The Murder of Duncan & Guilt
The Dagger Soliloquy (Act 2, Scene 1)
As Macbeth prepares to murder Duncan, he sees a vision of a dagger floating before him: “Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand?” He reaches for it but cannot grasp it. The hallucination is one of Shakespeare’s most powerful dramatic devices. Is the dagger a supernatural sign urging him towards murder, or a projection of his own guilty conscience?
Shakespeare deliberately leaves the question open. Macbeth himself asks: “Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible / To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” The phrase ‘heat-oppressed brain’ suggests psychological torment, while ‘fatal vision’ implies a supernatural omen. This ambiguity is central to the play’s exploration of fate versus free will.
The dagger that “marshall’st me the way that I was going” leads Macbeth towards Duncan’s chamber. The verb ‘marshall’st’ means to guide — suggesting that something beyond Macbeth’s control is directing him, yet he is still choosing to follow.
The Murder of Duncan (Act 2, Scene 2)
Shakespeare makes a deliberate dramatic choice: the murder happens offstage. We never see Duncan killed. Instead, we see its devastating emotional aftermath. Macbeth returns to Lady Macbeth with the daggers still in his hands, his mind already unravelling. He tells her: “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep.’” Sleep, which Shakespeare calls “the innocent sleep,” represents peace, restoration, and a clear conscience — all of which Macbeth has now destroyed.
The metaphor of sleep as something Macbeth has “murdered” is significant. He has not just killed a man; he has killed his own capacity for peace. Shakespeare lists sleep’s qualities — “the death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, / Balm of hurt minds” — to emphasise everything Macbeth has lost. This insomnia becomes a symbol of his guilt that persists throughout the play.
Macbeth stares at his bloody hands and asks: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red.” The hyperbole is extraordinary: rather than the ocean cleaning his hands, his hands would turn the entire ocean red. The Latinate word ‘incarnadine’ (meaning to make red) followed by the simple Anglo-Saxon ‘making the green one red’ creates a shift from elaborate to plain language, as if the horror is too great for complex expression.
This blood imagery recurs throughout the play. Lady Macbeth dismisses it here — “A little water clears us of this deed” — but by Act 5, she will sleepwalk, obsessively washing her hands and crying “Out, damned spot!” The reversal is devastating: the character who was strongest in Act 2 is destroyed by guilt in Act 5.
Lady Macbeth’s Composure
In stark contrast to Macbeth’s panic, Lady Macbeth is calm and practical after the murder. When Macbeth brings the daggers back from Duncan’s chamber, she scolds him: “Infirm of purpose! / Give me the daggers.” She takes the daggers back to frame the sleeping guards and smears Duncan’s blood on their faces. Her composure in this scene is chilling, and it creates a sharp contrast with Macbeth’s immediate psychological collapse.
However, Shakespeare plants subtle seeds of Lady Macbeth’s future breakdown. She admits she could not kill Duncan herself because “Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done’t.” This moment of vulnerability — seeing her father in the sleeping king — shows that beneath her ruthless exterior, she is not as emotionless as she pretends. This crack will widen into the full psychological collapse of Act 5.
Blood imagery connects Acts 2 and 5. Macbeth says the ocean cannot clean his hands; Lady Macbeth says “a little water clears us.” By Act 5, she obsessively washes invisible blood from her hands. The reversal shows that guilt cannot be escaped — it destroys both characters.
The Discovery and Macbeth’s Performance
When Duncan’s murder is discovered in Act 2, Scene 3, Macbeth gives an overly theatrical performance of grief. He kills the two guards, claiming he was so overcome with fury that he could not stop himself. His speech is full of elaborate metaphor: “Here lay Duncan, / His silver skin laced with his golden blood.” The description of blood as “golden” is strikingly inappropriate — it sounds rehearsed, artificial, and unconvincing.
Macduff’s reaction is far more natural and powerful. He simply says: “O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart / Cannot conceive nor name thee!” The contrast between Macbeth’s over-elaborate language and Macduff’s speechless horror highlights the difference between genuine grief and performance. This juxtaposition alerts perceptive characters (and the audience) that something is wrong with Macbeth’s response.
Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, immediately suspect foul play. Malcolm whispers: “This murderous shaft that’s shot / Hath not yet lighted.” They recognise that whoever killed their father may target them next. They flee — Malcolm to England, Donalbain to Ireland — which ironically makes them look guilty and clears Macbeth’s path to the throne. Their departure is politically catastrophic: it removes the legitimate heirs and allows Macbeth to claim the crown.