A bloodied throne and kingdom under an illicit hand cause sleepless nights. William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, demonstrates this fact as the protagonist, Macbeth, a loyal and dutiful Thane, finds out that he will be king through the three weird sisters’ prophecy. Upon hearing their prediction, The Thane's wife, Lady Macbeth, convinces Macbeth to commit regicide to become king. This only turns him into a brutal tyrant who orders the murder of several innocent people, including his close friend Banquo to maintain his kingship. Eventually, the tyrant and his wife meet their demise, as Macbeth is assassinated at the hands of Macduff, his former comrade, and Lady Macbeth commits suicide. Throughout the play, the eponymous character’s …show more content…
After an encounter with the three witches and their prophecy of becoming the new king, the idea of wanting more tempts Macbeth and his wife and they commit a regicide. Then, The Thane, shocked at his behavior, realizes that he will “Sleep no more” and lack a “Chief nourisher in [life]” ( Shakespeare 2.2.47, 52). Shakespeare uses the motif of sleep to represent healing and nourishment, so sleep is an essential part of a human’s survival. Since Macbeth committed a murder, an immoral act, he will no longer experience this vital activity, as a result, Macbeth has to suffer the harsh consequences rather than experience what is essential to human life. Soon after, the new king orders the murder of Banquo and his son, to maintain his title as the king. He then has a conversation with his wife saying that his “Sleep [is] in the affliction of [his] terrible dreams” (3.2.20-21). The author uses the motif of sleep to represent peace. This time Macbeth’s sleep is disturbed by terrible dreams, meaning that his peace is disrupted by the results of his actions. He even goes as far as to say that Duncan in his grave “sleeps well,” meaning that death is more peaceful than Macbeth’s life (3.2.25-26). Therefore, the author’s usage of the motif of sleep shows that one who is guilty of an immoral act will suffer consequences …show more content…
As Lady Macbeth’s gentlewoman consults a doctor, they observe her diminishing mental state as she hallucinates that “hands [will] [never] be clean,” and that “the smell of the blood” will not be “[sweetened]” by any perfume (5.1.45, 53-54 ). Here, the author uses the motif of blood to represent guilt. Lady Macbeth’s struggle to remove the blood on her hands shows her undying guilt which she cannot erase despite countless trials. This is further proven when she says the smell of blood lingers and cannot be sweetened, meaning that her action cannot be forgiven by her guilt. Her mental state weakens due to this reason and is shown to be tormented by her hallucinations rather than being content with her desired queenship. This mental torture is an example of when a man commits immoral deeds not only he will experience the consequences but also will take over the mind and will make achieving the goal pointless. Similarly, before the battle with Macduff, Macbeth states “my soul is charged…with blood” before being slain by his former comrade (5.8.6-7). Shakespeare utilizes the motif of blood to show Macbeth is guilty of the many violent acts he has committed. He does not want to fight Macduff, because that will only add to his remorse. Therefore, the king’s unwillingness to fight equates to his unwillingness to protect his throne and is
Sleep is critical to a person's mental health, without sleep even the most sane person can fall to hysteria. The use of sleep can also be used in literature writing to express its impact on the characters. In Shakespeare's Macbeth the motif of sleep is used as a metaphor to illustrate Lady Macbeth's hysteria and guilt worsening throughout the tragedy. In the beginning of the Tragedy, Lady Macbeth can be described as strong, brave and ambitious.
Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast,—” (Mac. 2.2. 51-56). During this conversation between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth he explains he now has destroyed his peace and ability to sleep.
Bloodshed in William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Macbeth, causes strong guilt, mental instability, and eventually his downfall as shown by Beebe Stroud’s article, “Guilt: Definitions, Types, & Differences Versus Shame”. In the play, Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to murder the king to make himself king. Later, to maintain his position, he kills Banquo and Macduff’s family. Although he should be happy that his position is somewhat secure, the guilt as well as the feeling of blood on his hands creates paranoia and other mental issues that prevent him from keeping his position and lead him to his downfall.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses sleep to forward the themes of the play in three different scenes. The first instance where Shakespeare uses sleep to forward the themes of the play occurs when King Duncan is murdered by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The second illustration of Shakespeare using sleep happens when Macbeth’s only way of escaping the horrible reality he is living in is by sleeping. The final occurrence of Shakespeare using sleep in his play transpired during the end of the play when Lady Macbeth walks and talks while she sleeps, giving up confidential information about what she and Macbeth have done. The first instance where Shakespeare uses sleep to forward the themes of the play occurs in Act 2, when King Duncan is murdered by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Throughout the play we see that with Macbeth's lack of sleep, it causes his mind to become clouded with heinous thoughts that affect his judgment and begin to make him do things that a sane person would never think to do, which causes his downfall as king, and his
Throughout Macbeth, there are continuous references to sleep and its influence over characters. Sleep is used to symbolize innocence, purity, and sanity. When a character has difficulty sleeping, they're experiencing feelings of inner turmoil or have a guilty conscience. Sleep also represents the intentions of a character because characters that sleep more usually have good intentions. In short, Shakespeare uses many different literary devices to portray the importance of needing sleep, and what consequences follow if a character cannot sleep.
