Motif of Sleep in Macbeth Essay Sample

Throughout the reading of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the play highlights the motif of sleep rather heavily and how it affects the characters’ lives. Sleep is a symbol used to portray characters’ innocence, but also it comes hand-in-hand with illustrating the intense guilt that Lady Macbeth and her husband experience as the plot progresses. From the very beginning of the play, it is shown to us, the audience, that Duncan heavily portrays sleep. Duncan is described as a benevolent, kind old man who cares for his people well. He is well-liked and highly respected, so much so that Macbeth states, “Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been / So clear in his great office, that his virtues / Will plead like angels, trumpet tongued, against / the deep Damnation of his taking off” (1.7.17-20). Macbeth, when struggling to decide whether he should kill his own king, realizes that Duncan has been such a good man that murdering him would be truly terrible. Duncan symbolizes innocence from treasonous acts and sins, so when Macbeth murders him it no longer makes him innocent to the horrors of his actions. Duncan himself has heaven’s favor in Macbeth’s eyes. When Macbeth begins to lose sleep, it is because he has lost his chastity to the subject of bloodshed and destruction. After murdering the King and discarding the evidence, Macbeth nervously tells his wife, “Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep,’ the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, / The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, / Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, / Chief nourisher in life’s feast.” (2.2.46-51). Macbeth uses a metaphor of a tangled thread to describe his frustration and stress. Macbeth hallucinates as well during this, telling Lady Macbeth he heard someone cry that he would no longer get sleep after committing the horrible act of murder on such an innocent man. Macbeth is left stunned momentarily from his own actions, as if he didn’t expect himself to truly follow through. Studying his blood-stained hands, Macbeth tells his wife, “There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one cried ‘Murder!’” (2.2.20). He refers to the fact that he believes he heard two men in another room upon leaving Duncan’s chamber. Macbeth believes that even though those men were asleep they could see the blood on his hands. This shows the audience a first look at Macbeth’s intense paranoia and descent into madness. This descent’s beginning can ultimately be marked by the murder of King Duncan by Macbeth, with the help of his wife. 

As the play continues on, so does the downfall of Macbeth. He was only convinced to act out such horrible deeds because of his wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth’s character preys upon the ideals of that time period, knowing her husband equates power with masculinity. She convinces Macbeth to follow her lead by attacking his fragile masculinity. Lady Macbeth states, “What beast was’t then / That made you break this enterprise to me? / When you durst do it, then you were a man, / And, to be more than what you were you would / Be so much more the man.” (1.7.55-57). While sometimes she provokes Macbeth by attacking his character and taking on a more masculine role herself, Lady Macbeth is also eager to take advantage of her femininity when necessary. When Duncan’s muder is found, Lady Macbeth feigns innocence as she arrives to the scene, asking the men what happened. Macduff worriedly replies to her, “O gentle lady, / ‘Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: / The repetition in a woman’s ear / Would muder as it fell.” (2.3.88-91). The dramatic irony is palpable, Macduff views her merely as a frail woman, which only helps Lady Macbeth find an alibi. She uses her femininity to hide how smart she truly is. 

As the plot progresses, the audience can see Macbeth, as well as his Lady, begin to unravel. Macbeth succumbs to his paranoia, and Lady Macbeth, although playing the bold facade to hide her true fear, shows the audience how truly guilty she feels through her sleepwalking fit in Act 5, Scene 1. This scene portrays the effects Lady Macbeth experiences due to her subconscious guilt for her actions throughout the play. Lady Macbeth speaks in her sleep, crying out, “Here’s the smell of blood still. All the / perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, / oh, oh!” (5.1.45-47). Lady Macbeth scrubs her hands in her sleep, trying her hardest to clean her hands of the blood shed from the innocent King Duncan. Her guilt has manifested and wormed it’s way into her mind, affecting her sleep drastically. The doctor, speaking to a gentlewoman, says, “This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have / known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.” (5.1.53-55). Shortly after this, Lady Macbeth dies because of her remorse and succumbs to the stress of what she has done. Her lack of sleep illustrated her descent into madness and inevitably her own demise. Her death also marks the final tipping point for Macbeth himself. When finding out about her death, he simply replies, “She should have died hereafter; / There would have been a time for such a word.” (5.5.18-20). From this point on, it appears that Macbeth has been drained of his desire for power altogether. He reacts numbly, stating merely that he wished she lived longer. Only through Lady Macbeths death does Macbeth seem to realize what evil he has truly commited in this moment, and the once ruthless leader is left weary. 

Sleep is used by Shakespeare in his short play, Macbeth, to portray not only innocence and purity of the mind and soul, but also the lack thereof and how it heavily affects the characters. Without sleep, the audience can easily see how paranoid and insane the characters inevitably are meant to become.