ISC Class 11 Macbeth – Act II: The Murder of Duncan, Explained Scene by Scene
Updated 15 October 2026 · Fact-checked
In Act II of Macbeth, Macbeth sees an imaginary dagger and then murders King Duncan in his sleep. Lady Macbeth smears the grooms with blood. Next morning Macduff discovers the body, Macbeth kills the grooms, and Duncan's sons flee. Suspicion falls on them, and Macbeth goes to Scone to be crowned.
What Macbeth – Act II is about
Act II of Shakespeare's Macbeth is the second half of the ISC Class XI drama portion: the ISC 2028 syllabus prescribes Acts I and II for Class XI and says the Class XI examination is to be conducted on that portion. Modern English candidates study *Pygmalion* instead.
Act II is short (four scenes) but it holds the play's turning point: the murder of Duncan. It moves from the eerie quiet before the crime (the dagger soliloquy), through the terrified exchange between husband and wife, to the comic relief of the drunken Porter, the discovery of the body, Macbeth's killing of the grooms, the flight of Malcolm and Donalbain, and finally the unnatural signs reported by Ross and an Old Man. By the end, Macbeth has been named king.
The act is rich in material for CISCE-style questions: Macbeth's guilt and hallucination, the reversal between husband and wife, the significance of sleep, blood and knocking, the role of minor characters (the Porter, the Old Man, Banquo), and the disorder in nature that mirrors the crime. Your school sets the Class XI paper; the CISCE Literature pattern has MCQs, one-line reason completions, two 5-mark answers of 100-150 words on given bullet points and one 10-mark answer of 200-250 words.
Quotations follow the public-domain text (Project Gutenberg #1533, cross-checked against the MIT Shakespeare text and the First Folio, Gutenberg #2264). Your edition's punctuation and line numbers may differ slightly.
Weightage: CISCE publishes no chapter weightage. In the CISCE Literature paper pattern the drama has a 20-mark question (5 + 5 + 10) plus a share of the one-mark items. Class XI papers are set by schools on Acts I and II only.Source: CISCE ISC 2028 English (801) syllabus, Literature in English, Class XI; ISC Specimen Question Paper 2025, English Paper 2
Macbeth – Act II: summary
In our own words, in the order of the text. Read the NCERT text itself too: the board quotes from it.
Scene i: the court of the castle, after midnight. Banquo and his son Fleance cannot sleep; Banquo prays to be kept from the 'cursed thoughts' that come in dreams. Macbeth enters. Banquo hands over a diamond from the delighted King for Lady Macbeth and mentions that he dreamt of the witches. Macbeth pretends, 'I think not of them', and hints that Banquo will gain honour if he supports him later. Banquo replies that he will do so only if he can keep his conscience clear and his allegiance loyal. Alone, Macbeth sees a dagger floating before him, its handle towards his hand, later stained with blood. He cannot tell whether it is real or 'A dagger of the mind'. A bell rings, Lady Macbeth's signal, and he goes to kill Duncan.
Scene ii: the same. Lady Macbeth waits, made bold by the drink she gave the grooms. She admits she would have killed Duncan herself had he not looked like her father as he slept. Macbeth returns: 'I have done the deed.' He is shattered. He could not say 'Amen' when the sleeping guests prayed, and he heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep'. He has brought the daggers with him and refuses to go back. Calling him 'Infirm of purpose', she takes the daggers, returns them and smears the grooms with blood. Knocking begins at the gate. Macbeth looks at his bloody hands and says the whole ocean could not wash them clean; she replies, 'A little water clears us of this deed.'
Scene iii: the same, morning. The drunken Porter, slow to open the gate, imagines himself the porter of hell, letting in a farmer, an equivocator and a tailor. He admits Macduff and Lennox. Macduff goes to wake the King while Lennox describes a wild night of storms and screams. Macduff returns in horror: Duncan has been murdered. In the uproar Macbeth announces that he has killed the grooms in his fury, giving a showy description of the scene; Lady Macbeth faints (or seems to). Banquo vows to fight 'treasonous malice'. Malcolm and Donalbain, fearing that 'There’s daggers in men’s smiles', decide to flee, Malcolm to England and Donalbain to Ireland.
