Images of Night and Sleep in Macbeth
The Shakespearean work Macbeth is a dramatic tragedy. It is a serious play that represents the disastrous downfall of its central character, Macbeth. In this tragedy there are many terrible acts of bloodthirsty, premeditated violence. Many of these gruesome acts happen at night. These incidents of tragedy have a major affect on the main characters and their actions. Macbeth also contains many images of sleep. As the play unfolds, the nature of sleep changes for the characters who act during the night. The use of sleep and the night play three significant roles in this play: evil things happen at night, sleep is portrayed as naturally good and innocent, and sleep is thus altered due to the evil acts that occur at night.
In the play Macbeth, many acts of evil and deception happen during the night. The murders of Duncan and Banquo occur at night. As Lady Macbeth plans the death of Duncan, she calls upon the night in her opening soliloquy: “Come, thick night,/ And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,/ That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,/ Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark/ To cry “Hold, hold”” (1.5.57-61). They plan the murder at night because she hopes it will cover up the murder of the King and so that no one will see them. She believes the night will hide from heaven the wounds that she and her husband are about to inflict on Duncan. Lennox and Macduff come the next morning to wake Duncan. As Macduff leaves the stage to wake Duncan, Lennox and Macbeth begin to talk. Lennox describes last night saying, ‘The night has been unruly. Where we lay,/ Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,/ Lamentings heard I’ th’ air, strange screams of/ death, . . . The obscure bird/ Clamored the livelong night. Some say the earth/ Was feverous and did shake” (2.3.61-69). It seems that during the night just past, a number of unnatural events occurred. Evil deeds committed during the night result in chaos for society the next morning. Thus, it is obvious that the killing of Duncan disrupts order in the kingdom. As a result of Duncan being murdered, there is now a civil war being fought in Scotland. Banquo’s murder also takes place during night. Once again Macbeth hopes the darkness of the night will disguise the killing of Banquo saying, “Come, seeling night,/ Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day” (3.2.52-53). Macbeth feels that this act can’t occur during the day because the eye of compassionate nature will see it; therefore he needs the night to blind the eyes. He also relies on the night to block out the possibility of some person seeing the murderers. As the time approaches for Banquo’s scheduled return to Dunsinane, the audience expects the arrival of night: “Light thickens; and the crow/ Makes wing to the rooky wood;/ Good things of day begin to droop and drowse” (3.2.56-58). Macbeth sends out his assassins to kill Banquo at night. He describes them as “night’s black agents to their preys do/ rouse” (3.2.59-60). These murderers are the characters that carry out their evil in the dark. Macbeth thinks that by sending them out at night, they will “make strong themselves by ill” (3.2.62), or their bodies will become filled with the evils that lurk during the night. While the murder of Duncan is done near midnight, Banquo is murdered around dusk. It is not completely dark, but according to the words of the first murderer there is night in the air for “The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day” (3.3.7). Many evil things happen at night. The gruesome murders of Duncan and Banquo, along with the appearance of the witches, occur at night. Even though Macbeth first met the witches in the daylight, it was still dark because of a thunderstorm. The witches belong to the night, for they are “secret, black, and midnight hags” (4.1.48). The audience wouldn’t expect these wicked and hideous creatures to appear during the day when the sun is shining, rather they are creatures of the dark. Furthermore, nothing in this play is what is seems. In Macbeth, Fair is foul and foul is fair” (1.1.12). Beautiful castles end up being the settings for murder and tragedy, Birnam Wood actually comes to Dunsinane, a man may be not of woman born, and finally day and night are not what they seem for, “By th’ clock ‘tis day,/ And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp./ Is ‘t night’s predominance or the day’s shame/ That darkness does the face of earth entomb/ When living light should kiss it?” (2.4.8-12).
