Act 2 Scene 3 Lines 87 to 103

Macbeth re- enters and what he has to say is of the greatest importance. Images of blood and
water appear again in Macbeth’s speech. It is a public speech designed to show his despair, as a
loyal subject, at Duncan’s murder. He feigns grief to deceive the people. Macbeth declares that
it would have been better if he had ‘died an hour before’, this horrible incident as henceforth he
will never be able to take in life as worthwhile. He has become the instrument of the
equivocation of the wicked person that lies like the truth. Ironically, the world is going to be a
joyless place for him very soon. The term ‘blessed time’ refers to a time when all has been well,
because the God appointed King preserved the true order and security of the world. Indeed
there is superb irony in the lines as, if Macbeth has died an hour before the incident, he would
have been ‘blessed’ for he would not have damned himself by committing murder.

The King being dead, all things seem to him nothing but trifles ‘toys.’ All renown and grace
seems to have vanished from this world forever and the wine or joy of life has been drained
dry. Renown and grace, the abstract nouns, are personified; they symbolize King Duncan.
Nothing remains behind in the world now to boast of, but the sediment misery. All is
meaningless and bitter.

Macbeth compares using an analogy, where the earth is the wine cellar, ‘vault’ from which the
best wine has been ‘drawn’ and now it can boast ‘brag of’ only of the dregs, ‘lees.’ The best
wine is King Duncan and the dregs are the people in the kingdom. In other words, the man,
who has been a source of life to people, ‘spring, the head, the fountain’ is gone and people can
now only boast the worthless things that remain under the sky.

Images of blood and water re-appear again in Macbeth’s speech. Macbeth appears to be the
epitome or archetype of hypocrisy. They show Macbeth as a dissembler. He puts on an
expression of profound disappointment and sorrow and says that life has now become futile for
him. His speech is intended to deceive, though it utters at the same time Macbeth’s profoundest
feelings. Macbeth certainly wins our admiration for the way in which he is trying to throw dust
into the eyes of everybody.

Malcolm and Donalbain enter and ask what has happened. Lennox tells them that Duncan is
murdered by his drunken attendants. The hands and faces of the guards have been smeared
with blood. The daggers have been blood stained and are found on their pillows. They pictured
themselves as real murderers looking confused, as if to declare that no man’s life can be trusted
with them.

Macbeth explains to Macduff in a pompous manner why he has been impelled to kill the two
chamberlains. He tells Macduff that he has been aghast too see Duncan murdered and the
grooms have been lying asleep with blood smeared on their body and clothes. Their daggers too
have been blood stained revealing clearly that they are guilty. This terrible spectacle infuriated
him and so he kills the grooms instantly. Here Macbeth again pretends to be guilty in killing the
chamberlains. But the irony is that the audience is aware that he has purposely killed them, so
that his guilt is not exposed to the public.