Scene iv: outside the castle. Ross and an Old Man describe unnatural events: darkness by day, a falcon killed by an owl, Duncan's horses turning wild and eating each other. Macduff reports that the grooms are blamed, that the princes' flight has made them suspects, and that Macbeth has gone to Scone to be crowned. Macduff will not attend; he goes home to Fife.
Themes and message
Guilt and conscience
Macbeth's conscience torments him before and immediately after the murder: he hallucinates a dagger, cannot say 'Amen', hears voices, and sees his hands as permanently stained. Lady Macbeth dismisses guilt as childish fear, but her admission that she could not kill a man who looked like her father hints that she too has feelings she is suppressing.
From the text: 'Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?' (II.ii); 'A little water clears us of this deed' (II.ii).
Sleep and the loss of innocence
Sleep stands for innocence, rest and natural peace. Banquo cannot sleep for bad dreams; Duncan is killed in his sleep; Macbeth hears that he has murdered sleep itself and will 'sleep no more'. The theme prepares for the later restlessness of both Macbeths.
From the text: 'Macbeth does murder sleep,'—the innocent sleep; / Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care' (II.ii).
Disorder in nature
The murder of a king was seen as a crime against the natural order, and nature responds: chimneys blown down, screams in the air, the earth 'feverous', darkness at day, a falcon killed by an owl, horses eating each other. The minor characters act as a chorus that shows the moral meaning of the crime.
From the text: Old Man: 'A falcon, towering in her pride of place, / Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d' (II.iv).
Appearance and reality (deception)
The Macbeths put the plan of Act I into practice: the grooms are framed, Macbeth performs grief and fury, and Lady Macbeth faints. The princes see through the show ('To show an unfelt sorrow is an office / Which the false man does easy'), and the Porter's 'equivocator' fits a world of double meanings.
From the text: Donalbain: 'There’s daggers in men’s smiles' (II.iii).
Blood
Blood is both physical evidence and a symbol of guilt. The dagger shows 'gouts of blood'; Macbeth's hands are 'hangman’s hands'; Lady Macbeth will 'gild' the grooms with blood; Macbeth describes Duncan's 'silver skin lac’d with his golden blood'. The image will grow throughout the play.
From the text: 'this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red' (II.ii).
Characters
Macbeth
Murderer of Duncan; named king at the end of the act
- Tormented by imagination and conscience
- Terrified immediately after the murder
- Quick to recover and deceive in public
- Impulsive: kills the grooms without consulting his wife
He sees 'A dagger of the mind', cannot say 'Amen', and dares not look again at what he has done; yet in scene iii he delivers a polished speech of grief and justifies killing the grooms: 'Th’ expedition of my violent love / Outrun the pauser, reason.'
Lady Macbeth
Accomplice who completes the plan
- Practical and controlled during the crisis
- Scornful of her husband's fear
- Shows a flicker of feeling (Duncan resembled her father)
She returns the daggers herself ('Give me the daggers'), sends Macbeth to wash and change, and faints at the right moment in scene iii. Her line 'Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done’t' suggests a limit to her ruthlessness.
Banquo
Fellow general; suspicious but cautious
- Troubled by the prophecy
- Guards his honour and loyalty
- Publicly vows to uncover the treason
He prays against 'cursed thoughts', insists on keeping 'My bosom franchis’d, and allegiance clear', and after the murder declares, 'In the great hand of God I stand'.
Macduff
Thane of Fife; discovers the murder
- Loyal to Duncan
- Quietly suspicious of Macbeth
He cries 'O horror, horror, horror!', asks Macbeth, 'Wherefore did you so?' about the grooms, and refuses to attend the coronation, going home to Fife instead.
