Topic > The connection between sleep and nature in Macbeth

In Shakespeare's Macbeth there seems to be a mysterious connection between the images of sleep and nature. The work refers to the effects of contrasting nature and, since sleep is the primarily natural function of every human being, it seems the most appropriate to convey the theme. Macbeth, in his natural state, is an honorable member of the king's loyal court. The moment he is introduced, he is promoted to Thane of Cowdor because the former thane had betrayed against the state of Scotland. After meeting the witches, Macbeth begins to consider rebellion against his natural state, but nature remains static until Macbeth kills King Duncan, while he sleeps. When "Lord Glamis had killed sleep" (II. 2. 41), the downward spiral of nature is initiated and changes its course. When Macbeth kills Duncan in his sleep, he kills sleep itself, the most natural thing in the world, thus causing a distortion of nature itself on both a personal and cosmic level. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Witches themselves give rise to the idea that nature is not as it seems. “Fair is ugly, and ugly is fair” (I.1.12). Banquo notices their unnaturalness. “You are supposed to be women, yet your beards prevent me from interpreting that you are.” (I. 3. 45-47) When they disappear, Macbeth points out that they are unnatural. "And what seemed corporeal melted away, like a breath in the wind." (I. 3. 81) Macbeth is a natural warrior, and has already distinguished himself as such. Yet, with the introduction of the witches, Macbeth is introduced to something unnatural, beyond the scope of his familiarity, and he begins to consider murder outside of war, something that is unnatural to him. "My thought, the murder of which is still but fantastic, so shakes my only state of man that the function is stifled in doubt, and nothing is but what it is not." (I. 3. 139-142) Lady Macbeth tries to convince her husband what it means to repress natural emotions and keep promises. “I have nursed, and I know how tender it is to love the child who milks me, I would, while he smiled in my face, they would have torn my nipple from his boneless gums and smashed my brains out, if I had sworn what you did. " (I.7.54-58) As Macbeth passes Donalbain and Malcom's room after killing their father, he hears them mutter "Murder!" in sleep. However, as it says "God bless us", Macbeth is unable to reply "Amen". (II. 2. 23-29) Macbeth had already killed in the past, as a soldier, but the personal murder he had just committed was an unnatural act, and therefore he could not participate in a natural act, such as prayer. This idea of ​​Christianity as natural and anything else unnatural is promulgated during the cursing of the witches as they prepare a spell in the cauldron. "Liver of a blaspheming Jew? Nose of a Turk and lips of a Tartar, finger of a child strangled at birth, ditch born of a drab" (IV.1.26-31). Witches, as unnatural as they are, are able to take what is natural and successfully deny it. Macbeth himself, although he is introduced to the possibility of the natural becoming unnatural, does not himself witness it until he commits an act that goes against nature. He kills Duncan in his sleep, in an attempt to fulfill the prophecy bestowed upon him by the unnatural witches. Yet, while killing sleep, he manages to kill his own natural state, thus hindering the nature around him. "Macbeth will sleep no more!" (II. 2. 4) refers to changes in both Macbeth and the cosmos. With the murder of the "anointed temple of the Lord" (II.3.69), nature has gone mad. Lennox describes the turbulent night."Where we lay, our chimneys were knocked down, and, as they say, groans were heard in the air, strange screams of death, and prophesied in terrible accents of terrible burning and confused events new born in this sad time?". my young memories cannot match his companion." (II. 3. 53-63). The old man, in describing his reaction to Ross, gives the sense that this significant event has enormous implications on a cosmic level, not just for Macbeth . "Three and ten I remember well, during the time that it seemed to me that the hours were terrible and the things strange; but this painful night has nullified previous knowledge." (II. 4. 1-5). With this murder of sleep, all nature has changed. Even the calm that once existed was killed, because men did not feel it the more relationships could be maintained naturally. The implications are true for Macbeth, on a personal level, as he tries to get rid of anyone who is a potential enemy, continually returning to the witches to prophesy what will happen in the future. Macbeth is initially a great warrior , but as events progress, his nature continues to kill, but his killings become less courageous. He kills Duncan and the Chamberlains while they sleep and hires men to kill Banquo so he doesn't have to do it himself change as he changes his nature. Lady Macbeth, herself who had preached to Macbeth to repress his nature and do what he promised, is also subject to the consequences, as his sleeping patterns become unnatural. "I saw her get out of bed, throw on her nightgown, open the wardrobe, take paper, fold it, write on it, read it, then seal it and go back to bed again; and yet all this in a very deep sleep." (V. 1. 3-7) He sleeps, but has no rest. Even his sleep was killed. Macbeth managed to kill sleep and thus change nature. Macbeth had always thought that nature could be relied on, without realizing that he himself had proved the opposite by going against it. The apparitions brought by the witches prophesy that "no man born of woman can harm Macbeth" (IV. 1. 80-81) and that "Macbeth will never be defeated until the wood of Great Birnam and the high hill of Dunsinane come. against him." (IV. 1. 32-35) Macbeth is sure that he will be safe as long as nature takes its course. learning of the murder of Macduff's family, he seeks revenge against Macbeth and, according to variations of the original prophecies, the predictions come true. Macduff's advancing troops camouflage themselves among the branches of Birnam Wood, and Macduff declares that he is "from his mother's womb". torn prematurely." (V.7.44-45). Macduff's caesarean section demonstrates that sometimes nature cannot rely completely on itself and needs to be helped by humanity, thus revealing to Macbeth that he too has managed to help nature, although not positively. His murder led to the extinction of emotion, a quality inherent in the nature of man "Atrocity, familiar to my backbreaking thoughts, cannot start me even once." 5. 14-15) For him, life no longer has meaning, it is just a movement. "Out, out, short candle! Life is but a walking shadow, a poor actor who struts and frets for his hour on the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a story told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, which means Nothing." (V. 5. 23-28). This uttered by Macbeth who had been a man of promise as "Brave Macbeth." (I. 2. 16) Macbeth, who had once considered murder so unnatural, did not he had realized that "the toad, which under cold stones has thirty-one sultry poisons sleeping."(IV. 1. 6-8)..