The Importance of the Sleep Walking Scene in
Macbeth
by Barry Wright
Essay: The Importance of the Sleep Walking Scene in Macbeth
Pages: 10
Rating: 3 stars
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Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's problem plays which have puzzled the critics all over the years. It is compact and
full of significant scenes, and it has two important characters, Macbeth and his wife. It is a clear study of human
nature, which I personally think Shakespeare had mastered. The final act opens with the sleepwalking scene and
this scene is of great significance because it reveals the true nature of lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is one of the
enigmatic characters. Once she is a woman made out of steel and suddenly she collapses, she returns to be a
gentle wife. The sleepwalking scene also shows lady Macbeth as a complementary character to her husband.
The scene opens with the gentlewoman talking to the doctor about lady Macbeth's sleepwalking. While they are
talking, lady Macbeth appears walking while she is sleeping. She stops and rubs her hands together as if she is
struggling to clean them. She starts to reenact the murder of Duncan. Lady Macbeth's sleep walking shows her
mind which is overloaded with guilt. She is tortured by the memory of the crime and she tries to get rid of it, but
in vain.
Hence, we could see the how the murders have preyed on Lady Macbeth. In her sleep walking Lady Macbeth plays
the washing theme that runs out through out the play. After the murder of Duncan in the second act, she tells her
husband "a little water clears us of this deed." Now it is evident that this is not true, when she herself tries to
remove the spot on her hand while she sleep walks but couldn't.
We could remember lady Macbeth after Macbeth has committed the murder of Duncan. She denies the moral
reality in favor of material one. She sees the spot of blood as a mere physical substance which could be ...