Malcolm and Donalbain
Duncan's sons
- Shrewd and cautious
- Distrust the show of grief around them
They decide to flee to England and Ireland because 'the near in blood, / The nearer bloody'; their flight makes them look guilty.
The Porter and the Old Man
Minor characters who comment on the action
- Porter: comic, drunken, unknowingly apt
- Old Man: a witness to the unnatural signs
The Porter pretends to be the porter of 'hell gate' in the castle where murder has just been done; the Old Man says the darkness is 'unnatural, / Even like the deed that’s done'.
How it is written
| Device | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Soliloquy and hallucination | 'Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand?' (II.i). | Reveals Macbeth's 'heat-oppressed brain' and builds suspense before the unseen murder. |
| Comic relief with dramatic irony | The Porter's 'If a man were porter of hell gate' (II.iii). | Releases tension after the murder, while the audience knows the castle really has become a kind of hell. |
| Hyperbole and colour imagery | 'The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red' (II.ii). | Shows the enormity of Macbeth's guilt; contrasts with Lady Macbeth's 'A little water clears us of this deed'. |
| Pathetic fallacy | Lennox's unruly night and the Old Man's falcon and owl (II.iii, II.iv). | Nature mirrors the crime against the natural order. |
| Off-stage action | The murder itself is never shown; we hear the bell, the owl and Macbeth's 'I have done the deed.' | Focuses the audience on the minds of the murderers rather than the act. |
Key quotations
Short lines worth knowing by heart: who says them, when, and why they matter.
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?
Macbeth: II.i, alone, just before the murder.
The hallucination shows his disturbed mind and seems to lead him towards the crime.
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
Macbeth: The end of II.i, when the bell rings.
He treats his wife's signal as a funeral bell; the couplet seals his decision.
Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,”
Macbeth: II.ii, immediately after the murder.
Introduces the theme of sleeplessness and the loss of innocence and peace.
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?
Macbeth: II.ii, hearing the knocking.
Guilt that can never be washed away; contrasts with his wife's practical view.
A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it then!
Lady Macbeth: II.ii, after returning the daggers.
Her apparent control and her underestimation of guilt, an irony the audience feels.
There’s daggers in men’s smiles
Donalbain: II.iii, deciding to flee.
Sums up the theme of deceit; the princes sense danger behind the show of grief.
’Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done.
Old Man: II.iv, about the darkness by day.
Links the disorder in nature to the murder of the king.
Macbeth – Act II in real life
Each concept, met in an everyday situation. Read the situation, answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.
Guilt cannot be washed away
Suppose a student copies a friend's project, gets a high grade, and then cannot enjoy it because she keeps thinking about it.
Which contrast in Act II Scene ii does her experience echo?
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Lady Macbeth believes 'A little water clears us of this deed'.
- Macbeth feels no ocean can clean his hand.
- Outward evidence can be removed; inner guilt stays.
Answer: Like Macbeth, she finds that hiding the evidence does not remove the knowledge of the wrong. The play suggests that conscience is harder to clean than hands.
Memory hook: Water cleans hands, not hearts.
Reading a performance
Imagine someone who loudly condemns a theft in your class before anyone has asked, and offers a very detailed account of how it must have happened.
Why might that make you suspicious, as Macduff becomes in Act II Scene iii?
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Over-elaborate grief or outrage can be a performance.
- Macbeth's long, poetic speech and his killing of the witnesses draw Macduff's question, 'Wherefore did you so?'
- The princes sense 'daggers in men’s smiles'.
Answer: A show of feeling that is too polished, combined with actions that destroy evidence, invites suspicion. Shakespeare shows the careful observers (Macduff, the princes) reading through it.
Memory hook: Too much show can tell the truth.
Sleep and well-being
Suppose you are anxious about something you have hidden from your parents and find that you cannot sleep.
How does Macbeth's speech on sleep describe what sleep does for us?
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Sleep 'knits up the ravell’d sleave of care'.
- It is 'Balm of hurt minds' and 'Chief nourisher in life’s feast'.
- A troubled conscience destroys it.
