Why Is Sleep Important In Macbeth

When reading, many people never stop to focus on the individual words, they just fly straight through the plot. Every word matters to the author though, and the story wouldn’t be the same without it. Exploring one of Shakespeare's famous tragedies can clarify it much better. The evolution of the word 'sleep' in Macbeth shows that harming those in their weakest times of life will bring about unbearable guilt. Sleep is a necessity for every living creature. It is something that connects all of nature together. Without it every living thing would become weak and die, but one of the weakest times spent is while asleep. It is a risk that has to be taken.

When angry with the sailor’s wife the witch did not decide to harm her physically or even try to kill her. What she did was worse, by putting a curse on her husband to “drain him dry as hay: Sleep shall neither night nor day…” (1.3.18-19). The witch wanted the lady to be punished by the worst type of pain that there is; emotional pain. By losing the ability to sleep and still feeling

To try to comfort her husband Lady Macbeth tells him that “[he] lack[s] the season of all natures, sleep” (3.4.143). As always he does exactly what she says, and he is amenable. This is the moment in which he loses all chances of going back to where he started. Lady Macbeth never wanted him to sleep so he could become stronger. She wanted him to sleep so that he would become more tied down to her, and he would be weaker by himself. The intentions of Lady Macbeth had always been to make those around her as weak as possible, and then attack them. This was how she always got her way, rather it be the death of the king and his men for more power, the unknowing servitude of her husband, or the attack of Macduff to keep a