Disturbed Characters in Shakespeare's Macbeth Essay Sample

In Macbeth, William Shakespeare associates sleep or dreams to peace in order to show that once one's sleep and inner peace has been disturbed, there is no coming back for them. For the reason why there would be no coming back is because relating to Duncan, Banquo, and Lady Macbeth, they all had their inner peace disturbed, which ultimately led to their downfall or death. The first instance where peace was disrupted was when Duncan was killed in his sleep. The death of Duncan symbolizes the soon to be death of Scotland. Also, Banquo was no longer able to sleep at night because he was so stressed, and later on the reader sees that he was also murdered. Lastly,  Lady Macbeth was so rattled by the murders committed, that her sanity has led her to kill her own Peace and it led to her death as well.

In the second scene of the play, Macbeth’s main goal was to kill the best king that Scotland has ever had, Duncan. At this point Scotland was at its highest, yet Macbeth wanted to take that away. He went on to commit murder late one night, while everyone in the house was asleep, waking up the two guards. Obviously, they both were so freaked out due to witnessing the death of the king in his sleep, that both were yelling out “sleep no more” (2.2.47) and that “Macbeth does murder sleep” (2.2.48). With the death of Duncan happening before their eyes, they relate this to the idea that once Duncan has died (while asleep), Macbeth has ruined everyone’s peace and nothing will be calm in Scotland again. Sleep is so important for every character because it is like a “raveled sleave of care” (2.2.49) to each of them. It is like the “chief nourisher in life’s feast” (2.2.52) because sleep is the time for one to forget about his troubles and put everything behind him. But, since Macbeth had to go on to disrupt this peace for Duncan, it ultimately led to the downfall of Scotland and the end of peace for Macbeth for “Cawdor shall sleep no more” (2.2.55-57). But, the idea of disruption of one human's peace leading to the end of their time is not only seen here, but also as the play goes on it only gets more prominent.

Around the same time in the play, it is shown that Banquo was not able to sleep during the night of the murder. He even said to his son Fleance that “a heavy summons lies like lead upon me” (2.1.8), and that he “would not sleep” (2.1.9). For Banquo was so disturbed by these nightmares that “restrain in [him]” (2.2.10), that is causes him to stay awake. Even though Shakespeare does not touch upon Banquo and his nightmares more in the play, the reader can tell that this was an ongoing situation for it seems like this has already happened to him before when he says “there’s husbandry in heaven; their candles are all out” (2.2.6-7). He explains that heaven is not happy with him. Because Banquo's inner peace has been disturbed after the meeting with the witches. With Banquo’s peace being disturbed, he decides to go riding with Fleance one night not knowing he would soon be killed. For the prophecies that haunt Banquo, are haunting Macbeth as well, but it leads Macbeth in a different direction. He feels that “which in his death were perfect” (3.1.120), meaning that when Banquo is dead, he will feel healthy. So when Banquo was riding down with his son and died in front of him, it ultimately shows that once Banquo died, his peace was finally given to him. He is able to sleep once again and he no longer needs to be afraid of the nightmares. With the death of Banquo, not only is Banquo himself being given the peace he deserves, but this also relates back to Macbeth, and how he feels like this death gives him peace as well. But from this point on, the indication that the disruption of one's piece relates to the death of one character not only becomes more frequent in the play, but it also has led to the downfall of Lady Macbeth herself.

Throughout the whole play, it is shown that Lady Macbeth is all talk. Even when she said she would have killed Duncan, she did not follow through with it because he resembled her “father as he slept” (2.213). Not only the death of Duncan, but also the death of Banquo and even her husband losing his sanity have all led to her downfall as a character. For all of these situations have disrupted her inner peace in a way which later on would lead to her death. After the death of Duncan, Lady Macbeth's peace was seen to also be disrupted when she heard that Banquo was to be killed. At this point in the play, there were clear signs that Macbeth's sanity was slowly plummeting. They both were losing each other's trust, and when Lady Macbeth was told to “lave our honors in these flattering streams” (3.2.37) by Macbeth, she knew something bad was going to happen. Lady Macbeth was so rattled with what was going to happen, she even told her husband that he “must leave this” (3.2.40) because it was bothering her so much. Later on in the play, Macbeth was totally off the rails and this was affecting Lady Macbeth in a very negative way. She started to sleepwalk, because even the nightmares that were affecting her in the day would not escape her will she was meant to be at rest. She was seen by both the doctor and the gentlewoman “washing her hands” (5.1.31) as if she was trying to cleanse herself and get rid of that guilt and distress so that she could be at peace again. She even said aloud that “will these hands ne'er be clean” (5.1.45) trying to ask herself whether she will ever be at peace again. Later after this scene, Macbeth learns that “the queen is dead” (5.5.19) because she commited suicide. Lady Macbeth tried so hard to get better after all the distress that she has gone through, but nothing worked. So she killed herself. It was the only way that she felt she could finally be at peace and that she would no longer have to have nightmares ever again. Even though it is prevalent that all three of these characters have all been distrubed, which ultimately led to their deaths, they are not the only characters that this has happened to.

In the end, it is expressed that due to ones peace being interupted it would soon lead to their downfall. For one is not allowed to be at peace in Macbeth until the perish. If Duncan, Banquo and Lady Macbeth all continued living they would have lived a miserable life. They were all struggling in a different way due to their peace being distrubed, that they had to end up dieing.