Answer: Macbeth's lines describe sleep as nature's repair of a worried mind. Losing it is his first punishment, and the link between a clear conscience and rest is something many people recognise.
Memory hook: No peace of mind, no sleep.
Topics in this chapter
How the school exam asks Macbeth – Act II
The question patterns to expect, and the method that works for each.
| Question type | How it is asked | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple-choice question (1 mark) | A quotation with four options about speaker, meaning or context, for example the meaning of 'Infirm of purpose!' or the order of events after the knocking; sometimes a statement pair or a match-type item, as in the CISCE specimen. | Place the line in its scene; think about who speaks and to whom; write one option only. |
| Complete the sentence with a reason (1 mark) | 'Malcolm and Donalbain decide to flee because ____'; 'Lady Macbeth does not kill Duncan herself because ____'. | Give the exact cause in one clause: for example, because Duncan, as he slept, resembled her father. |
| 5-mark answer on two bullet points (100-150 words) | 'What is the significance of the Porter scene? • Comic relief • Dramatic irony' or 'How do Macbeth and Lady Macbeth react immediately after the murder? • Macbeth's fears • Lady Macbeth's response'. | Two balanced halves, each with a specific detail or short quotation. |
| 10-mark analytical answer (200-250 words), (a) or (b) | 'Discuss how Shakespeare uses minor characters in Act II to comment on the murder of Duncan' or 'Contrast Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Act II Scene ii.' | Clear position; four or five analytical points with evidence from Act II (and Act I where relevant); conclusion. |
Tricks to remember Macbeth – Act II
Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.
Four scenes, four Ds
Dagger (i), Deed (ii), Discovery (iii), Disorder (iv).
Use it when: Recall the order of Act II.
Daggers in and out
He takes them away; she takes them back; next morning he kills the grooms who 'held' them.
Use it when: Avoid confusing the sequence.
Falcon and owl
The proud falcon (the king) killed by a mousing owl (a lesser creature, like a subject).
Use it when: Explaining the Old Man's omen.
Macbeth – Act II: exam-level solved questions
Ordered from exam level to HOTS. Cover the solution, write your own, then compare step by step.
Example 1: MCQ: 'Infirm of purpose!' · 1 mark · MCQExam level
When Lady Macbeth calls her husband 'Infirm of purpose!' in Act II Scene ii, she is reacting to his (a) refusal to take the daggers back to Duncan's chamber (b) decision to kill the grooms (c) plan to flee to England (d) wish to confess to Banquo.
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- In II.ii Macbeth has brought the daggers away and says, 'I’ll go no more'.
- She replies 'Infirm of purpose! / Give me the daggers.'
- He kills the grooms only in II.iii; the flight to England is Malcolm's.
Answer: (a) refusal to take the daggers back to Duncan's chamber.
Example 2: Reason completion: Macduff's question · 1 mark · Very short answerHarder exam level
Complete the sentence: In Act II Scene iii, Macduff's question 'Wherefore did you so?' to Macbeth is significant because ____.
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Context: Macbeth has just revealed that he killed the grooms.
- Killing them destroyed the only witnesses who could be questioned.
- Macduff's question hints at his suspicion.
Answer: ...it shows that Macduff is already suspicious of Macbeth, who has silenced the only witnesses by killing the grooms.
Example 3: 5-mark model: the dagger soliloquy · 5 marks · Long answerHarder exam level
What does the dagger soliloquy (Act II Scene i) reveal about Macbeth's state of mind? (100-150 words) • The nature of the vision • His decision
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Bullet 1: the dagger, real or imagined; 'heat-oppressed brain'; blood appears on it.
- Bullet 2: night imagery, his fear of the stones 'prating', the bell and the final couplet.
- Short quotations; within 150 words.
Answer: Alone in the dark, Macbeth sees a dagger with its handle towards his hand. He tries to grasp it and cannot, and wonders whether it is 'A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain'. When drops of blood appear on the blade, he concludes that 'the bloody business' is shaping what he sees. The vision shows how fully the murder has taken over his imagination and how strained his mind is.
