In the original text it is meant that Macbeth murdered sleep, sleep being the peaceful and prosperous reign of King Duncan. Macbeth ushers in a new violent era for Scotland.
A few verses later, while Macbeth gives his wife an account of the murder he had just committed, he claimed a voice cried, "Glamis hath murder'd sleep', and therefore Cawdor / Shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more." Macbeth, through his paranoia will not rest, and as we find later in the play, no matter how many times they wash their hands, or cover their tracks with more blood, murder itself does not rest.
For my ENG3UN FSE blog, I will be studying the theme of sleep in Macbeth. Although subtle in comparison to themes such as Ambition, Violence and Prophesy, sleep is a recurring motif and theme. It catalyzes the downfall of Macbeth. At a rough glance, it is mentioned over 8 times throughout the play.
How does this connect to my own life? Any student would agree, that sometimes a good night's sleep is sacrificed to study for that functions test or to finish that chemistry assignment. Just this past week, to study for tests and finish a biology project, I got less than 12 hours of sleep over the course of 4 days. The last night, I got no sleep whatsoever. The following day at the physics field trip, was to say the least, horrible. Thinking back, I can relate this experience and others, to Macbeth's increasingly erratic behaviour and paranoia.
 |
| "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (1.1) |
No comments:
Post a Comment