Shakespeare was a master wordsmith and “Macbeth” is a prime example of his incredible ability to portray the versatility and rawness of human emotion. In this passage during the sleepwalking scene he expertly uses syntax, diction, and repetition to convey the deep-seated regret Lady Macbeth is being ruined by. Themes of guilt and loss of innocence are entrenched in this passage by the frantic style of writing; Lady Macbeth constantly switches her train of thought and begins sentences in the middle of tangential conversations. She is in a state of panic and fear so intense that even in her sleep she is restless; it has taken over her entire life and this shows clearly through her inability to focus on just one thought at a time. This shows …show more content…
This has the desired effect on the audience, as it is clear something is amiss because her speech has a disjointed cadence and several choppy sentences strung together. It is fitting that Shakespeare uses syntax as a device for displaying the heavy burden of guilt on the queen because the order of sentences that don’t flow well together nicely parallels her agitated state: she is unable to think clearly and the phrases pour out of her in any order they can. Diction is also very effective in supporting the demonstration of her downward spiral in that her lines throughout the passage are spoken in a relatively low register for her status as a noble in a Shakespearean work. This causes her lines to appear simple; she is reduced to the rudimentary vocabulary of a child, and this is the exact effect Shakespeare intended. By associating her with the unsophisticated language of a juvenile, she truly appears to be the hollow shell of a grown woman so much so that she is incapable of even speaking in the way a woman of her status