Active Reading Notes of ACT II (MACBETH)

Scene i:
- Fleance and Banquo are walking around the castle at midnight, because Banquo can not sleep, when they run into Macbeth
- Banquo says he dreamed that the witches "revealed some truth" to Macbeth but Macbeth claims to not be in contact with them, and they agree to discuss the witches at a later time
- Macbeth sees a floating dagger appear in the hallway pointing towards Duncan, but comes to the conclusion that is it a figment of his imagination saying "A dagger of the mind, a false creation,/ Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?"
Scene ii:
- Lady Macbeth takes pride in her part of the murder (she laid out the daggers) and says she would have done it herself if the sleeping King hadn't "looked like her father"
- Macbeth kills Duncan and comes out of his bedroom nervous and fearful, holding the daggers and with blood on his hands
- He claims to have heard a voice say "'Sleep no more!/ Macbeth does murder sleep' "after killing Duncan
- Lady Macbeth chides Macbeth for not leaving the daggers next to the watch guards and goes to do it herself, exiting the bedroom saying "My hands are of your colour; but I shame/ To wear a heart so white"
- Macbeth and Lady Macbeth hear a repeated knocking and decide to go to bed to escape suspicion
Scene iii:
- Macduff and Lennox enter the house late at night by the Porter, and Macduff asks to go see Duncan
- Lennox makes several comments to Macbeth about how bad the storm was that night, and 
Macduff comes rushing out of Duncan's bedroom saying he has been slain
- The rest of the lords are awoken and Duncan's sons (Malcolm and Donalbain) arrive
- Macbeth claims that he killed the two guards, who had the daggers, in rage, which Macduff finds suspicious
- Macbeth says "Had I but died an hour before this chance,/ I had lived a blessed time; for, from this instant,/ There 's nothing serious in mortality:/ All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;/ The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees/ Is left this vault to brag of" toward the event
- Duncan's sons make plans to flee, fearing that they will be targeted next
Scene iv:
- Ross and an old man talk about the strange occurrences since the King's death
- Macduff arrives and shares how Macbeth has been chosen to be King, and that there is suspicion that it was Duncan's sons that hired the guards to kill Duncan because they fled after