You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,Īnd pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,Īnd take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers, Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Stop up the access and passage to remorse, So what happens when sleep is murdered? Shakespeare plays with this notion as Lady Macbeth and her husband deal with the consequences of their horrific deed: chronic insomnia.Īnd fill me from the crown to the toe top-full In fact, it is this "split personality" that grants him the strange ability to "cleave" the king's natural body from the body politic by using sleep as a weapon hence, murdering the man as well as the very thing he will need to maintain authority over his kingdom. Even so, the division of the self does not weaken Macbeth's presence. This act earns him the title of Glamis while still maintaining the previous identity of Cawdor, further dividing Macbeth's identity.
For instance, in the first act the wounded sergeant claims that Macbeth killed the traitor Macdonwald by "unseam him from the nave to th' chops" (1.1.22). This method of execution does not fall outside of Macbeth's character. "Macbeth's presence is both divided and as having the power to divide" (Parris, 124). Shakespeare punctuates this point as the very beginning of the play. Macbeth uses this "wedge" to deprive Duncan of his power and his life. Therefore, the function of sleep is both a strong asset and dangerous weakness for a sovereign because it acts as a temporary wedge between the king's two bodies. However, Parris cautions that "sleep divides an otherwise continuous stream of waking consciousness in life, by plunging the soul's mind into a temporary void" (123). It is what allows for the physical restoration of the flesh thus, giving the king the energy that is necessary to maintain the power of the body politic. First, sleep is to be considered as a part of the sovereign's body natural. Parris's article "The Body Is With The King, But The King Is Not With The Body: Sovereign Sleep In Hamlet and Macbeth" makes some very compelling arguments that answer the above queries. This crime is, perhaps, the most frightening of all. But how can someone murder sleep? Does it have a body? And how does that play into Duncan's death? Shall sleep no more Macbeth shall sleep no more." (2.2.32-40) "Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor Still it cried "Sleep no more!" to all the house: The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,īalm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, Macbeth does murder sleep," the innocent sleep, Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more! But, more importantly, neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth realized that the very method they used to murder a man would also yield an unseen victim-sleep. They did not stop to think about or question what would happen to the king's supernatural entity, the body politic, upon the hour of the body natural's death. Macbeth and his wife had not taken into consideration the ramifications of murdering a sleeping sovereign. Macbeth and his wife just had to intoxicate the guards, stab them, stab the king, and blame the whole bloody mess on the now dead watch.
It all started with a simple plot: kill the king and ascend the throne.
0 kommentar(er)
