Free Macbeth Essays: Sleep and Sleeplessness -- Macbeth essays

The Sleep and Sleeplessness Motif in Macbeth We have consciences that function to tell us the difference between right and wrong. If we have clear consciences, we usually possess the ability to sleep. But when our consciences are full of guilt, we experience a state of sleeplessness. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the sleep and sleeplessness motif to represent Macbeths and Lady Macbeths consciences and the effect Macbeths conscience has on the country of Scotland. Lady Macbeth begins with an unrecognizable conscience. She explains to Macbeth that if she said she would kill her own child, she would kinda do the deed than break her word to do so. As the play continues, however, Lady Macbeth begins to develop a conscience. After placing the daggers for Duncans murder, she makes an excuse for not killing Duncan herself Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had donet (2.2.12-13). These words introduce her conscience. Towards the end of the play, Lady Macbeth falls into a sleeples s state, and this sleeplessness represents her guilt for her function in Duncans death,...