Macbeth Death And Sleep Analysis

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Sleep is a peaceful comfort. It is a way for a person to escape the reality of life for a moment. Death however is not a comfort or an escape from reality. Death is the end. Most people see sleep and death as to similar entities. However, sleep and death could not be further apart. Sleep is an escapism from life to seek comfort in your dreams. While death is quite the opposite. There is no comfort in death, no dreams to dream about. Death is the end. In the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare Sleep and death are constantly being juxtaposed. Death and sleep are two different ideas however when one is dead they can often be mistaken as sleeping. "Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, / And look on death itself!" (Shakespeare 2.3.76-77). Macduff explains that although sleep and death may look similar, real sleep is relaxing, while real death is a horror that cannot be thought about. The idea behind closing one’s eyes can be considered death or sleep, as one is lived in and the other is not living.
Sleep is the way to build comfort for yourself, while death only comes with not being able to exist in the world. Sleep is seen as peaceful, wonderful, a way to just relax the mind and send your cares away. Sleep relieves the pressure of a hard …show more content…

Death is endless, awful, there is no peace in death only despair. Death takes away the peace one feels when they are sleeping. Sleep is the comfort of life while death is the end of life. “When in swinish sleep, Their drenched natures lies as in a death, what cannot you and I perform upon th’ unguarded Duncan?” (1.7.77-80) Lady MacBeth’s plan to kill Duncan is to kill him in his sleep. Killing Duncan in his sleep drains the peace from him and MacBeth, so they will go to hell. Sleep, unlike death, is a necessity that brings peace to any individual who seeks comfort. While comparing these two subjects, they are opposites in ways that can be described as good vs

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