In this passage, Lady Macbeth is chiefly attempting to quiet her husband and to impress upon him that no one has actually witnessed the murder he has committed. Macbeth is terrified that his killing of Duncan will be discovered. Both this fear and his sense of guilt are causing him in effect to hallucinate, as he will continue to do as the action of the drama develops. A voice has been heard crying that Macbeth has "murdered sleep" and that he shall "sleep no more." In Macbeth and other works of Shakespeare, it's often an open question as to whether such perceptions by people in a hyperemotional state are in fact illusory or are, rather, supernatural occurrences. But whatever our interpretation, it's clear that Lady Macbeth wishes to dismiss her husband's fears and that she's impatient with him and even slightly disgusted with the terrified manner in which he has reacted to the situation. By saying that the sleeping and the dead are mere pictures, she's implying that they can't hurt him any more than a lifeless picture or image could do. No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine/ Making the green one red.’ – ‘multitudinous’ refers to the many seas found around the globe; ‘incarnadine’ is the first recorded use of the word as a verb. Etymologically, it means ‘make flesh-coloured or pink’, but Shakespeare clearly means ‘make blood-red’ here, perhaps by confusion or association with the word ‘carmine’. The manner in which Macbeth’s speech patterns sway from impetuously flowing polysyllables to the stark stresses of ‘the green one red’ adds to the impression of his unbalanced mental state. My hands are of your colour…’ – Lady Macbeth’s crisp, brief statements contrast effectively with Macbeth’s more passionate and imaginative language. As Porteous digs into the past and Hannah does her best to avoid her memories of that same past, the mystery of what happened to Michael Grey slowly begins to come to light, but not before more lives are lost.

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand?’– Similar images are to be found in a number of classical tragedies: Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus , 1227; Seneca, Phaedra , 715-8; Seneca Hercules Furens , 1323-9.

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Their demeanors contrast sharply in this scene. While Macbeth is convinced that he hears voices talking of "murder" and asking for God's blessings, Lady Macbeth remains calm and resolute. Their plans are not yet complete. They must now plant the daggers on the guards to throw suspicion in that direction. But Macbeth cannot stop thinking about his literal and figurative bloody hands and tells his wife, Act 2, scene 4 An old man and Ross exchange accounts of recent unnatural happenings. Macduff joins them to report that Malcolm and Donalbain are now accused of having bribed the servants who supposedly killed Duncan. Macduff also announces that Macbeth has been chosen king. Ross leaves for Scone and Macbeth’s coronation, but Macduff resolves to stay at his own castle at Fife. Michael Grey, an enigmatic and secretive young man who was reported missing by his foster parents in 1972. Act 5, scene 2 A Scottish force, in rebellion against Macbeth, marches toward Birnam Wood to join Malcolm and his English army.

Michael was reported missing after his foster parents died in a car crash by the guy who managed their wills. They didn't even know he'd been missing. The more significant point she seems to make, however, is that not only is there an effective likeness between sleep and death based on the absence of awareness, but also that in her view, death is no worse than just a kind of sleep, albeit a perpetual one. Lady Macbeth fears nothing, essentially because she believes in nothing. As with Edmund in King Lear, nature (i.e., the natural or material world) is her "goddess." The idea that the dead will live forever is foreign to her: death is merely a physical state which has no more importance than the harmless condition of not being awake. Her mindset dictates that killing someone is, for all intents and purposes, no worse than just making that person go to sleep, and Macbeth should see himself not as a guilty party in the manner that religion and morality would declare him to be. It's somewhat ironic, given later events in the play, that Lady Macbeth should be urging her husband not to be scared of the sleeping and the dead. Later on, in the grip of a nightmare, she will sleepwalk the halls of the castle at night, desperately trying to scrub hallucinated blood from her hands.Contento, William G. "Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections". Archived from the original on 2008-01-06 . Retrieved 2008-01-07. Act 3, scene 4 As Macbeth’s banquet begins, one of Banquo’s murderers appears at the door to tell Macbeth of Banquo’s death and Fleance’s escape. Returning to the table, Macbeth is confronted by Banquo’s ghost, invisible to all but Macbeth. While Lady Macbeth is able to dismiss as a momentary fit Macbeth’s expressions of horror at the ghost’s first appearance, the reappearance of the ghost and Macbeth’s outcries in response to it force Lady Macbeth to send all the guests away. Alone with Lady Macbeth, Macbeth resolves to meet the witches again. He foresees a future marked by further violence. Act 3, scene 2 Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth express their unhappiness. Macbeth speaks of his fear of Banquo especially. He refers to a dreadful deed that will happen that night but does not confide his plan for Banquo’s murder to Lady Macbeth.