Sleepwalking Scene in

Macbeth

Fatima Amer Alsaiari

Shakespeare Lane 448

Sleepwalking : is a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family.

Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage in a state of low consciousness and perform activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness. These activities can be as benign as sitting up in bed, walking to the bathroom, and cleaning, or as hazardous as cooking, driving, extremely violent gestures, grabbing at hallucinated objects,

or even homicide.

The Summary of the Scene: At night, in the king’s palace at Dunsinane, a doctor and a gentlewoman discuss Lady Macbeth’s strange habit of sleepwalking. Suddenly, Lady Macbeth enters in a trance with a candle in her hand. Bemoaning the murders of Lady Macduff and Banquo, she seems to see blood on her hands and claims that nothing will ever wash it off. She leaves, and the doctor and gentlewoman marvel at her descent into madness.

The Importance of Sleepwalking Scene in Macbeth: • When the sleepwalking scene occurs, we haven't seen Lady Macbeth on stage for awhile. When we last saw her, it was clear that the relationship between her and Macbeth was already beginning to unravel, and this was her last appearance in the play. • Shakespeare meant for audiences to be SHOCKED by the extent of Lady Macbeth's degradation in the sleepwalking scene.

Cont. • Right after Macbeth killed Duncan, and had the King's blood on his hands, Lady Macbeth said: "A little water clears us of this deed." When we see her in the sleepwalking scene, we realize how very wrong she was. • It is probably classified as famous because of its dramatic affect. This scene has the power to change ones opinion of Lady Macbeth. •To show a character of Shakespearian women who is very weak at the end even she pretends to be a very strong at the beginning.

Analysis of Sleepwalking Scene: Themes: • Guilt •Ghosts and Visions •Darkness, Blood and Sleep.

Lady Macbeth's language: is choppy, jumping from idea to idea as her state of mind changes. Her sentences are short and unpolished, reflecting a mind too disturbed to speak eloquently. Although she spoke in iambic pentameter before, she now speaks in prose—thus falling from the noble to the prosaic.

psychological perspective: • Modern readers find the scene interesting because of the dramatist’s psychological treatment of the consequence of guilt, but for the contemporary audience the importance of the scene must have had something to do with the divine ‘vengeance’ for the violation of the divine order, in which the king on earth, represented the king in heaven. • Lady Macbeth appears on the stage in her sleepwalking with a light in her hand, and that is a case of phobia of darkness. •Light represents knowledge and knowledge means clearance of phobia of the unknown; for Lady Macbeth it arises out of her fear of persecution, out of the phobia of the unknown divine retribution. All this had been residing in the unconscious, but now her superego is operating so strongly that it has caused turmoil in the entire psychic process. That is why her words have lost coherence; but still the audience/reader discern pattern in those words, which are reflections on past misdeeds and their consequences.

Irony: • At the beginning of the drama Lady Macbeth had been the most determined, the most cruel and the most inhuman figure, but now in sleepwalking scene, she emerges as the most suffering, most disintegrated and most human figure. • Lady Macbeth was obsessed with trying to wash the blood that she still felt and smelt from her hands, a huge change from Act II, Scene ii. She said, “Out, damned stop! out I say!” and continued with, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?”.

Does Lady Macbeth use soliloquy in the sleepwalking scene? Yes, because the two other people don't actually converse with her.

What did the doctor see in the sleepwalking scene of 'Macbeth'? The doctor found a vantage point from which to witness the strange behavior of Lady Macbeth. He witnessed her requiring a lighted candle. He also witnessed her sleepwalking. He even witnessed her rubbing her hands as if to get rid of the stubborn spots from blood. And he witnessed her talking to herself about the murders of King Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff's entire family and household.

References:

• TTM's Guidance for Studying English Literature http://freehelpstoenglishliterature.blogspot.com/2007/09/sleep-walking-scene-in-shakespeares.html • Irony in Macbeth by David Schlachter http://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/macirony.php • Macbeth Study Guide http://www.gradesaver.com/macbeth/study-guide • Wikipedia

• Spakesnotes

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