Macbeth Sleep Essay

Sleep in Macbeth ¨Fair is foul and foul is fair.¨ A famous quote found in Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth, a contradicting quote used to show the paradox found throughout the play. Taking place in Scotland, Macbeth is heroic and honorable; his bravery and ambition was deemed to be good but as the play progresses so does Macbeth´s immense guilt. His desire to be King overpowers his unreasonable decision making, he begins to drown in his wrongdoing by killing those standing in his way. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare utilizes the symbol of sleep to show Macbeth's evolution of guilt leading to his tragic downfall as a character. One way that Shakepeare shows Macbeth's character through sleep was when he was a heroic and noble warrior.

He begins to desire power and to secure his spot as King. In order to do this, he and Lady Macbeth make a plan to kill Duncan. As Macbeth begins to feed into his own ambition, he experiences a decline in his self control, ¨Macbeth does murder sleep´, the innocent sleep.¨ (2.2.36) Moments after following through with his plan to kill Duncan, Macbeth is in shock of what he had just done. He loses control of his own decisions, Macbeth says to himself that he has just murdered all the peace and innocence he had. He took advantage of Duncan's vulnerability, he now is dealing with the consequences of his own actions. Macbeth begins to shed away his own innocence by committing morally wrong acts. He realizes that he is creating evil and gulitness around him through his actions. Furthermore, Booth illustrates that Macbeth’s power is starting to drown him from seeing things with a clear view, ¨Take a good man, a noble one, a man admired by all who know him- and destroy him, not only physically and mentally….. But morally and intellectually. ¨(Booth) To clarify, Macbeth's nobility is starting to change. The manipulation from Lady Macbeth and rapid desire to be King pushes Macbeth more towards the evil side. Macbeth begins to segregate from his own innocence, showing his evolution of guilt. He wants to be at peace for the things he has done, but he knows that he is suffering in silence. He becomes brainwashed by Lady Macbeth's

Macbeth has fully evolved to a guilty and evil character, who only seizes harm on others. As Shakespeare evidently demonstrates courage in the play, Macbeth stands alone, ¨But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate. Thou shalt not live, That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder.¨(4.1.85) As Macbeth is receiving his prophecies, he comes to the realization that if he kills Macduff he will be able to sleep at night. Furthermore, Macbeth feels at peace knowing his fears are no longer there to harm him. This is showing the evolution of Macbeth's guilt based on his desires to harm on others. He can rest easily at night knowing he has done his worst on others and they are no longer there to give him paranoia. Similarly, Campbell demonstrates Macbeth's vicious behavior through his