In act II Macbeth is receives the call to adventure when his wife tries to convince him to kill King Duncan. He initially will not, but lady Macbeth convinces him to do it at which point he crosses the threshold. Before and after committing the murderous act Macbeth has both visual and auditory hallucinations which make him feel guilty and question what he did. Macbeth realizes he has nothing to live for when he says, "Had i died but an hour before this chance... The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of" (86-91, II, iii). His thoughts of worthlessness foreshadow his tragic downfall. Later he tries to convince himself he did the right thing by saying that you can't be wise, loyal, and neutral all at once. At this point in the play Macbeth is in deep internal conflict and that if he does not overcome his guilt he will fall.
I think that you have a good concept of what is going on in act II. You give good foreshadowing to what is going to happen to Macbeth later on in the play, as well as what is going through his head during that act.
ReplyDelete