Analysis of scene 5 act 1 of macbeth

Macbeth Scene AnalysisAct 5 Scene 11)Plot SummaryIn this scene the gentlewoman who accompanies Lady Macbeth while she sleeps has previously reported to a doctor of her sightings of Lady Macbeths deranged sleepwalking not long after Macbeth left to prepare for battle. Here both of them keep watch to see if any of Lady Macbeths sleepwalking occurs again. It starts off with the doctor and gentlewoman discussing Lady Macbeths condition. During Lady Macbeths sleepwalk she had previously, she confessed to the murder of Duncan that she and her husband committed.

However when the doctor asks the Gentlewoman whether In this slumber agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances what at any time have you heard her say? but the gentlewoman refuses to answer as she doesnt want to get involved. Later in the scene Lady Macbeth starts sleepwalking carrying a candle which the gentlewoman states that Lady Macbeth always insists on having it near her bed.

2)Character Analysis Major Characters.

In Act V. Scene i. the major character that we see is Lady Macbeth. I think the main message we perceive from this scene about Lady Macbeth is that her bravery was all a pretense and on the outside, but really her conscious was afraid and in shock about what she had driven her husband to do. The metaphor used to describe the lingering shadow of the dirty deed is the spot. When Lady Macbeth starts talking she keeps on repeating the same thing over and over again begging for the damned spot to get off her hands.

The spot was the left over blood marks and smell of the murder that all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Shakespeare uses indirect characterization to show us that Lady Macbeth has a guilt side of her that she tried so hard to mask. Although we have always known Lady Macbeth as the strong, ruthless ambitious one of the two however in this scene she falls apart and becomes vulnerable to the guilt that built up inside her. This shows that although the rest of the people of Scotland think of Lady Macbeth and her husband as strong powerful people, this scene lets us know that there is more behind their dynamic characters.

3)Character Analysis Minor CharactersIn this scene there are two minor characters, the Doctor and the Gentlewoman. Although they are minor characters they play especially significant roles in this scene as they are the ones to witness the confession of the murder of King Duncan that she and Macbeth committed. Things that we learn about the doctor in this scene include that he is a man with patience as at the beginning of the scene he says I have two nights watched with you but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked? This showed that he either had the patience to wait and see the condition of Lady Macbeth or he didnt want to disobey command of the rulers. He couldve just said on the first day/night that he didnt see any evidence of Lady Macbeths sleepwalking and left to do his job in other places.

The doctor is a flat character as he doesnt appear several times throughout the story yet he is still quite important. He is also an inquisitive person as he honestly reports to the gentlewoman of his observations and he asks several questions where it is required. He is straightforward as he doesnt waste time trying to pretend that he knows how to cure Lady Macbeths sleepwalking as he says This disease is beyond my practice; The gentlewoman is also a flat character as she only served as the link to the doctor finding out about Lady Macbeths sleepwalking.

In addition, she doesnt reappear in the rest of the story. However she still played an important part as she was the one to first encounter the sleepwalking Lady Macbeth. The gentlewoman is a straight forward person as she directly answered most of the questions she was given. The only thing she didnt answer was about whether Lady Macbeth spoke while she sleepwalked. The gentlewoman seemed loyal as she did not want to get involved with the situation of Duncans murder so she said to the doctor she wont repeat what Lady Macbeth said.

4)Language FeaturesShakespeare uses a lot of language features in this scene. This scene shows a lot of irony compared to Act 2 Scene 2. In that scene she says Retire we to our chamber; a little water clears us of this deed. Which was basically she telling Macbeth not to worry but their actions will not be found out of. Yet here she is the spirits of the deed haunting her still, after several weeks. Contradiction is also used for the same reason and way irony is used. Lady Macbeth contradicted herself from Act 2 Scene 2, by saying nothing will go wrong when we can clearly see that in this scene nothing is close to right.

5)ThemesThe theme that Shakespeare explores greatly throughout the whole of Macbeth, is moral thoughts. In this scene he indirectly tells us that there is never an easy way out of a bad deed, for whether you are caught or not your guilt will haunt you forever. However in this scene Macbeth uses the theme of Masks. The theme of masks is basically how throughout the whole play we see different sides of the major characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, they put on different masks depending on who they are with.

6)ConnectionsFor this play I found out a very interesting relationship between it and the movie Final Destination. In this movie the story starts off with one of the characters, Alex, having a premonition of him and his friends crashing in a plane ride to Paris, which can be compared to the three witches having a vision of Macbeth as king and giving the information to Macbeth. Then on the plane Alex realizes that everything is going the way things were in his dream, and he runs off the plane in fear, bringing 6 other friends with him.

As the story develops, the characters realize they cannot cheat death as one by one they start to die according to how they wouldve died in the plane. They spend the movie trying to find a way to not die, but in the end the only one that survives has locked herself in an asylum room where she goes crazy, just like Lady Macbeth went crazy in Act 5 Scene 1. In Macbeth even though they cheated their way to the throne by killing Duncan, Banquo and the other people meant to get the title of King, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both die at the end as their plans fail and they end up as miserable people.

Bibliography:

Macbeth by William Shakespeare