Macbeth, Act 2: Scene 3

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Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 3
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Summary
The scene begins with the arrival of guests at
Macbeths residence. The porter, whom is drunk,
pretends that he is the gatekeeper of Hell. For
each additional knock, he imagines the arrival of
a soul to Hell, for whom he then makes up the sin
that they committed. Eventually, he opens the
door, and Lennox and Macduff enter. The porter
begins a speech with a plethora of sexual
innuendos, after which he advocates himself to be
able to hold his liquor, which he obviously
cannot. Macbeth enters, and Macduff goes to get
the king. While he is gone, Lennox discusses
with Macbeth how horrible their ride was.
Creatures of all kinds were howling in agony, the
wind was blowing fiercely in fact, Lennox cannot
remember a worse night in the whole of his life.
Macduff returns, after having found the dead
king, and begins to freak out. He rings a bell
to wake all in the house. Everyone congregates,
and Macduff reveals that the king has been
murdered. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth play along,
claiming to be in mourning, and Banquo is
dumbfounded. Macbeth then tells his sorrow to
the group (this speech has a double meaning which
we will explain.) Following this, the kings sons
enter and are informed of the horrible news.
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Lennox reveals that the murderers are the kings
servants. At this point, Macbeth claims to have
killed the servants (whom aren't dead) out of
anger of finding the dead king. Lady Macbeth
pretends to faint, so as to force him to attend
to her and shut up before he gives himself away.
The sons do not interject into the conversation,
but instead converse amongst themselves. Banquo
suggest that the group begin to investigate the
matter further, and all members agree. They
reconvene to a hall with the intensions of
discussing the nights events. Malcolm and
Donalbain, seeing as their father has been killed
and the murderer has yet to be discovered, decide
to secretly escape from the castle. Malcolm
intends to travel to England, Donalbain to
Ireland. They believe themselves to be in less
danger when separated.