Scene summary
While servants cross the stage serving the king’s supper, Macbeth, alone in a room of the castle, weighs the murder. If everything ended with the blow, he would risk it, but the crime turns back against whoever commits it. Duncan is his kinsman and his king, is lodged in his house, and has always reigned with such humility that his virtues would defend him against the assassin. Only ambition pushes him. When Lady Macbeth arrives, he says they will not go on, because he has just been honored and wants to enjoy that good reputation. She accuses him of cowardice, of having a sick love, and of wanting the crown without daring to seek it, like the cat that wanted the fish without wetting its paw. Macbeth answers that he dares all that befits a man, and she replies that he was more of a man when he proposed the plan. He asks what happens if they fail, and she explains: she will ply Duncan’s two chamberlains with drink, and Macbeth completes it: they will be marked with blood and their own daggers used, so that the blame falls on the two of them. Macbeth is convinced and decides to hide, behind a serene face, what his false heart knows.
Analysis
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