Is The Sleepwalking Scene In Macbeth Rightfully Famous?

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Is The Sleepwalking Scene In Macbeth Rightfully Famous?

Theatre going was very popular in Elizabethan London, but it was incredibly different than going to the theatre today. It was like a cross between going to watch a football match and going to the theatre. The playhouses were open air and the lack of artificial lighting meant that plays had to be performed in daylight, normally in the afternoon.

        Act 5 scene 1 of ‘Macbeth’, also known as ‘the sleep walking scene’ is a very famous part of the play; so famous that even the people who have not seen or read the play know of it. It is probably classified as famous because of its dramatic affect. This scene has the power to change ones opinion of Lady Macbeth, as before this scene I, personally, disapproved of Lady Macbeth; but after viewing this scene my opinion was vividly changed. It had gone from disliking Lady Macbeth and hoping that she suffered to sympathising for her and wishing that she escaped the clutches of justice.

        The things that are said by Lady Macbeth while she is sleepwalking give us a clearer picture of how the guilt is affecting Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

        The scene keeps audiences interested because of the vivid change between the scenes. In the previous scene we were at the Kings palace in England, which is regarded as a safe place because the King himself was considered a martyr, to the castle of Macbeth which is the completely opposite as it is the home of a murderer.  

        This scene is frequently said to be ‘the beginning of the end’ for both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and rightfully so. As from after this scene matters worsen for the Macbeths from this point until the end.

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        A tense atmosphere is created in this scene by the close observing eyes of the doctor and the gentile woman. It was the gentile woman who called the services of the doctor because she previously witnessed Lady Macbeth sleepwalking. The intense atmosphere is affective because of the invasion of privacy

        The language that Lady Macbeth uses in this scene is short and simple; all of what is said by her is in soliloquies.  Some of what is said by Lady Macbeth is rhymed in a kind of childish manner, for example:

        ‘The Thane of Fife had a ...

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