Use Of Sleep In Macbeth

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. King Duncan, a king who puts his trust in anybody, happens to put his trust in the wrong people. While King Duncan sleeps, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth get to work on their malicious plan. Lady Macbeth signals Macbeth to go for the kill with a bell. “Don’t listen to the bell, Duncan, because it

She gives up confidential information about what she and Macbeth have done. Lady Macbeth having all of these secrets and stress causes her to get some things off her chest while she is asleep “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.” (5.1.53-54). “Sleepwalking and sleeptalking are considered supernatural events in Shakespeare’s time” making this seem very scary, especially with what she says. The doctor is freaked out; the only thing he can prescribe to her is God. “More needs she the divine than the physician. God, God forgive us all!” (5.1.64-65). Sleep forwards this even more because Lady Macbeth commits suicide the next day, and once her husband hears the news he expresses no grief, going from a noble hero to a emotionless