Chaos In Macbeth

First performed in 1606, Macbeth is a well-known Shakespearean tragedy that focuses on rebellion, death, and supernatural forces. Macbeth, a tyrannical usurper, struggles with the chaos that ensues from his murder of King Duncan of Scotland. This theme of chaos in major in the play and the most common time for this chaos is at night. In this play, repetition is common due to its poetry-like structure. When characters repeat certain words, he or she hints at an event that has passed or one that is to come. In this play, a word often repeated is “night.” Whether it be the Weird Sisters, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, or the Doctor; the use of “night” automatically brings the same connotation to the reader because of the context in which the word is used.

These witches want to cause chaos for their own enjoyment. In the beginning of the play, the Witches come together to discuss what they have been doing. The First Witch decides she is going to make nighttime horrible for the husband of a woman who did her wrong. The witch declares, “I’ th’ shipman’s card./I’ll drain him dry as hay./Sleep shall neither night nor day/Hang upon his penthouse lid./He shall live a man forbid./Weary sev’nnights, nine times nine,/Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine./Though his bark cannot be lost,/ Yet it shall be tempest-tossed” (1.3.18-26). Here the use of “night” is the first in the play and it sets the stage for the chaos that nighttime and the word “night” will come to represent. The character alone that says the word symbolizes the chaos connotated with the word because the Witches are women of chaos and evil themselves. The example of the shipman being tormented at night foreshadows Macbeth’s future lack of the ability to sleep due to the guilt and evil that haunt him. Like the shipman, Macbeth will live a life cursed by the night. Also like the shipman, Macbeth has no connection before the Witches make his life chaotic by influencing his decision to murder Duncan at night. As the Witches use the word more, they reinforce chaos because they are the first instigators of Macbeth being

It is clear that she has been driven insane by the murder of Duncan and cannot properly function. Her nighttime is chaotic and she cannot sleep normally because of the evil that inhabits her life and mind. The Doctor observes, “Foul whisp’rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds/Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds/To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets./More needs she the divine than the physician./God, God forgive us all. Look after her./Remove from her the means of all annoyance/And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night” (5.1.75-81). The “foul whisperings” are the words Lady Macbeth utters as she sleepwalks and they are also the rumors of Duncan’s nighttime murder. The murder was “unnatural” thus causing Lady Macbeth to experience “unnatural” sleepwalking. Because Lady Macbeth called “night” to herself, God can no longer save her because the darkness blocks him from her past deeds and current problems. After the Doctor says goodnight, it is clear Lady Macbeth’s death is coming because this is a closure to the nighttime nightmare of Lady