Act V begins with Lady Macbeth sleepwalking. This is not the first time the idea of sleep has been brought up in the story. Not only is the idea of sleep repeated, but disturbed sleep. We first see this in the beginning of the play when Macbeth states "Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”. Macbeth has realized that by murdering Duncan in a state of peaceful sleep, he himself will no longer have peaceful sleep. Now this has come upon Lady Macbeth. Although she seems umremorseful at first, her true guilt is soon exposed by her sleepwalking. She wanders around at night trying to wash the blood from her hands, but cannot. By playing a part in killing Duncan she has lost her own ability to sleep peacefully as well, just like Macbeth. Sleep is definately a motif in Macbeth and helps develop the theme that you will pay for your mistakes. In using sleep to represent a pure state of innoncence, Shakespeare contrasts that idea with being so deeply remorseful that you can no longer regain such a state.
I agree with Lauren about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth not being able to sleep peacefully ever again because of killing the innocent Duncan in his sleep. We are also able to see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth switch their personality traits from the beginning to the end. At first Lady Macbeth is ruthless and has no remorse which Macbeth later has. Macbeth starts out with a constant sense of guilt and then later becomes ruthless as Lady Macbeth was in the beginning.
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