In Shakespeare's Macbeth, why is Act 2 Scene2 a turning point?Focus on how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are portrayed in this scene.

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act II,
scene ii, the turning point arises with regard to the change of positions of Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth.

At the start of the play, Macbeth is a great
and celebrated warrior. He is strong and self-assured. His wife is a schemer who wants
to be queen, nagging her husband to take what he wants, regardless of what he must do to
get it. However, after Macbeth murders Duncan, his King, his friend, and his cousin, he
is undone. He comes back to their rooms carrying the incriminating daggers. He has heard
the king's servants awake and say their prayers, but when they said, "Amen," Macbeth was
unable to utter the word. He says:

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But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'? / I
had most need of blessing, and 'Amen' / Stuck in my
throat.

After murdering
Duncan, he felt his soul in need of God's comfort, yet not surprisingly, it is not
there. Lady Macbeth tries to reason with him. She can sense he is coming unstrung.
Macbeth goes on to say he thought he...

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"...heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth
does murder sleep,' / Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care...Still it cried
'Sleep no more...'

Macbeth
believes that because he murdered Duncan in his sleep,
Macbeth will no longer be able to enjoy the rest and rejuvenation
of sleep anymore.

Lady Macbeth shows that "manly" nature
she had prayed for earlier, and disdainfully dresses him down (insults him) for his
unmanly behavior, including bringing the daggers with him. He refuses to return to the
scene of the murder to put the murder weapons back because he is so mentally affected by
the night's events; so Lady Macbeth explains that she will do so and tells him to pull
himself together.

When Lady Macbeth returns, she again
insults her husband saying her hands are now bloodly as well, but she is not the coward
he is. ("I shame to wear a heart so white.") She tells him that if they wash up, they
will feel better, but this murder has damaged Macbeth's heart, soul and sense of
personal morality. For him, washing the blood away will not help
him.

When Macbeth hears the knocking at the gates, he
responds, with seeming regret:

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Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou
couldst.

In other words, he
wishes the knocking would wake Duncan—it would mean then that Duncan was still
alive.

By the end of this section, Macbeth has become
haunted by what he has done, and seemingly weaker, and Lady Macbeth has shown how
hard-hearted she is, seemingly much stronger than her husband—at least for
now.