Free Essays,College Free Essays,Free College Essays at Anti Essays

Critical Appreciation
As Lady Macbeth nervously waits for her husband to return from executing the king, she hears an owl shrieking and calls it "the fatal bellman" announcing Duncan's death. Then she hears a call from upstairs, and her nervousness turns to fear that Macbeth has bungled the murder. But soon Macbeth enters covered in blood and announces "the deed is done." The two engage in a dramatic, brief conversation that is very revealing about both characters. Macbeth is already racked with guilt and remorse; his wife again scorns every sign of his weakness. Macbeth looks at his bloody hands and says, "This is a sorry sight." Lady Macbeth scoffs and calls it "a foolish thought."
Macbeth briefly explains how he tried to utter the word Amen, as if in prayer, but the word stuck in his throat. His wife retorts, "Consider it not so deeply" and "These deeds must not be thought; it will make us mad." Then Macbeth explains how he heard a voice crying, "Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep." His conscience is already at work speaking to him and accurately predicting his fate. As Macbeth entertains these thoughts, his wife bemoans his fear saying, "You do unbend your noble strength to think so brainsickly of things." This brief, fast-paced conversation between husband and wife is like a chaotic dance that heightens the dramatic impact of the scene.
Then Lady Macbeth takes charge, much like a mother to a frightened child, and tells her husband to wash the blood off his hands and take the daggers back to the room. Macbeth's true state of mind is then revealed in his answer, "I am afraid to think what I have done" (yet he can think of nothing else); "To look on it again, I dare not" (but it is constantly before his eyes). With no ounce of understanding or sympathy, Lady Macbeth, the personification of pure evil in this scene, calls her husband an infirm coward. She takes the daggers from her husband's hand and leaves to put them back upstairs....