1. Banquo: “A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,/And yet I would not sleep” (2.1.8-9). 2. I’m exhausted but I cannot sleep. Context: A day after Banquo and Macbeth encounter the witches and about to go to bed, Banquo is uneasy as he talks with his son. 3. This is the first time sleep appears in act two, so there are no comparisons, but it is important that the act starts with unease and insomnia, for in this act such conditions are prevalent, as is it moves murder and treachery.
1. Macbeth: “Now o’er the one half-world/Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse/The curtained sleep” (2.1.58-60).
2. Half of the world is sleeping and having nightmares. Context: Macbeth is hallucinating a dagger and heading to murder King Duncan in his …show more content…
Lady Macbeth: “The sleeping and the dead/Are but as pictures” (2.2.70-71). 2. Dead and sleeping cannot hurt you, just like how pictures cannot hurt you. Context: Macbeth does an inept job of murdering King Duncan and making it look like the guards did it, thus, Lady Macbeth is furious. 3. Sleep is given the likeness of death, but also a mere picture. It becomes blank, empty, like a hollow object - no powers or grace. A state in which you are unconscious and gone from this world. Powered off and dead. Lady Macbeth is Machiavellian to the core of her rotting heart. She sees no spiritual power to sleep, only emptiness. She thinks in terms of power and weakness, of danger and safety, of life and death - there are no lines between.
1. Lady Macbeth: “Go carry them and smear/The sleepy grooms with blood” (2.2.64-65). 2. Take the daggers back and smear blood on the drunken guards. Context: Macbeth does an inept job of murdering King Duncan and making it look like the guards did it, thus, Lady Macbeth is furious. 3. Sleep is like a curtain to hide behind in this line. It is no longer peaceful, or haunting like previous examples, but a hand to cover their eyes. Also, sleep lacks the supernatural powers given in previous lines. It is a simple state of unconsciousness. The guards are not real people, merely props that had to be taken care of if the show was to go …show more content…
The porter is a drunk. For the first time, sleep is given connotations like drowsiness. The drunken state of half consciousness and loss of control of oneself. The porter spends his life in such a state. It has no spiritual power, no heavenly sheen. The sleep is forced - it comes in a bottle.
1. Macduff: “Shake off this downy sleep, and death’s counterfeit,/ And look on death itself!” (2.3.82-83). 2. Wake up from death-like sleep and see death for real. Context: Macduff has just discovered King Duncan’s dead body and screams to alert the house. 3. Like in act two scene two, lines seventy and seventy-one, sleep takes on death-like connotations. As the people of the house slumber, they are in a state like death. Unconscious and empty and no longer in this world. Duncan’s death is very real, however, and Macduff rips the people from their beds to show that they are very much alive while the king is truly gone.
1. Lady Macbeth: “What’s the business,/That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley/The sleepers of the house!” (2.3.87-89).
2. What is this business that the trumpet wakes us up for? Context: The bells ring to alert King Duncan’s death and Lady Macbeth plays
1. Macbeth: “Now o’er the one half-world/Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse/The curtained sleep” (2.1.58-60).
2. Half of the world is sleeping and having nightmares. Context: Macbeth is hallucinating a dagger and heading to murder King Duncan in his …show more content…
Lady Macbeth: “The sleeping and the dead/Are but as pictures” (2.2.70-71). 2. Dead and sleeping cannot hurt you, just like how pictures cannot hurt you. Context: Macbeth does an inept job of murdering King Duncan and making it look like the guards did it, thus, Lady Macbeth is furious. 3. Sleep is given the likeness of death, but also a mere picture. It becomes blank, empty, like a hollow object - no powers or grace. A state in which you are unconscious and gone from this world. Powered off and dead. Lady Macbeth is Machiavellian to the core of her rotting heart. She sees no spiritual power to sleep, only emptiness. She thinks in terms of power and weakness, of danger and safety, of life and death - there are no lines between.
1. Lady Macbeth: “Go carry them and smear/The sleepy grooms with blood” (2.2.64-65). 2. Take the daggers back and smear blood on the drunken guards. Context: Macbeth does an inept job of murdering King Duncan and making it look like the guards did it, thus, Lady Macbeth is furious. 3. Sleep is like a curtain to hide behind in this line. It is no longer peaceful, or haunting like previous examples, but a hand to cover their eyes. Also, sleep lacks the supernatural powers given in previous lines. It is a simple state of unconsciousness. The guards are not real people, merely props that had to be taken care of if the show was to go …show more content…
The porter is a drunk. For the first time, sleep is given connotations like drowsiness. The drunken state of half consciousness and loss of control of oneself. The porter spends his life in such a state. It has no spiritual power, no heavenly sheen. The sleep is forced - it comes in a bottle.
1. Macduff: “Shake off this downy sleep, and death’s counterfeit,/ And look on death itself!” (2.3.82-83). 2. Wake up from death-like sleep and see death for real. Context: Macduff has just discovered King Duncan’s dead body and screams to alert the house. 3. Like in act two scene two, lines seventy and seventy-one, sleep takes on death-like connotations. As the people of the house slumber, they are in a state like death. Unconscious and empty and no longer in this world. Duncan’s death is very real, however, and Macduff rips the people from their beds to show that they are very much alive while the king is truly gone.
1. Lady Macbeth: “What’s the business,/That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley/The sleepers of the house!” (2.3.87-89).
2. What is this business that the trumpet wakes us up for? Context: The bells ring to alert King Duncan’s death and Lady Macbeth plays