Symbolism In Lady Macbeth's Sleepwalking

Infected minds/To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets./More needs she the divine than the physician./God, God forgive us all. Look after her./Remove from her the means of all annoyance/And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night” (5.1.75-81). The “foul whisperings” are the words Lady Macbeth utters as she sleepwalks and they are also the rumors of Duncan’s nighttime murder. The murder was “unnatural” thus causing Lady Macbeth to experience “unnatural” sleepwalking.

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, guilt can punish people even if they are not caught, which is illustrated with the downfall of the Macbeths. Shortly after killing Banquo, Macbeth starts to hallucinate and says “Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence”(3.4.128-129). This quote shows that Macbeth feels guilt while he is imagining Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth starts to realise that killing

While Lady Macbeth dies in guilt and repentance, Macbeth dies in selfish submission to evil, fighting with what little he has left to retain for himself the throne. Just before his murder, Macbeth declares to Macduff that he will not give up and will fight to the end, indicating that he does not die in guilt but rather in trying to satisfy his evil desires (5.8.32-33). When compared to Lady Macbeth’s remorseful attitude prior to death, Macbeth’s unrelenting behavior supersedes in level of villainy. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both display villainy in that they choose the path of evil and deceit to gratify their desire to seize the throne. Lady Macbeth puts on a fierce and intimidating front but proves incapable of the egregious act of murder.

Knowing what it is like to lay in your bed, trying to drift off to sleep, but never do. I couldn’t help but imagine the feelings of jealousy she must had felt when all she could hear was her roommate sleeping so soundly; the feeling of enmity. O’Brien described a nightmare she had that night and how she felt as if she was trapped in a house which was filling with water, where she gaped for air as she drowned. I couldn’t imagine having this type of dream, especially due to the sense of reality some dreams seem to produce. I also couldn’t help but question if this dream substituted for a metaphor for how she feels living

After reading the letter she said, “Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way.” (1.5, 15-18) Lady Macbeth is questioning whether Macbeth is too kind to do what has to be done to become king. She wants to be queen so badly that she is willing to do anything, but she wants to make Macbeth kill king Duncan. All of her evil intentions are seen when she says, “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topful Of direst cruelty. Make my blood thick.” (1.5, 47-49) She is asking evil spirits to take the good from here and fill her with evil. This just stiffens the argument that she is willing to go to any lengths to gain power and wealth.

It becomes clear throughout the play that lady Macbeth suffers from some forum of illness as she drives herself to death with her disorder. Macbeth was written during the renaissance era by William Shakespeare, when tragic plays were popular. The play was based on Scottish noble who received a prophecy from three witches that he would someday be the king. Macbeth took this information and ran with it, he begun plotting his plan to be king. With the encouragement and help from his wife lady Macbeth, the two were able to kill the king and his son thus preventing him from becoming king.

In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is more responsible for the deaths that occur in the play. Lady Macbeth accomplished this by infringing Macbeth’s comfort level, which made him uncomfortable and give into her desires. The four reasons why Lady Macbeth is responsible is she summons evil demons to fill her body with evil, her death pushes Macbeth over the edge, she has the gender power over Macbeth, and she drives Macbeth to become power hungry. During the course of the play most of Lady Macbeth’s actions cause a direct reaction from Macbeth. If Lady Macbeth had not exhorted Macbeth into murdering King Duncan, then he would have remained a sane man and decided against killing Duncan.

Sleep is an important motif that contributes to the understanding of Macbeth because it shows how the lack of sleep is a reoccurring disruption of peace. After hearing from the witches that Macbeth is to become king, he realizes that in order to be king, he has to murder Duncan. These strong words from the witches soon haunt his mentality, driving him insane by controlling his ambitions and thoughts. When Macbeth acts on his ambitions and murders king Duncan, he is haunted by an instant feeling of regret and is in a state of disbelief. Macbeth is heavily paranoid and is constantly hearing hallucinations disrupting his ability to sleep naturally because he is tormented by guilt.

John constantly tries to "fix" the narrator by giving her "phosphates or phosphites - whichever it is, and tonics, and journey's, and air, and exercise" as well as forbidding her to work until she is well again. The narrator feels depressed and alone, especially since her child has been taken away from her and everybody is too focused on "fixing" her to see the problems she is dealing with. This causes her to form an attachment to the yellow wallpaper plastered around her room as her mental state deteriorates. As her state of mind worsens, she begins to think that she is seeing a woman trapped in the wallpaper. The narrator believes that the wallpaper pattern changes because the trapped woman shakes the walls and creeps around the room over and over, when in reality, it is the narrator who is continuously crawling around the room, scraping the wallpaper from the walls.

Especially in the case of Tereza, dreams communicate unconscious insecurities and feeling of love, dependence, betrayal, anger and guilt which she might not express. Nightmares haunt Tereza’s sleep, reflecting her body issues and insecurity about Tomas’ adultery. She has become so discontent with her and Tomas’ relationship that she dreams continually of his abandonment and her suicide. Influenced by Tomas’ actions during the day, Tereza 's jealousy is made clear by Kundera’s usage of symbolic

It becomes hard to recognize her as the story progresses, sleepwalking through the castle and constantly rubbing her hands as she attempts to remove the innocent blood shed on her hands driven by her guilt-ridden mind. Lady Macbeth is unable to surpass the evil she has set on herself and in the end; the guilt she prayed against became her worst enemies. She was beyond repair and it lead to her suicide. Furthermore, in the yellow wallpaper the protagonist becomes mentally ill for being locked in a room deprived of life. The majority of the story takes place in a room which only induces pain deep within herself evoking negative mental thoughts.

She believed that her anxiety might have stemmed from her excessive rumination. She reported higher anxiety than normal and believed this was related to her incarceration. She also expressed concern over her sleep habits. She endorsed having difficulty falling asleep, as endorsed on her Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and often had nightmares involving a monster that was made up of both her father and her ex boyfriend. Ms. Lewis denied any history of suicidal or homicidal attempts.

Often times in the book, Aunt Alexandra is inferred to be an inferior mother figure to Calpurnia. She talks about the kids not acting up to the standards of the family behind their backs and puts Atticus up to lecturing them about their downfalls. Aunt Alexandra also disapproves the kids’ clothing and activities, but especially Scout. She scowled when she told Scout to come inside to talk with some neighborhood ladies and she was muddy. She says that before long, Scout will start acting, dressing, and behaving more like a lady.