Plot Summary
Act III, Scene 2 of Macbeth takes place in the royal palace and presents a brief but psychologically intense exchange between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Having recently secured the Scottish throne through the murder of King Duncan, the couple now grapples with the emotional and moral costs of their crime. The scene opens with Lady Macbeth sending a servant to fetch the king, then reflecting in a short soliloquy that gaining their desire has brought no contentment—"Nought’s had, all’s spent, / Where our desire is got without content."
Macbeth’s Torment and the Shifting Power Dynamic
When Macbeth enters, Lady Macbeth tries to counsel him out of his dark brooding, telling him "What’s done is done." But Macbeth reveals the depth of his psychological torment. He declares, "We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it," using a vivid metaphor to express his belief that killing Duncan has only wounded—not eliminated—the threat to their power. He envies Duncan, who now "sleeps well" beyond the reach of treason, poison, or malice, while he and Lady Macbeth are plagued by terrible dreams and restless anxiety.
This scene marks a crucial turning point in the relationship between the two conspirators. In Act I, Lady Macbeth was the dominant force, goading her husband toward regicide. Now the roles have reversed. Macbeth takes charge of their dark enterprise, instructing Lady Macbeth to lavish attention on Banquo at the evening’s feast while secretly hinting that he has arranged something terrible. His famous line, "O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!" captures the venomous, consuming nature of his guilt and paranoia.
Foreshadowing Banquo’s Murder
Macbeth cryptically tells Lady Macbeth to "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed." He has already hired murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance, but he deliberately withholds the details from his wife. This secrecy signals a new isolation in their partnership—where once they plotted together, Macbeth now acts alone.
The scene closes with some of the play’s most evocative poetry, as Macbeth invokes the coming darkness: "Come, seeling night, / Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day." This imagery of night blinding day echoes Lady Macbeth’s earlier invocation of darkness in Act I and reinforces the theme that the Macbeths are deliberately choosing moral blindness. His final couplet—"Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill"—articulates the play’s central tragic insight: once a cycle of violence begins, it demands ever more violence to sustain itself.