Scene summary
In Dunsinane, a Doctor who has watched for two nights and seen nothing waits with the Gentlewoman of Lady Macbeth to confirm what she reported. The Gentlewoman says that after the king left for battle, she saw the queen get up, open a chest, write on a paper, seal it, and return to bed, all while asleep. But she does not want to repeat what she heard, since she has no witness. Lady Macbeth enters asleep, carrying a candle she keeps lit beside her bed, with her eyes open and seeing nothing, and rubs her hands as if washing them. She speaks of a stain that will not come out, of the night of the crime, when she called her husband a frightened soldier, of the Thane of Fife's wife, of the smell of blood that all the perfumes of Arabia could not wash away, of Banquo, who cannot leave his grave, and of Duncan. The Doctor takes notes on what he hears, concludes that the case is beyond medicine, that she needs spiritual help more than anything, and asks the Gentlewoman to watch over her and keep her away from anything she could hurt herself with.
Analysis
The Doctor and the Gentlewoman spy on Lady Macbeth as she walks in her sleep. She repeats what the vigil had kept silent: blood, Duncan, Banquo, Macduff's wife. The Doctor concludes that the case escapes medicine and asks that she be watched. What drives her is a guilt the body cannot forget, even though, on the night of the crime, she said that a little water would clean the hands of both of them.
Lady Macbeth: Yet here's a spot. [...] Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One, two. Why, then, 'tis time to do 't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear?
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