Sunday, 12 June 2011

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets

You see her eyes are open 
Ay, but their senses are shut. 
Out, damned spot!
Yet who would
have thought the old man to have had to much blood in
him? 
She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that.
Heaven knows what she has known. 
Here's the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of
Arabia will not sweeten this little hand 
Fould whisp'rings are abroad; unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. 
Until now, I have put most of my focus on Macbeth's slow degradation, as Lady Macbeth seemed as if incapable of feeling remorse or understanding the repercussions of her actions. However, sleep betrays her, and her guilty conscience is revealed in the first scene of final act. Lady Macbeth, who once insisted that one's conscience could be cleaned of murder with a simple rinse of water, scrubs at her hands desperately in an attempt of ridding herself of the tremendous burden of the deaths of Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff's wife and children. Lady Macbeth is not getting rest either, she simply relives the murder of Duncan night after night. Indeed, Macbeth does murder sleep.


In the final act, Lady Macbeth commits suicide, and at last she is at rest. Macbeth, deranged, wild and violent, dies also, and is at rest. Therefore, Scotland once again, can be at ease.
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I have not experience anything quite like what Macbeth and his wife have gone through, nothing close. So its a little difficult to connect with this. But I can say that I feel like the paranoia and sleep deprivation caused by Macbeth;s guilty conscience was the primary catalyst of the Tragedy of Macbeth. Perhaps, if he had thought it through, rested, and waited for the Witches' prophecies to come true on their own, he would have cemented his success for many generations. 

Macduff and Macbeth's last duel. (5.8)

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