Lady Macbeth comes up with the idea to frame Duncan's own "chamberlains" (servants of his bedchamber) for his murder. In Act 1, Scene 7, she says,
When Duncan is asleep [...],
his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lies as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th' unguarded Duncan? (lines 71-80)
In other words, she will get them very drunk, so drunk that they lose all ability to reason, and they will not be able to remember anything the next day. She claims that, with them sleeping off all this alcohol, she and Macbeth can do whatever they want to Duncan because they won't have the sense or ability to stop them.
Later, in Act 2, Scene 2, after Macbeth has committed the murder, he brings the daggers he used from the room. Lady Macbeth chastises him for his failure to reason, saying
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there. Go, carry them and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood. (lines 62-64)
When Macbeth refuses, she does it herself. Finally, in Act 2, Scene 3, after Macduff discovers Duncan's body the next morning, Macbeth and Lennox go into the bedroom to see for themselves. While there, Macbeth kills the two chamberlains, claiming that
Th' expedition of [his] violent love [for Duncan]
Outrun the pauser, reason [....].
Who could refrain
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make 's love known? (lines 129-137)
He claims that he loved Duncan so much that his anger at Duncan's murderers got the best of him. He then implies that anyone who would do less does not love Duncan as much as he does. It is no small coincidence that this also removes those chamberlains' ability to say who got them drunk and anything else they might remember from the night before.
No comments:
Post a Comment