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The importance of sleep walking in macbeth
Darkness as a symbol in book Macbeth
Macbeth and lady macbeth's mental disorders
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Sleepwalking Scene of William Shakespeare's Macbeth
The sleepwalking scene reveals Lady Macbeth’s state of mind after the
murder of Duncan, Banquo and Lady Macduff.
In the beginning of the scene, the doctor doubted about Lady Macbeth
sleepwalking. He is saying he “perceive no truth “ about what the
gentlewoman said. He is exasperated at first. He said “I have two
night watched with you” and it seems nothing strange has happened to
Lady Macbeth. Then, he was analysing sensibly about sleepwalking.
However, his emotions change dramatically when he saw Lady Macbeth
holding a candle with her. He was shocked. After that, he listened to
Lady Macbeth saying about the old man “to have so much blood” and saw
her rubbing her hand, he feels more nervous and this is the changing
point which the doctor is shocked and amazed by what he saw and heard.
He saw Lady Macbeth came by a light with her eyes open but “sense are
shut”.
Shakespeare draws audiences’ attentions to Lady Macbeth carrying a
light by the doctor’s speech. Doctor says “How came she by that
light?” to draw audiences’ attention. Shakespeare uses this to
emphasise that Lady Macbeth is afraid of the dark because she called
on evil to possess on her: “unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown
to the toe, top full Of direct cruelty!”
Lady Macbeth’s first action was rubbing her hands and this echoes the
scene that she put the daggers back after Duncan’s murder and her
hands are full of blood. She tries to wash the blood off but she says,
“the perfume of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” Shakespeare
uses the blood as a symbol of her guilty conscience that she can never
forget what she has done. Apart from that, Shakespeare presents Lady
Macbeth as very childish when she says, “Thane of Fife had a wife”.
Her childish language shows vulnerability. Moreover, she was trying to
wash off the blood from her “little hand”. She sounds childish because
she has lost her sensibility that an adult has.
direct Act 2 scenes 1 and 2 (the ones before and after the murder of
After Macbeth's deed was done, he would of succumb to his guilt if it weren't for lady Macbeth. His paranoia started to get the best of him. Macbeth thinks that someone has heard him commit the crime, " I have done the deed, didst thou not hear a noise? " (Macbeth, II, II, 15) The good Lady tells Macbeth she heard nothing, she is comforting him by reassuring him that no one heard a thing, " I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak? " (Macbeth, II, II, 16 - 17) Macbeth feels guilt and pity for what he has done to Duncan, he looks down on himself. [looking at his hands] " This is a sorry sight. " (Macbeth, II, II, 22). Lady Macbeth comes through and shows Macbeth comfort and strength before he loses it and does something irrational. When Macbeth returns to his chamber after killing Duncan and Lady Macbeth learns that he didn't carry out the end of the plan, the reader sees a moment of panic in Lady Macbeth. She quickly regains her composure, though, and decides that she must complete the plan herself. She says to Macbeth, "Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead are but ...
have said has come true and now the greatest is yet to come i.e. being
Lady Macbeth only sees Macbeth the way she wants to see him. When he tells her there is a chance he will become King she right away thinks of his weaknesses.
“Blood hath been shed ere now.../The time has been/That when the brains were out, the man would die, /And there an end. But now they rise again…” (3.4.91-96). The ghost of Banquo visited the Macbeth’s house, which left Macbeth feeling quite unsettled. Macbeth is the only person who can see the ghost; he experienced a mental breakdown when Banquo’s ghost visited during a dinner party. Lady Macbeth attempted to conceal her husband’s erratic behavior by claiming he was feeling ill. “It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.” (3.4.151). Macbeth is beginning to experience a sense of paranoia, a direct result of his degrading mental state. Lady Macbeth believed her husband was being foolish, as she had not yet experienced the damaging effects of their moral depravity.
that is not going to be cleaned from them, sooner or later it is going
Perhaps one of the most profound needs of humans is having control. Control gives not only satisfaction but also a sense of relief that things are going to go the way one has planned. In the evolutionary perspective, having a control for one’s environment results to better survivability. The loss of control on the other hand provides a cramped stress to gain control. It proves to be one of the needs that certainly ranks in the top of the hierarchy. Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, and Steven Galloway’s The Cellist of Sarajevo, shows the human struggle for control and what they would do to grasp it. Both literary pieces show that inclination towards having control. Humans, although impossible, have an inner desire to control everything.