Yet the vision does not stop him; it seems to marshal him the way he was already going. He fills the night with images of witchcraft and 'wither’d murder' moving like a ghost, and asks the earth not to hear his steps. When the bell rings, he resolves: 'I go, and it is done.' The soliloquy reveals a man who sees the horror clearly and proceeds anyway. (146 words)
Example 4: 5-mark model: the Porter scene · 5 marks · Long answerHarder exam level
What is the dramatic significance of the Porter scene (Act II Scene iii)? (100-150 words) • Comic relief • Irony and link to the themes
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Bullet 1: release of tension after II.ii; time for Macbeth to wash and change.
- Bullet 2: porter of hell gate; the castle is a hell; the equivocator and deceit.
- Evidence; within 150 words.
Answer: Coming straight after the terrifying murder scene, the drunken Porter gives the audience a moment of laughter. His slow response to the knocking, his jokes about drink and his rambling talk release the unbearable tension, and on stage they give Macbeth and his wife time to wash the blood off and change into their nightgowns.
The comedy is also deeply ironic. He pretends to be 'porter of hell gate', welcoming sinners, yet the castle has just become a kind of hell, the scene of a king's murder. One of the sinners he imagines is an 'equivocator' who swore falsely, which echoes the double-dealing of the Macbeths and the witches' paradoxes. So the Porter, without knowing it, comments on the crime, and his knocking makes the discovery of the murder all the more dreadful. (132 words)
Example 5: 10-mark model: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Act II Scene ii · 10 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency
Contrast the reactions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth immediately after the murder of Duncan (Act II Scene ii). What does the contrast reveal about each of them? (200-250 words)
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Position: he is overwhelmed by guilt; she is practical and controlled, though not entirely without feeling.
- Macbeth: Amen, sleep no more, the daggers, the ocean.
- Lady Macbeth: dismisses fears, returns the daggers, washing and nightgowns.
- Reveal: his imagination and conscience; her will power and its limits (her father).
- Conclusion: their roles are reversed later; irony of 'A little water'.
Answer: Act II Scene ii shows the murderers reacting in opposite ways, and the contrast reveals both their natures.
Macbeth returns shattered. He is disturbed by every sound, stares at his 'hangman’s hands' and cannot understand why 'Amen' stuck in his throat when the sleeping guests prayed. He believes a voice cried that he has murdered sleep and will 'sleep no more'. He has even brought the daggers away, and he dares not return: 'I am afraid to think what I have done.' When the knocking begins, he cries that all 'great Neptune’s ocean' could not wash his hand clean. His imagination and conscience magnify the deed beyond bearing.
Lady Macbeth is calm and practical. She warns him that such thoughts 'will make us mad', calls him 'Infirm of purpose', takes the daggers back herself and smears the grooms with blood. She organises the cover-up: water, nightgowns, retreat to their chamber. 'A little water clears us of this deed', she says, treating guilt as a stain on the skin.
Yet the scene also hints at her limits. She needed drink to make her bold, and she could not kill Duncan herself because he resembled her father as he slept. Her control rests on suppressing feeling, while Macbeth's suffering comes from feeling too much.
The contrast therefore shows a husband ruled by imagination and conscience and a wife ruled by will, and the irony of 'A little water' warns that guilt will not be washed away so easily. (250 words)
Where the marks are
How a typical answer is marked: the value points the examiner looks for and the marks each earns.
10-mark drama answer (200-250 words). Indicative split: CISCE marking schemes list expected points and accept any interpretation supported by the text; no numerical split is printed. (10 marks)
| Step | Marks |
|---|---|
| A clear position that answers the exact question | 1 |
| Four or five relevant points from the prescribed acts | 4 |
| Textual evidence: specific events and short accurate quotations | 3 |
| Organisation, expression and conclusion within the word limit | 2 |
5-mark answer on two bullet points (100-150 words). (5 marks)
| Step | Marks |
|---|---|
| First bullet point developed with evidence | 2 |
| Second bullet point developed with evidence | 2 |
| Expression and focus within 150 words | 1 |
Where students lose marks in Macbeth – Act II
The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.
