Thursday, November 15, 2012

In "Macbeth," what has Lady Macbeth done to the guards in Act 2 Scene 2?

Lady Macbeth does a couple of things in this scene:

LADY MACBETH.
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold:
What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.--Hark!--Peace!
It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good night. He is about it:
The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd their possets
That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.

The lines above show that she has drunk to gain courage and then drugged the drinks of the guards who are to watch over King Duncan. Later in the scene she helps to frame the guards for Duncan's murder. Macbeth has killed the king, but still has the bloody dagger. She says the following:

LADY MACBETH.
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt.

Basically she is telling her husband that he is foolish to be afraid of the dead body--to think of it as a picture, not real. She then takes the daggers and smears the king's blood on the sleeping guards to make them seem like the murderers and leaves the daggers with them. Ironically, it is she who later has difficulty dealing with the blood on her hands.

For a great side by side original and modern translation of Macbeth, see the link below

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