The witches are giving Macbeth his fate. The entire time he is not interested in his fate but only in his downfall. Another thing that was displayed throughout this scene is the fact that even know the vision only appeared once the vision is reoccuring within Macbeth’s mind. Macbeth’s mind is so clouded with the fact that he is “ Invincible” it almost makes him into a ghost, who only sees power and killing. This quote could play both ways as a ghost or a vision is a literal or physical
After hearing the prophecy from the witches, Macbeth as a result becomes conscientious about the power of a king and therefore forces himself to engage in reckless and destructive behaviors, despite the fact he is aware that his reckless behavior is not right. "Mine eyes are made the fool o' th' sense" this quote is evidence in portraying how Macbeth is manipulated by his greed for power and wealth, stating that Macbeth only sees what he wants to see ad ignores the consequences. Macbeth is overwhelmed with the feeling that he has a chance of becoming someone important and so high in rank. Shakespeare uses a historic era to create greed and a willingness to capture a goal. "Let not light see my black and deep desire' this quote is stated
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both have very impactful hallucinations that change the course of their fate. The initial meeting with the witches reveals Macbeth’s ambitious nature. The prophecy of becoming king leads Macbeth down a bloody path in which he commits many murders as a result of ambition. Macbeth’s hallucinations reflect his mental state. Throughout the play, Macbeth slowly loses his sanity. Macbeth’s visions and the prophecies of the witches cause Macbeth to make poor decisions which lead him to his eventual downfall.
Macbeth shows signs of serious mental deterioration when he sees a dagger appear before him, but doesn’t understand if it’s real or not (II, i, 35-40), later on in his speech he says his other senses made his eyes look foolish or they are the only trustworthy senses (II, I, 44-46)
When I thought about the role that the word "night" would play in the tragic play "Macbeth," I found that there were a variety of possibilities. Immediately, I thought of the nighttime as a period of rest and revitalization. I expected that this would allow characters to recover from the day's many demands. Secondly, I connected the night to the unknown. In the night's cloak of darkness, many more things could go undiscovered than in the revealing light of day. Next, I thought that the night would mean vulnerability. As the evening closes in, everyone begins to wind down, not expecting any real action until the breaking of the dawn. In addition, while one is sleeping, they are susceptible to almost anything. The most logical time to make an attack would definitely be after nightfall. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, is night's correlation with evilness. As children, we were all afraid of nasty monsters that lurked in the darkness of night. The night has long been believed to host supernatural beings and occurrences. As I read the play and came upon the word "night," I was surprised to discover that all four aspects of my hypothesis were correct. First, in act I, we see the first usage, night as a period for rest and revitalization. In scene iii, lines 19-23, the First Witch says,
In Shakespeare’s MacBeth, a Scottish thane ascends his way to becoming king by killing off anyone in his way. MacBeth’s first victim, and most difficult to kill, was King Duncan. The reason killing King Duncan was harder for MacBeth than killing other victims, was that MacBeth had never committed such a crime, and he was unsure whether or not he wanted to go through with his plan. He had promised his ambitious wife, Lady MacBeth, that he would kill Duncan, though he later reassesses the idea. If it were not for Lady MacBeth’s persuasion, Duncan most likely would not have been murdered.
Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's problem plays which have puzzled the critics all over the years. It is compact and full of significant scenes, and it has two important characters, Macbeth and his wife. It is a clear study of human nature, which I personally think Shakespeare had mastered. The final act opens with the sleepwalking scene and this scene is of great significance because it reveals the true nature of lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is one of the enigmatic characters. Once she is a woman made out of steel and suddenly she collapses; she returns to be a gentle wife. The sleepwalking scene also shows lady Macbeth as a complementary character to her husband.