Mistake: Saying the murder is shown on stage
Students picture the film versions. In the play the killing happens off stage; we learn of it from 'I have done the deed.'
Do this: Say 'off stage' and explain the effect: the focus is on the murderers' minds.
Usually costs: Accuracy in MCQs and in answers on dramatic technique.
Mistake: Treating the Porter as 'just comedy'
Students stop at comic relief. Examiners look for the irony and the link to themes.
Wrong working
'The Porter is a funny drunk who makes the audience laugh.'
Right working
'His pretence of keeping hell's gate is ironic, because the castle has just become a hell.'
Do this: Always give both functions: relief and meaning.
Usually costs: Half of a 5-mark answer.
Mistake: Confusing who does what after the murder
The sequence is quick. Common errors: saying Lady Macbeth killed the grooms, or that Macbeth returned the daggers.
Do this: Learn the order: Macbeth kills Duncan and brings away the daggers; Lady Macbeth returns them and smears the grooms; next morning Macbeth kills the grooms.
Usually costs: MCQs and reason completions.
Mistake: Narrating instead of analysing in 10-mark answers
A summary of the four scenes fills the words but answers nothing.
Do this: Make each paragraph a point (guilt, deceit, nature, reversal) and use the event as evidence.
Usually costs: Most of the analysis marks.
Mistake: Using events from later acts
Students know the sleepwalking scene and use it to discuss Lady Macbeth's guilt. The Class XI examination is on Acts I and II.
Do this: Stay within Acts I and II; hint at foreshadowing only if the question invites it.
Usually costs: Relevance.
Practice questions on Macbeth – Act II
Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.
Q1 · 1 mark · MCQExam level
Who says, 'There’s daggers in men’s smiles'? (a) Malcolm (b) Donalbain (c) Banquo (d) Macduff
Hint
The younger prince, who goes to Ireland.
Answer
(b) Donalbain.
Q2 · 1 mark · Very short answerHarder exam level
Complete the sentence: In Act II Scene ii, Macbeth could not say 'Amen' because ____.
Hint
Think about what he had just done and what 'Amen' means.
Answer
...having just murdered Duncan, he was cut off from God's blessing; his guilt made the word stick in his throat although he 'had most need of blessing'.
Q3 · 5 marks · Long answerHarder exam level
How does Banquo respond to Macbeth's hint in Act II Scene i, and what does it show about him? (100-150 words) • Banquo's troubled state • His reply about honour and allegiance
Hint
'Merciful powers, / Restrain in me the cursed thoughts'; 'keep / My bosom franchis’d, and allegiance clear'.
Answer
Expected points: Banquo cannot sleep and prays to be kept from 'cursed thoughts' that come in repose, suggesting the prophecy tempts him too; he hands over the King's diamond and mentions dreaming of the witches; when Macbeth hints that supporting him later will bring honour, Banquo agrees only if he loses no honour and keeps his conscience free and his allegiance clear. This shows him tempted but principled, loyal to Duncan, and wary of Macbeth: a moral contrast to Macbeth.
Q4 · 5 marks · Long answerExam level
Describe Macbeth's behaviour after the discovery of the murder (Act II Scene iii). (100-150 words) • His speech of grief • His killing of the grooms
Hint
'Had I but died an hour before this chance'; 'Th’ expedition of my violent love / Outrun the pauser, reason'.
Answer
Expected points: Macbeth plays the grieving loyal subject with an elaborate speech ('The wine of life is drawn'), which is ironically true of his own state; he tells the princes that the source of their blood is stopped; he reveals that he has killed the grooms and justifies it as an outburst of love that outran reason, with a vivid picture of Duncan's 'silver skin lac’d with his golden blood'; the over-elaborate speech and the convenient silencing of witnesses arouse Macduff's suspicion; Lady Macbeth faints, perhaps to divert attention.
