Throughout the play Macbeth sleep is referenced many times. For example right after Macbeth kills king Duncan he states, “me thought I heard a voice cry, sleep no more! Macbeth douse murder sleep- the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravaled sleave of care, the bdeath of each days life, sore labor’s bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast. This quote struck me for some reason. I thought it was interesting how the quote talks about sleep. It is saying Sleep soothes away all our worries, Sleep puts each day to rest, Sleep relieves the weary laborer and heals hurt minds. Sleep, the main course in life's feast, and the most nourishing. It talks about how Macbeth murdered sleep because he murdered the king, which killed comfort and trust and the purity of feeling safe while you sleep for all of their society. When one sleeps you get to loose all of life's dilemmas and problems you get to escape into a place of peace and comfort and avoidance. When Macbeth killed king Duncan who happened to be asleep he killed the society’s comfort and peace and trust. I think it is meaning that sleep also resembles helplessness and purity. When lady Macbeth is trying to get Macbeth to man up and go back to king Duncan’s room and put the blood on the guards she says "the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures" meaning they are harmless and defenseless. She implies that only a child would be scared of this picture, basically implying that Macbeth is not being a man because he is scared to go back even though the guards are asleep and therefore defenseless. Finally, Macbeth also says a line after he has committed this murder which shows the meaning of sleep. "to know my deed 'twere best not to know myself would rather be unconscious". This I found interesting because he is saying that instead of thinking and accepting what he just did and who he has become, he would rather just be unconscious or in a sleep like state so he could avoid everything that just happened and run away from the truth. I think this is also why Macbeth has trouble sleeping because in order to enter that place of purity and peace you can not have the amount of guilt he has on his shoulders. He is being punished by not being allowed to enter this place of innocence and comfort that he craves to have again but has lost because of this murder. For some reason the meaning of sleep keeps popping out to me. I find it interesting how this meaning of sleep can be interpreted so many different ways. It is the peace and purity that Macbeth uses to kill king Duncan but than looses the privilege of having it for himself and it is also innocence, weakness or avoidance and not owning responsibility.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Interpretation of sleep
Throughout the play Macbeth sleep is referenced many times. For example right after Macbeth kills king Duncan he states, “me thought I heard a voice cry, sleep no more! Macbeth douse murder sleep- the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravaled sleave of care, the bdeath of each days life, sore labor’s bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast. This quote struck me for some reason. I thought it was interesting how the quote talks about sleep. It is saying Sleep soothes away all our worries, Sleep puts each day to rest, Sleep relieves the weary laborer and heals hurt minds. Sleep, the main course in life's feast, and the most nourishing. It talks about how Macbeth murdered sleep because he murdered the king, which killed comfort and trust and the purity of feeling safe while you sleep for all of their society. When one sleeps you get to loose all of life's dilemmas and problems you get to escape into a place of peace and comfort and avoidance. When Macbeth killed king Duncan who happened to be asleep he killed the society’s comfort and peace and trust. I think it is meaning that sleep also resembles helplessness and purity. When lady Macbeth is trying to get Macbeth to man up and go back to king Duncan’s room and put the blood on the guards she says "the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures" meaning they are harmless and defenseless. She implies that only a child would be scared of this picture, basically implying that Macbeth is not being a man because he is scared to go back even though the guards are asleep and therefore defenseless. Finally, Macbeth also says a line after he has committed this murder which shows the meaning of sleep. "to know my deed 'twere best not to know myself would rather be unconscious". This I found interesting because he is saying that instead of thinking and accepting what he just did and who he has become, he would rather just be unconscious or in a sleep like state so he could avoid everything that just happened and run away from the truth. I think this is also why Macbeth has trouble sleeping because in order to enter that place of purity and peace you can not have the amount of guilt he has on his shoulders. He is being punished by not being allowed to enter this place of innocence and comfort that he craves to have again but has lost because of this murder. For some reason the meaning of sleep keeps popping out to me. I find it interesting how this meaning of sleep can be interpreted so many different ways. It is the peace and purity that Macbeth uses to kill king Duncan but than looses the privilege of having it for himself and it is also innocence, weakness or avoidance and not owning responsibility.
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I think this is a good analysis of sleep and how it plays a role in the play. It also shows how the characters have different perspectives on sleep.
ReplyDeleteI want to take back my comment about Devins post about sleep and say I agree with Lindsay. She explains the motif in a much better way and used more detail.
ReplyDeleteThis analyzes sleep in the play in a very detailed way. I also did a post on sleep, and I find that Lindsay did a much better job at describing its role in the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lindsay about how sleep is interpreted in many different ways. When Macbeth does the murders it like hes putting them at rest and that is sleep. The way she explained it was in good detail and I could understand what she is saying.
ReplyDeletei dig that picture! :)
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