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English Teacher:

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Assignment Commentary:

Regis

Anna Goldstein

2002

This was an in-class essay where we analyzed a passage from Macbeth.

In this passage, a discussion is being held between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, the discussion being about the assassination of King Duncan. Macbeth, who previously made up his mind to not murder Duncan, is being bullied and intimidated by Lady Macbeth for his decision. She is using her power over him to change his mind. In the first paragraph, Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth's manliness, and implies that he does not want to murder the king only because he is a coward. Following this, Lady Macbeth adds that he is breaking a promise to her, and that she would have done anything for him, if she had sworn to it. Macbeth retaliates weakly, saying that bad things could happen if they failed at killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth ignores this idea, saying that it would be almost impossible for them to fail, and she goes on to make a plan of the murder. Macbeth can do nothing but agree. This passage shows each character's role in the murder, and how Lady Macbeth is in fact puppeting Macbeth at his expense. The passage also makes an interesting statement, using a baby as a simile for Duncan.

The roles which Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are playing, are that Lady Macbeth constantly insults Macbeth and pushes him around, and Macbeth (whose heart is white and pure) cannot fight back against her evilness, so he does as she pleases. In the end Macbeth will take all of he blame and guilt for the murders, but Lady Macbeth was the one who was actually responsible for them. With this passage, one can also see that not only is Macbeth not fit to be a king, but there is actually a reversal in the dominance of the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In a separate passage, Lady Macbeth calls upon evil spirits to make her no more a kind and gentle woman, but instead a violent, evil man. She continues to drain the manliness out of Macbeth as she says that he is less of a man if he does not kill Duncan.

In contrast to this evil, Lady Macbeth makes a reference to a baby in the passage, and how she would have "dashed the brains out" if she had made a promise to. This paragraph alone can be seen as both a foreshadowing, a character description of Duncan, and a statement about the evil involved in the assassination of king Duncan.

The paragraph can be seen as foreshadowing, because in a way it describes the murder which will happen in the near future. In Lady Macbeth's words, she would feed and protect the baby, then kill it. What she means is that while they are feeding Duncan and keeping him safe as a guest in their house, they will turn their backs on Duncan and kill him while he is in his most innocent stage: sleep. She also adds that Duncan, or the baby has "boneless gums", which could be describing how Duncan has no way of biting, or fighting back.

As this paragraph describes Duncan and his innocence, it also describes the importance of the concept of sleep in this book. Sleep is when one is most vulnerable and innocent, so only the most cruel and evil creature could murder someone in their sleep. Later on in the book, when Macbeth is ranting about how he has murdered sleep, what he is actually saying is that he has actually destroyed the innocence and purity of his own heart. A line which, interestingly enough, contrasts this is the following said by Lady Macbeth: "When in swinish sleep their drenched natures lies as in death". One can only assume that she speaks of sleep this way because she is evil, and hates innocence, or because she is referring to Duncan as being dead, not asleep.

The passage is an overall character description of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Duncan. Behind this lies a very complex view on sleep in the play, which actually turns out to be one of the main concepts or themes in it. Besides this, it lays down some upcoming ideas and scenes in the book, and roughly describes the consequences to come for their evil.