Macbeth paper on sleep

Submitted By xabiermcauley
Words: 1154
Pages: 5
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S1: Sleep is a vital part of everyone's daily routine and amounts to about a third of a humans life. However, for many people, when we don’t get any sleep or we don’t get to sleep enough we become groggy and a bit insane. This is what happened to Macbeth but on a much larger and psychopathic scale.
S2: When Macbeth doesn't sleep he begins to slowly lose control of his mind and begins to murder people. On the other hand, Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth, acts completely insane when she sleepwalks.
S3: William Shakespeare's play Macbeth exhibits how two very different characters deal with sleep and rest when they are guilty and responsible of horrendous murders.
S4: Duality is an instance of contrast between two aspects of something. The prime example of duality in Shakespeare's play is how Macbeth goes insane from not sleeping and how Lady Macbeth is the complete opposite and can control her demons when awake yet her grasp of sanity loosens when she falls asleep.
S5: Macbeth can never get a break from the constant violence and crime so he can't sleep. Therefore he displays his guilt when awake in contrast Lady Macbeth sleeps, but exhibits her guilt by going insane during her sleep.
S6: When Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth "Macbeth does murder sleep-- innocent sleep," (Act 2 scene 2 36-37) Shakespeare mentions Murder to emphasize how Macbeth can no longer sleep and how by murdering King Duncan he has ,figuratively, murdered his ability to get a rest from murder and guilt. In the play Innocence is used to describe the purity and positive traits that is given by sleeping, however this is not achieved by Lady Macbeth when she sleepwalks. And finally Sleep signifies a break from the web of madness and lies Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have woven.

Body Paragraph 1
S1: Shakespeare displays Murder ,in the quote, to show the readers how Macbeth can no longer rest because he murdered King Duncan and has ,symbolically, murdered his ability to sleep.
S2: When Macbeth murders Duncan he also murders sleep. In the following quote Macbeth explains how beneficial sleep is to the mind of a person who’s guilty and just murdered someone.
S3: Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth “Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, Balm of hurt minds,” (Act 2 scene 2 37-40)
S4: When Shakespeare mentions “sleep” he refers to it as a “balm of hurt minds” or a “sleeve of care”. This points to sleep as a valuable part of life.
S5: When Macbeth “murders sleep” he is unable to sleep and control his guilt.
S6: When Shakespeare refers to sleep as “ the death of each day’s life” he is writing about sleep and how closely related sleep and death are.
S7: Sleep and death are closely related but are not complete identicals at all. Sleep is a temporary rest from activity whereas death is permanent.
S8: The another idea shown throughout the play is how innocence is used to describe sleep and how the calmness of sleeping is different for Lady Macbeth.

Body Paragraph 2
S1: In the play Innocence is used to describe the purity of sleeping, however Lady Macbeth is not able to obtain this when she sleepwalks.
S2: When Macbeth doesn't sleeps he becomes insane but when Lady Macbeth sleeps she reveals her deepest darkest thoughts.
S3: When Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking she says, “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (Act 5 scene 1 46-60)
S4: When shakespeare writes “sweeten” or “little” he is pointing out very innocent features. S5: However when you get to the deeper meaning of the text you can see that the quote as a whole is talking about a dark moment.
S6: The quote is saying that no matter what Lady Macbeth does she can not escape the guilt of creating the killer , Macbeth. Shakespeare shows us how Macbeth can no longer sleep and control his guilt during the day. This then leads to the downward spiral of Macbeth's conscience and morals. Lady Macbeth is a completely
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