Q5 · 10 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency
Discuss the role of the minor characters (the Porter, Lennox, the Old Man and Ross) in Act II. (200-250 words)
Hint
Comic relief, irony, chorus-like commentary, disorder in nature, plot information.
Answer
Expected points: the Porter provides comic relief and ironic commentary (porter of hell gate; the equivocator) and delays the discovery; Lennox describes the unruly night (chimneys blown down, screams, a 'feverous' earth), signs of disorder; Ross and the Old Man report darkness at day, the falcon killed by a 'mousing owl' (a symbol of the king killed by a lesser man) and Duncan's horses eating each other, so nature mirrors the crime; Ross and Macduff carry the plot forward (the princes suspected, Macbeth named king and gone to Scone, Macduff going to Fife). Together they act like a chorus that tells the audience how to judge the murder. Clear structure, evidence, 200-250 words.
Q6 · 10 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency
'Act II shows that the deed has changed Macbeth for ever.' Do you agree? Support your answer from Act II. (200-250 words)
Hint
Consider his terror in II.ii, his recovery in II.iii, his new capacity for deceit and for unplanned killing.
Answer
Expected points: before the murder he hallucinates and hesitates; after it he is overwhelmed (Amen, sleep no more, Neptune's ocean) and realises 'To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself'; by the morning he can perform grief convincingly and kill the grooms on his own initiative, a first step towards independent violence; he now must deceive everyone and loses peace (sleep). A balanced answer may argue that his conscience is still alive in Act II, so the change is beginning rather than complete. Position, evidence, conclusion.
Test your recall
Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.
1.What signal tells Macbeth that the time has come to kill Duncan?Show answer
The ringing of a bell, arranged by Lady Macbeth for when his drink is ready.
2.Why does Lady Macbeth not kill Duncan herself?Show answer
Because, as he slept, he resembled her father.
3.Whom does the Porter imagine knocking at hell's gate?Show answer
A farmer who hanged himself, an equivocator and an English tailor.
4.Where do Malcolm and Donalbain go, and why?Show answer
Malcolm to England and Donalbain to Ireland, because they fear they will be killed next and trust no one around them.
5.Where has Macbeth gone at the end of Act II?Show answer
To Scone, to be crowned king; Macduff goes home to Fife instead.
Quick revision checklist
The night before the exam: can you do each of these without looking?
- Can you explain what the dagger soliloquy shows about Macbeth?
- Can you contrast Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in II.ii with two quotations each?
- Can you give two functions of the Porter scene?
- Can you list three unnatural events reported in Act II?
- Can you explain why the princes' flight helps Macbeth?
Macbeth – Act II: frequently asked questions
Is the murder of Duncan shown on stage?
No. It takes place off stage at the start of Scene ii, while Lady Macbeth waits ('He is about it'); the audience hears the owl and the voices and sees Macbeth return with bloody hands and daggers.
Why does Macbeth kill the grooms?
He claims his love for Duncan made him kill them in fury. In effect, it silences the only witnesses who might have been questioned, which makes Macduff suspicious.
Does Lady Macbeth really faint?
The text only gives 'Help me hence, ho!' and the direction that she is carried out. Whether it is real shock or a pretence to distract attention is a matter of interpretation; either reading can be argued with evidence.
What is the significance of the knocking?
It brings the world outside back into the castle, frightens Macbeth ('every noise appals me') and leads to the discovery of the murder; dramatically it heightens tension and links to the Porter's 'hell gate'.
Based on: CISCE ISC 2028 English (801) syllabus (Classes XI and XII): Literature in English, Class XI (Macbeth, Acts I & II); CISCE ISC Specimen Question Paper 2025: English Paper 2 (Literature in English), with answer key (question pattern); William Shakespeare, Macbeth (Project Gutenberg eBook #1533, public domain); The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, MIT: Macbeth (public domain, used for cross-checking)