William Shakespeare’s Macbeth portrays the main character, Macbeth’s, journey to power in Scotland. Through his passage, he incrementally gains power through all the wrong ways, causing the power to be accompanied with evil. The degree of sleeplessness one has is directly related to the degree of evil one has experienced or become.
Macbeth’s first evil act is murdering King Duncan, a man who he should respect and obey. At first he hesitates, and even claims that he does not want to do it, but he is soon convinced to do so. He claims that during the murder he hears someone scream “Sleep no more! Macbeth doth murder sleep” (2.2.46-47). His first evil act causes the beginning of his sleeplessness. Additionally, Macbeth later says, “Duncan is in
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She mentions the night of Duncan’s murder when she says, “will these hands ne’er be clean [of blood]” (5.1.39). Her heart contains the guilt of all the evil deeds she has done, and her body is paying by not letting her sleep properly. The doctor says “Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles” (5.1.65-65) referring to the trouble of sleeplessness Lady Macbeth faces from the unnatural deed of murdering many people. She is damned due to the feeling of guilt, which eats her up inside and causes her to lose sleep. This guilt is caused by all of the evil she does, and sees her husband do; ultimately, her sleeplessness is caused by the evil inside of her and around her.
All in all, sleeplessness is directly related to the amount of evil a person has experienced. Macbeth does evil actions, like murdering Duncan and Banquo, causing him to experience sleeplessness. Macbeth’s subjects experience sleeplessness because of what Macbeth does. Lady Macbeth experiences sleeplessness because of her husband and herself. I thought of an essay about how power corrupts in Macbeth but it was too late to ask you about it so I just wrote this essay