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Theme Of Sleepwalking In Macbeth

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Blood is used in the following scene to describe the guilt that is held upon Macbeth and his lady. While Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, a gentlewoman, and doctor are watching her episode. Lady Macbeth cries, "Out, damned spot! Out, I say! -- One, two. Why, then, 'tis time to do 't. Hell is murky!" (V. i. 30-31). Lady Macbeth hallucinates these spots due to her overwhelming guilt over the murders of Banquo, Macduff's family and King Duncan. These spots symbolize the permanent stain of what they have both done and how it cannot be undone. Blood is an adamant symbol throughout the entire play. It symbolizes the horrible violence and deeds executed by Macbeth that Lady Macbeth is suffering from.

Throughout Macbeth, the symbol of the supernatural plays an important role to the development of the plot. At the end of the sleepwalking scene the doctor says, "Foul whisp'rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles" (V. i. 49-50). These lines share that unnatural deeds lead to unnatural troubles furthermore, sharing that the murders cause unnatural troubles. According to No Fear Shakespeare, sleepwalking and sleepwalking were considered supernatural events in Shakespeare's time. Therefore, this phenomena adds to the supernatural element that is evident in the play. Her sleepwalking and sleepwalking …show more content…

These figures of speech describe something by indirectly comparing it to something else. In the last lines of the scene, Shakespeare uses personification to attribute human-like qualities to an inanimate object. The doctor says, "Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets" (V. i. 61-62). Shakespeare uses qualities such as, deaf to ascribe to the pillow . These lines explain that people who are guilty with mentally ill minds share their deepest secrets to their pillows as they

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