Sleepwalking Scene in Macbeth : Act I , Scene V

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The tragedy of Macbeth is known for shakespeare’s intuitive insight into the working of the human
mind. Two grand figures are explored in this timeless tragedy, Macbethand Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare
has drawnLady Macbeth as a loyal though misguided and misguiding wife who for the fulfillment of her
husband’s desire prayed to be nerved by unnatural access to ferocity but ultimately suffers a crash of
finer spirit due to nemesis.

The Sleepwalking scene opens in the ante room in the Dunsiane where a gentlewoman is seen in a
conversation with a doctor of physic discussing the unnaturalness of the disease of Lady Macbeth. She
seems to be walking in her sleep and ‘in the slumbery agitation, performing various acts of
wakefulness’, which as per the doctor is‘a great perturbation in nature’.

Lady Macbeth’s sonambulism is perhaps the outcome of her revolting conscience. Once an apparently
strong woman who had called upon ‘thick night’ to hide her deeds has now ordered for a taper by her
side constantly; for she needs to dispel the darkness of fear as well as the darkness of hell.
Therefore, ‘She has light by her continuously;’ is her command’ even when she would be asleep.
Moreover, in this state of sleepy wakefulness she would rub her hands constantly. The gentlewomen
claims that she had known her ‘continue in this a quarter of an hour’. Obviously, Lady Macbeth seems
to be recoiling from the revolting effort and the physical horrors of the scenes of that night in the
sleepwalking scene.

Lady Macbeth says, ‘Out damned spot! Out, I say ! – One, two; do’t — hell is murky ! - fie, my lord,
fie ! a soldier, and afeard ?’. Such disjointed and incoherent mutterings project the pathetic and
traumatic state that she is in. “Her psychological (problems) disorders corrode her pshycle.

Hence, three main reasons of Lady Macbeth’s delirium in the Sleepwalking Scene can be characterized
as the more reproduction of the scenes that she has passed through; the struggle to keep her husband
from betraying himself; and the uprising of her feminine nature against the foulness of the deed.
Furthermore, we may add to this her fear of after death, ‘“Hell is murky’ and her realization of
absolute moral deterioration of Macbeth for she has heard that ‘The thane of Fife had a wife, where
is she now’.

The sleepwalking scene is highly dramatic in its revelation of those very crimes which she had sought to
suppress. She unknowingly revels not only the murder of Duncan but also that of Banquo. How ironic is
it that once she claimed, ‘A little water clears us of this deed’ and now she continually washes her
hands, a futile attempt to divest herself of the oppressive guilt and painfully acknowledges, ’all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’. The doctortrue to the practice of his age
admits, ‘This disease is beyond my practice’ and says, ‘She needs the divine more than the
physician.’ The statement of doctor carries high dramatic irony and acts as a subtle reminder of the
power of king Edward, the confessor to heal diseases beyond the scope of science . To conclude,
nemesis seems to have overtaken her.

The Sleepwalking scene is only scene in prose except the doctor’s concluding lines which act as choric
commentary and brings the scene to effective conclusion. The doctor even forsees that she would try
to bring her life to an end for he instructs to ‘remove from her means of all annoyance’.

By the end of the Sleepwalking Scene, we no longer consider Lady Macbeth to be an awful instigator.
The scene projects her feminine nature and wins our sympathy over her piteous state. We are made to
believe that she had been suppressing her true nature and her suffering forces us to suspend our
judgement over her crimes. Her concluding words remind us of Macduff’s knocking and
that Macbethcannot sleep in bed and she cannot find true rest in her sleep. To conclude, we can only
repeat with the doctor ‘God, God forgive us all’.