Motif Of Sleep In Macbeth

Sleep is critical to a person's mental health, without sleep even the most sane person can fall to hysteria. The use of sleep can also be used in literature writing to express its impact on the characters. In Shakespeare's Macbeth the motif of sleep is used as a metaphor to illustrate Lady Macbeth's hysteria and guilt worsening throughout the tragedy.

In the beginning of the Tragedy, Lady Macbeth can be described as strong, brave and ambitious. She is seen as more of a man in her time and will do whatever it takes to achieve her goals. The first soliloquy is noteworthy because it represents her initial encounter with ambition that allows her to feel strong and dominating, Lady Macbeth convinces herself that she has the quality of bravery and

She loses the ability to sleep which corresponds with Duncan and everyone else who has been killed. Lady Macbeth is driven through an ongoing nostalgic moment before the wicked crime that leaves her unable to sleep. Her handwashing is an attempt to undo her actions which have caused her and Duncan to no longer be able to rest. (Watson). In Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene she becomes hysterical and speaks of the terrible things that she and Macbeth have done. This is because she has gotten to the point where she can't hold in what she has been so guilty about. She has gone insane due to her illness that she cannot get rid of. Psychoanalysis commonly views her illness as an expression of hysteria, which forces her to act out her anxiety rather than dreaming about it, and to repeat her same behaviors that she has tried to suppress.(Watson). This illustrates that Lady Macbeth is experiencing hysteria that Shakespeare portrays with a very good understanding, The sleepwalking scene shows the peak of Lady Macbeth's hysteria.(Coriat). She has changed from a brave and ambitious

She seems to have lost her ambitious and manly status due to the deterioration of her mental state which has left her unable to sleep. Lady Macbeth did not experience normal sleep, but accurate symptoms of hysterical sleepwalking. Somnambulism is not sleep but a state of mind that emerges from sleep through a definite mechanism.(Coriat) This Somnambulism is what causes her to act out and speak about what she has done to Duncan because she can no longer dream about it. After being told of Lady Macbeth's state, he says: "A great perturbation in nature, to receive at/ once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of/ watching." (5.1.10-12) Her sleepwalking scene illustrates Lady Macbeth’s breaking point and shows the doctor that she has finally become insane, overthrown from her guilt. The doctor states: "This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have/ known those which have walked in their sleep,/ who have died holily in their beds." (5.1.62-64) Lady Macbeth cannot be healed physically because it is only her mental state that is damaged, In this time something like this is very hard to heal and the doctor is aware that Lady Macbeth may not survive her trauma. Lady Macbeth is not unconscious or asleep during this scene, Instead her mind is active, but she is in a unique state of mind. In this mental state she can perform complex but natural acts.(Coriat). She is experiencing