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Unit 5: Macbeth: Detailed Analysis of the Text

Lennox, who scold him for taking so long to respond to their knowcking. The Porter claims that he Notes
was tired after drinking until late and delivers a short sermon on the ills of drink.
Macbeth enters and Macduff asks him whether the king is awake yet. On hearing that the king is
still asleep, Macduff leaves to wake him. While he is gone, Lennox tells Macbeth that the weather
by night was full of strange events: chimneys were blown down, birds screeched all night, the earth
shook, and ghostly voices were heard prophesying ominously. A stunned Macduff returns with the
news that the king is dead. He tells them to go see for themselves and calls to the servants to ring the
alarm bell.
Lady Macbeth and Banquo enter and Macduff informs them of the king’s death. Macbeth and Lennox
return and Macbeth laments the king’s death, proclaiming that he wishes he were dead instead of
the king. When Malcolm and Donalbain arrive, Lennox blames the regicide on the guards by pointing
to the incriminating bloody evidence. Macbeth states that he has already killed the bodyguards in a
grief-stricken rage. At this point, Lady Macbeth feigns shock and faints. Aside, Malcolm and
Donalbain confer and decide that their lives may be at risk and that they should flee Scotland. As
Lady Macbeth is being helped off-stage, Banquo counsels the others to convene and discuss the
murder at hand. Left behind on stage, Malcolm decides that he will flee to England while Donalbain
will go to Ireland.

Scene 4
Ross and an old man discuss the unnatural events that have taken place recently: days are as dark
as nights, owls hunt falcons, and Duncan’s horses have gone mad and eaten each other. When
Macduff enters, Ross asks whether the culprit has been discovered. Macduff tells him that the
bodyguards killed the king. The hasty flight on the part of Malcolm and Donalbain, however, has
also cast suspicion on the two sons as well. Ross comments that Macbeth will surely be named the
next king, to which Macduff responds that he has already been named and has gone to Scone to be
crowned. Ross leaves for Scone to see the coronation while Macduff heads home to Fife.

5.2.2 Analysis
Macbeth’s famous soliloquy at the beginning of this act introduces an important theme: visions and
hallucinations caused by guilt. The “dagger of the mind” that Macbeth sees is not “ghostly” or
supernatural so much as a manifestation of the inner struggle that Macbeth feels as he contemplates
the regicide. It “marshal[s] [him] the way [he] was going,” leading him toward the bloody deed he
has resolved to commit, haunting and perhaps also taunting him. The same can be said for the
ghostly voice that Macbeth hears after he kills Duncan, as well as the ghost of Banquo that appears
in Act 3. Indeed, almost all the supernatural elements in this play could be—and often are—read as
psychological rather than ghostly occurrences.

But if this is the case, one also wonders about the witches: are they, too, products of
Macbeth’s fevered mind? The fact that merely gives voice to the Macbeth’s dormant ambitions
would seem to confirm this idea, but this is countered by the fact that Banquo also sees the
same witches and hears them speak.
The “dagger of the mind” is only one of many psychological manifestations in the play. As the
bodyguards mutter “God bless us” in their drunken stupor, Macbeth finds that he is unable to utter
the prayer word “Amen.” A psychological literary analyst may perceive this as a physical inability
to speak, caused by Macbeth’s paralyzing doubt about the correctness of the murder. The inner
world of the psyche thus imposes itself on the physical world. The same can be said for the voice
that Macbeth hears crying “Macbeth shall sleep no more”. An overwhelming sense of guilt will

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