Macbeth's Madness
...top harassing him, "Prithee, peace." (1.7.45). Macbeth's insecurities about his ability to commit murder is fascinating because it is almost a mirror of Lady Macbeth's own self-hatred in Act 1 Scene 5, when she herself begs to be unsexed so she can no longer feel remorse. Lady Macbeth's second way of insulting Macbeth is to tell him that he doesn't keep his word. Lady Macbeth claims that Macbeth has broken his word to kill Duncan. To Lady Macbeth, the inability to keep one's word is an affront. She tells Macbeth that she in contrast would keep her word. In order to illustrate this point she says that even if she said she would take a baby and, "have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums / and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn / As you have done to this." (1.3.57-59). Loyalty to one's word, thus, becomes contrasted to loyalty to one's king. By splitting his loyalty, Lady Macbeth exacerbates Macbeth's fears about his relationship to Duncan and to his words that already exist as seeds in his mind. Thus Lady Macbeth's insulting Macbeth reveals the same dysfunctional trends in Macbeth's mind as Macbeth's insulting the witches (and them praising him); these trends of self-hatred and self-doubt lead him to kill Duncan, and to his ultimate fall. Before the witches prophesied to Macbeth they vowed to whip up a storm and destroy the ship of a sailor. Interestingly the witches do not say that they want to murder the sailor. Instead, they plan to destroy his sleep, "I will drain him dry as hay / Sleep shall neither night nor day / Hang upon his penthouse lid / He shall live a man forbid" (1.3.17-20). For the witches, the inability to sleep is symbolic of a tormented soul. The man who can not sleep lives in chaos, night is day and day is night. To the characters in "Macbeth" sleep is the, "chief nourisher in life's feast" (2.2.37) without it one becomes mad. Characters invoke the word sleep as a symbol of order. But in the play sleep is also a complicated term because it represents a character's control over their lives. When characters can't control their sleeping habits they have entered into the realm of chaos where the fire burn and cauldron bubble. Macbeth, his arms soaked in blood after murdering Duncan, turns to Lady Macbeth. Surprisingly, some of his first words to Lady Macbeth are, "Macbeth does murder sleep--the innocent sleep / Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care" (2.2.34-35). Macbeth's first admonition that his decision to murder Duncan has destroyed him, is his recognition that he will no longer be able to sleep. Racked by guilt, Macbeth instantly recognizes that the order around him is turned upside down. Macbeth's rule is of darkness for Scotland and inner turmoil for himself. Ross, speaking to an old man, describes Macbeth's Scotland by saying, "Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame / That darkness does the face of earth entomb" (2.4.7-8). Macbeth like the owl both hunts and rules by the shadow of night; and like the owl he can not sleep at night. He is a creature of chaos. Lady Macbeth's sleep is representative of the portrayal of a woman's place in the play "Macbeth." As a woman, her guilty conscience makes her sleep. Her madness makes her benign. Lady Macbeth is the prototype of the madwoman in the attic who lives in a state of semi-sleep, mumbling to herself, and washing her hands. She poses no threat to anyone but herself. Her madness makes her less dangerous then when she was in control of her senses. In contrast, the inner chaos of Macbeth causes him to be awake. His madness makes him dangerous. His inability to sleep causes his mind to grow more bloody and his rule over Scotland more treacherous. Macbeth's madness is characteristically masculine. In his madness he achieves the thickening of the blood that Lady Macbeth wishes for. Macbeth becomes emboldened and more violent, he becomes more awake. In contrast, Lady Macbeth undergoes a feminine transformation as madness makes her sleep and more docile. In her madness she becomes profoundly female, even adopting stereotypical female habits like washing and being concerned about the spots of blood. She becomes a docile creature who instead of being unsexed has been castrated of her aggression. The word sleep is manifested not only by Macbeth's inability to sleep but also in Lady Macbeth's benign existence at the end of the play. Darkness in our society is indicate of evil. For instance, a black cat, a dark night, and a dark place are all symbolic of debauchery. Authors use these symbols to describe an evil character or setting. William Shakespeare employs the imagery of darkness in Act 4 of his play "Macbeth" to describe the agents of disorder. The witches, Macbeth, and ...