In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth meets Lady Macbeth and tells her that he has killed Duncan. He asks her if she heard anything. She says she heard an owl scream and the crickets cry. She is on edge and these noises probably sound louder and more cacophonous than they a actually are. But to her, this is a cacophony. Both Macbeth and his wife are jumpy and full of anxiety at this point, so...
In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth meets Lady Macbeth and tells her that he has killed Duncan. He asks her if she heard anything. She says she heard an owl scream and the crickets cry. She is on edge and these noises probably sound louder and more cacophonous than they a actually are. But to her, this is a cacophony. Both Macbeth and his wife are jumpy and full of anxiety at this point, so any noise is going to sound more dramatic and threatening than it normally would. The fact that she hears two animals of nature crying out suggests that nature itself is crying out against the murderous deed. It is as if nature is crying because things are out of balance. This notion of nature being out of balance is one of the major themes in the play.
In this scene, Macbeth also says of Duncan and his guards, that one woke up and yelled "Murder!" This woke the others up, one of whom cried "God bless us!" To Macbeth, this would be startling and thus, a cacophony. He also hears "Sleep No More" repeatedly. These sounds strike him like alarm bells of his own guilt.
There is a knock at the door and Macbeth is worried and frustrated that every single noise is like a cacophony to him:
How is't with me, when every noise appals me? (II.ii.74)
Scene 3 also begins with a loud knocking. Then, Lennox recalls strange screams in the night. Also in this scene, when MacDuff learns of the murder, he orders the alarm bell to ring. These sudden loud noises are all signs of things being out of sync, out of order. The noises also affect Macbeth and his wife more dramatically because they are mentally weary, guilty, and anxious.
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