Macbeth LRJ 2

In Act II, Macbeth appears to have more positive qualities than negative ones. He does not want to kill the king, and after he goes through with it, he is full of fear and remorse. “I'll go no more:/ I am afraid to think what I have done;/ Look on 't again I dare not.” He can’t bring himself to go back into the room to incriminate the servants for Duncan’s murder, which shows he still has a bit of humanity left. However, the fact that he goes through with the murder and then covers it up shows he is becoming crueler. He kills the servants to prevent them from confessing their innocence and pretends to be shocked and saddened when the rest of the household learns the news. “Had I but died an hour before this chance,/ I had lived a blessèd time, for from this instant/ There's nothing serious in mortality./ All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead.”
Lady Macbeth continues to be more savage and cruel than her husband. After he has committed the murder, she scornfully says to him, “My hands are of your color, but I shame/ To wear a heart so white.” This refers to how though her hands are as bloody and guilty as his, she is disgusted by his weakness. She is an extremely good actress, however, and when the household finds out about Duncan’s death, she goes as far as to pretend to faint to keep up the appearance of shock. She exclaims, “Help me hence, ho!” right before she falls to the ground.
The image of a sword or dagger appears many times throughout Act II. The first scene opens on Banquo talking to his son Fleance, and letting him hold his sword. “Hold, take my sword.” Later that scene, when Macbeth is alone, he sees a vision of a bloody dagger and takes out his own to compare it. “Is this a dagger which I see before me,/ The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee./ I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” In the next scene, Lady Macbeth takes the bloody daggers used for the murder and wipe them on the servants so her husband will not be suspected. “Why did you bring these daggers from the place?/ They must lie there. Go carry them and smear/ The sleepy grooms with blood.” Finally, in Scene 4, there is yet another mention when Donalbain says, “Where we are,/ There's daggers in men's smiles.” The theme of daggers is important because it represents the murder of the king and the slow severing of Macbeth’s conscience and sanity.