MacBeth reading journal: Act Two, Scene Three and Four

Scene Three:

• This scene begins with a short section of what could be portrayed as "comic relief" after the regicide in scene two, with a drunken Porter opening the door to the castle and telling the audience what three things drink provokes.
• 16 - "This place is too cold for Hell" says the Porter.
• The people knocking on MacBeth's castle door were MacDuff and Lennox. MacBeth's fate was knocking at the door that so spooked him.
• 61 - The foul deed is discovered by MacDuff
• 80 - MacDuff calls Lady MacBeth a "gentle lady" which is dramatic irony, as we, the audience, know this to be far from the truth.
• 85 - Lady MacBeth acts grief about Duncan being murdered in "our house!"
• 104 - MacBeth has now committed three murders because of the words of the witches... He kills the two bodyguards that his wife framed.
• 115 - There aren't many stage directions used in Shakespeare, so the fact that Lady MacBeth "swoons" must be significant. Could it be because she is shocked that what she did was real? (Maybe she convinced herself that it had never happened). A distraction from MacBeth's gory descriptions might have been the reason. She swooned in order that nobody would question her husband's decision to murder the two guards. Alternatively it could be all part of her mask to conceal her real fealings of elation that the people there seem to have bought into the MacBeth's story of the bodyguards killing their boss (who pays them) and just going to sleep covered in blood with the knives in their hands. Are the characters of MacDuff and Lennox stupid or is it that they do not want to believe that any of their friends had it in them to commit such a crime?
• 132 - Malcom and Donalbain, Duncan's sons, decide to run away to England and Ireland respectively. They suspect foul play: Where they are...-137- "There's daggers in men's smiles"

Gothic conections in Scene Three:

• Symbols of darkness and light: The Porter calls the door upon which MacDuff and Lennox a "hell-gate" -2-, thus implying that the castle is hell. This is backed up with the Porter's ramblings about "Belzebub" -4-, "devil" -7- and "hell" -16-. Hell would be a symbol of darkness, as, acording to the Bible it is where sinners go when they die. When the Porter says, in line 16, that "i'll devil porter it no further" before opening the gate, this would signal that a symbol of light will penetrate the darkness when he opens the gate (into "hell"). "Enter MacDuff and Lennox". These two characters will be symbols of light that will cut through the darkness, aka the house of MacBeth (in both sences of the term).
• Settings are significant: Lady MacBeth pretends to be full of woe about Duncan being Murdered in "our house" -85-. 
• Fear: Lady MacBeth "swoons" -115- in pretend/real fear/shock. We don't know.

Scene Four:

•  A short scene in which "Ross" and an "Old Man" have a conversation. The purpose is to give the audience a deeper insite into the world of the play and what characters other than MacBeth think abou the state of things
• 11 - On "Tuesday night" a falcan was killed by an owl. This mirrors MacBeth's murder of Duncan.
• 14 - Duncan's horses (we can assume he probably had Scotland's finest horses) went mad and ate each other!
• 31 - MacBeth is on his way to "Scone", the sight where Scotish Kings were crowned. MacBeth is going to be King.
• MacBeth is not suspected of the deed and since Malcom and Donalbain ran away, they are now supected of Parricide. 
• Lady MacBeth's plan worked perfectly, so it follows that they might try the same trick again in order to keep the thrown.
• It is strangely dark all the time. Day and Night are the same. The witches? Coincidence? Or could it be Shakespeare implying that God does not want to look down upon that cursed land?

Gothic Elements of Scene Four:

• It is dark all the time, night and day. 
• The horses of Duncan going mad and eating could imply that the new king will go mad and kill his friends...