MacBeth reading journal: Act Two, Scene One and Two

Scene One:

• 8 - Banquo has "cursed" thoughts. Cursing is what the witches do so it is no surprise that...
• 20 - Banquo "dreamt last night of the three Weird Sisters". He says that, to MacBeth they have "showed some truth" (referring to MacBeth becoming thane of Cawdor as well as Glamis) MacBeth himself says that he has "thought not of them" but quickly adds that he would like a chat with Banquo about that matter. This, we can assume to mean, shows us that MacBeth is insecure about the Weird Sister's assertion that he will be king someday and feels the need to verify that that was indeed what they said.
• 33 - "Is this a dagger which I see before me" MacBeth imagines (or is it the work of the witches to pressure him into murder?) a dagger floating before him with the handle towards him. Tis a (38) "dagger of the mind". Does he have post traumatic stress disorder after coming home from battle (in which he "unzipped" someone, remember *shudder*), seeing three witches melt into the mud and being asked by his wife to murder in cold blood the man who he has just fought a war to protect? That's a lot of stress for anybody to go through. 
• 41 - MacBeth draws his own dagger. Does this mean that he is frightened by the floating dagger or that he really now intends to kill Duncan! The second idea is backed up by line 42 - "thou marshall'st me the way that I was going" 
• 51 - "witchcraft" - 52 - "Hecat" (the queen witch). Is the dagger the work of the witches?

 Gothic connections in scene one:

• The supernatural ("Witchcraft", a floating dagger, Hecat, cursed)
• The setting (a castle: typical of the Gothic genre)
• Fear (MacBeth is afraid of the dagger and the audience who knows that, if MacBeth murders Duncan, he wont get away with it)
• Mystery (Is MacBeth imagining the dagger, or is it the work of the nefarious witches?)
• Psychological torment (the dagger if it's imagined is a symbol of MacBeth's psychological torment...)

Scene Two: 

• The Murder is done off stage. Almost like Shakespeare's telling us that it is not the physical deed that is important, rather the repercussions from it.
• 14 - "I have done the deed" MacBeth. Duncan is dead.
• 31 - When MacBeth prayed he "could not pronounce "Amen"", a clear sign of a guilty conscience, or a "false heart" as MacBeth puts it at the end of Act One
• 36 - Another indication of MacBeth's guilty conscience would be his comment on himself in line 36: "MacBeth does murder sleep". He says this in third person, indicating that he wants to distance himself from the deed...
• 51 - "I am afraid to think what I have done" MacBeth
• 74 - MacBeth is regretting it already! "Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!" Two exclamations! This is super serious!
• Both MacBeth and Lady MacBeth are covered in blood by the end of the scene, both physically and mentally. Lady MacBeth says "A little water clears us of this deed". Yep. 0/10, must try harder. 
• MacBeth, as a character, is easily led astray by the important female characters in the play: The witches tell him he will be king and Lady MacBeth tells him to murder Duncan.
• Did Lady MacBeth's character rush the murder to make sure that MacBeth would commit it?
• Lady MacBeth would have killed King Duncan, but he "looked like her Father as he slept". Is this an excuse? Is she actually not as strong a character as her venomous tongue would have us believe?
• MACBETH IS TORN BETWEEN LOYALTY TO HIS WIFE AND LOYALTY TO HIS KING. Don'tcha know. A major theme of the play: split loyalty?
• Lady MacBeth does't love her husband, she has a lust for the power that MacBeth can project onto her (and, let's be fair, MacBeth doesn't show any signs of loving his wife, either)

Gothic conections in Scene Two:

• Fear (Both MacBeth and the good Lady wife are afraid of the knocking at the end of the scene. "I am afraid to think what I have done" MacBeth - 51)
• Psychological torment (MacBeth forgets to leave the daggers he committed the deed with in Ducan's chamber)
• The setting (at night in a castle)