers with which he killed Duncan. ![]() Upon hearing a noise within, she worries that the bodyguards have awakened before Macbeth has had a chance to plant the evidence on them. Lady Macbeth waits fitfully for Macbeth to return from killing Duncan. The bell rings-a signal from Lady Macbeth-and he sets off toward Duncan's room. Frightened by the apparition of a "dagger of the mind," he prays that the earth will "hear not steps" as he completes his bloody plan (38, 57). After Banquo and his son Fleance leave the scene, Macbeth imagines that he sees a bloody dagger pointing toward Duncan's chamber. When Banquo raises the topic of the prophecy as Macbeth enters the scene, Macbeth pretends that he has given little thought to the witches' prophesy. He must restrain himself the “cursed thoughts” that tempt him in his dreams (II i 8). They retire to their room to get undressed so that the new arrivals will not guess that they have been up all night.Banquo, who has come to Inverness with Duncan, wrestles with the witches' prophecy. She insists that all they need do is wash their hands, and all will be well. There is a knocking at the gate that startles Macbeth as Lady Macbeth returns, her hands now bloody as well. Incensed, she takes the daggers back into the murder chamber after Macbeth refuses to go in there again. His wife tries to snap him out of it, sending him to wash his hands, and discovering that he brought the murder weapons with him. Lady Macbeth tries to steel him as he talks of how he tried to say “Amen” to the prayer of one of the grooms, but could not, and how he thought he heard a voice announcing that since he had killed the sleeping King, he himself would never sleep again. Macbeth comes out of Duncan’s room, his hands covered in blood, nerve-racked and terrified. Lady Macbeth waits for Macbeth to return she is nervous, realizing that success gives them everything, but failure will be the end of them.
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