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Recommended: The theme of sleep in Macbeth

“Sleep is the best meditation” –Dalai Lama. This idea of sleep as being peaceful and calm is nowhere to be found is Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. The normally accepted belief of sleep being associated with relaxation is reserved. Peaceful sleep is disturbed by horrific deeds that occur at night. From the night, one will see that sleep imagery shows acts of unnaturalness. By examining Shakespeare’s image of sleep, one can determine that sleep reinforces the idea of evil. Throughout the play the conventional idea of sleep as being a calm, restful time is switched around to demonstrate evil. When Macbeth is just about to murder Duncan in his sleep one sees his sleep is going to be disturbed. “Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse the curtained sleep.” (Shakespeare 41) “Nature seems dead,” shows that Macbeth is feeling guilt already, not just about him killing King Duncan, but that with the murder, he is killing everything else of the country. “The curtained sleep” is saying that your sleep should be private and peaceful, like you are behind a curtain, being hidden from everyone else. This sleep is not peaceful though because it is being disturbed by the wicked dreams. Macbeth is picturing the deed he is about to perform as a nightmare, giving sleep an evil feel. The sleep of Macbeth is also being disturbed by his killing of Duncan. After Macbeth murders King Duncan, his consequences are that is sleep is being disturbed. “Still it cried, ‘Sleep no more' to all the house; ‘Glamis hath murdered sleep’, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more.” (Shakespeare 45) As we see from this quote, Macbeth is starting to go crazy from his loss of sleep. The disturbance of his sleep is staring to disturb him physi... ... middle of paper ... ... sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly. Better be with the dead whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace than on torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy. “(Shakespeare 75) From this quote we see that Macbeth believes that death is peaceful and sleep is evil. Sleep is tortuous and is abused by wicked dreams making death the better option. It is unnatural to prefer to be dead over sleeping, and to have thought that about sleep shows his inner evil. Throughout the whole play one would come to realize that sleep highlights the ideas and actions of evil. Sleep is the play is constantly being disturbed; causing it to not be the restful sleep that one has come to know. A way that sleep is being disturbed was by all the terrible deeds occurring in the night, and that during the night one sees unnatural actions. Sleep is evil!

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