Macbeth
Prompt #5 · Macbeth
Prompt Type: Scene Analysis
In Act II, Scene 2, immediately after murdering Duncan, Macbeth fixates on his bloody hands and claims he heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!" Analyze how Shakespeare uses this moment to develop the theme of guilt and its psychological consequences. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep,”—the innocent sleep; / Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, / The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, / Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, / Chief nourisher in life’s feast.”
Act II, Scene 2
Argument
This quote directly captures the psychological torment at the heart of the scene, using anaphora and personification to transform sleep from a restorative force into an accusatory voice that condemns Macbeth, establishing guilt as an auditory hallucination that fractures his mental state.
Quote 2
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red.”
Act II, Scene 2
Argument
This hyperbolic imagery of blood staining the ocean reveals the permanence and magnitude of Macbeth's guilt immediately after the murder, functioning to show how the physical evidence (bloody hands) becomes an indelible psychological stain that no amount of water can cleanse.
Quote 3
Act II, Scene 2
Argument
Lady Macbeth's dismissive response creates dramatic irony within the scene, contrasting sharply with Macbeth's tortured fixation on blood and foreshadowing how guilt will eventually consume her too, despite her initial rationalization that water can wash away both literal and moral stains.
Quote 4
Act III, Scene 2
Argument
This quote from later in Act III, Scene 2 extends the psychological torment introduced in Act II, Scene 2, using the visceral metaphor of scorpions to show how guilt has evolved from auditory hallucination into a persistent mental infestation that continues to plague Macbeth's consciousness.
Quote 5
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:— / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”
Act II, Scene 1
Argument
This quote from Act II, Scene 1 (immediately before the murder) establishes the hallucinatory pattern that culminates in the 'Sleep no more' voice, demonstrating how guilt manifests as supernatural visions even before the deed is done, making the post-murder psychological breakdown in Scene 2 the fulfillment of this earlier mental fracture.