He begins to desire power and to secure his spot as King. In order to do this, he and Lady Macbeth make a plan to kill Duncan. As Macbeth begins to feed into his own ambition, he experiences a decline in his self control, ¨Macbeth does murder sleep´, the innocent sleep.¨ (2.2.36) Moments after following through with his plan to kill Duncan, Macbeth is in shock of what he had just done. He loses control of his own decisions, Macbeth says to himself that he has just murdered all the peace and innocence he had.
Macduff is not satisfied with Macbeth’s words, which leads to the ultimate tragic death of Macbeth, even though this time he actually tries to do the right thing. Shakespeare has used blood here to enhance the audience’s understanding of Macbeth’s character. The audience has now completely witnessed the the transformation of Macbeth. He has completely fallen from greatness at this point, and is possibly at his most hopeless and pitiful moment. The desperation Macbeth feels, and his genuine feeling of remorse for his acts allows the audience to sympathize with him.
For instance, after Duncan retires to his bed on the night the Macbeths host him for subsequent murder, Banquo reports to Macbeth, “This diamond he greets your wife withal, / By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up / In measureless content” (2.1.17-19). In contrast to other characters, Duncan grants ease to his mind before sleep instead of attempting to sleep off any bothersome issues. Duncan’s prioritization of others before his night’s rest is just one of his many generosities that sets a standard of morality for characters deserving of sleep. This elevated perception of Duncan heightens the tragedy of his murder, as his sleeping state affirms his innocence but shackles him in vulnerability for Macbeth.
In Macbeth, blood is a symbol used to represent guilt and how one's guilt will cause them to act with concupiscence. If an individual feels guilty about an action they will do anything to try to make up for that action or clear their conscience. They may cross a line in which they never had thought of crossing before in order to fight their guilt. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth feels guilty about the many murders he has committed and his guilt has turned to paranoia. His paranoia is evident in his conversation with lady Macbeth about banquo when he says, “Come, seeling night, / Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day /
The murders he committed alongside Lady Macbeth, caused him to succumb to his guilt and leave him sleepless and aggravated. The murder of Duncan resulted in the killing of various characters due to his paranoia from sleepless nights. Sleep plays a crucial role in Macbeth, nightmares, hallucinations,
Despite, Macbeth’s initial bravado, neither of the couple are at ease and he believes it is “better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace. Than on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy”. This line, refers to how as living beings, they still have guilt to live up to and lies to cover and that being dead like Duncan and Banquo would be easier rather enduring the endless mental torture. This is the turning point in the play which shows that the couple are beginning regret their decisions and realize that taking the easy way out isn’t worth the debt that comes along with it. In contrast, Macbeth also seems envious of Duncan who is “peacefully” lying in his grave, not needing to deal with life’s troubles and claims that “After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well”.
The word “sleep” is used throughout Macbeth with various connotations. One of the ways to interpret Shakespeare's use of “sleep,” is as a symbol of innocence. This symbolism is used repeatedly in concerns to Duncan and his murder. When Lady Macbeth is unable to kill Duncan, she explains, “Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done’t”
Macbeth went through so much pressure to do the crime he later regretted and suffered and battles with himself and his paranoia. Lady Macbeth only saw the effects of blood visually she did not see how the blood stain was eating Macbeth from the inside. Once again Lady Macbeth is pushing Macbeth to forget about what happened and move on, the murder does not affect Lady Macbeth but the way Macbeth is acting shows that he was never ready to commit this
Clearly, sleep is a major motif in Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. The word sleep alone is used over thirty times, with similar words pertaining to sleep such as rest and dream being used another twenty times. Throughout the short story of Macbeth, Shakespeare writes about sleep literally almost as often as figuratively, using sleep as a symbol of the king, comfort and well-being, all good things considering the gruesome events throughout the book. Macbeth’s direct involvement with the King’s murder left him losing sleep and feeling a false sense of security that would eventually lead to his own