ISC Macbeth Workbook Answers : Act 5 Scene 1

Sleep- Walking: This is the famous sleep-walking scene. It takes place in Macbeth’s castle at Dunsinane. Lady Macbeth’s waiting Gentlewoman narrates to a physician at the castle what she has witnessed. When Macbeth has been busy taking action against the rebellion, she has seen Lady Macbeth walk in her sleep. The doctor
wishes to know more, but the woman refuses to tell him what she has heard Lady Macbeth say. During their conversation, Lady Macbeth enters the scene, carrying a candle. Her eyes are open, and she constantly rubs her hands together as if she were washing them.

Incoherent Speech: Lady Macbeth speaks to herself incoherently while walking in her sleep. She seems to have seen a spot of blood on her hand. She is trying to wash it clean but she cannot wipe it out. Out of disgust, she orders the spot to disappear:

Out, damned spot! Out I say! One; two Why
then ‘tis time to dot. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord,
fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear
who knows it, when none can call our power to
account? Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him?

Lady Macbeth’s speech is incoherent; she mixes up events. She refers to the murders of Duncan and Banquo. She speaks of Lady Macduff:

The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?
What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more
o’that, my Lord, no more o’that. You mar all with
this starting.

Lady Macbeth’s Remorse: Then Lady Macbeth’s focus changes, as she seems to hear the clock striking one and then two. Immediately she recollects the dark hour of Ducan’s murder. Her memory of Duncan’s murder makes her feel the remorse and fear of punishment after death. She knows she is condemned to hell. The picture of a grim, dark hell makes her shiver in fear. Then she remembers how she encouraged Macbeth when he was reluctant to commit the murder. When he expressed his apprehensions after performing the dark deed she had said :

To bed, to bed; there’s knocking at the gate.
Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; what’s done
cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.

The strain of the murder of Duncan and the knowledge of subsequent murders has caused harm to her mind. She has become a nervous wreck.

Physician’s Advice : The physician and the Gentlewoman are shocked as Lady Macbeth betrays herself. When Lady Macbeth returns to bed, the physician comments that the atmosphere echoes the rumours of the foul murders. Unnatural deeds produce unnatural diseases. Such minds infected with crime are prone to relieve themselves of their secrets at least by giving them out to their pillows.
The physician said that the cure of such diseases are beyond the power of any physician. Hence the queen is in need of divine help.

Unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
More needs she the divine than the physician.
God, God forgive us all!