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.
Sleep is used to symbolize a number of things, one of them being innocence. Innocence plays a huge part in Macbeth, as it's frequently used to expose a character's intentions. “Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep, — the innocent sleep” (2.2.34). Macbeth did not only murder Duncan, but murdered his innocence as well. After this point, Macbeth does not receive accurate sleep for the rest of the play, proving that the consequences were heavy. Macbeth retains a huge amount of guilt for his actions, which leads to his loss of sleep, and utterly to his downfall.
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Macbeth portrays this through his steady decline in moral value. As a result of wanting more power, Macbeth results in irrational thinking that causes his actions to become more tyrant-like. "A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers, restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature. Gives way to in repose!” (2.1. 6-9). Macbeth's insanity is a direct cause of his inability to sleep. As he makes more bad choices, the guilt he feels will start to become