FAMOUS PLAYWRIGHT POET AND OTHERS
MACBETH
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Appearances vs. Reality
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Fate vs. Free Will
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Ambition & Power
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Cruelty & Masculinity
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The Psychology of Guilt
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Detailed explanation-1: -Lady Macbeth’s hand-washing is the sign of guilt. It speaks of a contamination that can never be washed away. This scene at the beginning of the play’s fifth act is Lady Macbeth’s swansong – as Verdi realised in his opera, giving her a gloriously controlled aria at this point.
Detailed explanation-2: -What is Lady Macbeth’s mental state during the sleepwalking scene? Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking indicates that she has a guilty conscience and is slowly losing her mind. The fact that she is washing imaginary blood from her hands reveals that she feels guilty for participating in King Duncan’s murder.
Detailed explanation-3: -She is walking and talking in her sleep about the assassination of King Duncan, in which she is implicated. Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have been unable to sleep since they murdered Duncan, but when she does manage to fall asleep she is plagued with a nightmare about the murder and the blood they have shed.
Detailed explanation-4: -The significance of the sleepwalking scene is that it shows us that the murder of Duncan has serious consequences. Lady Macbeth is in the process of going insane due to the part she played in Duncan’s murder. This foreshadows the disaster that will befall her husband over this own part in this brazen act of treachery.