Name

English Teacher

Year Completed

Assignment Commentary

Max

Martha Close

2002

Assignment in English class

Word Journal All Lines from Act 2 of Macbeth Scene

1. lines 7-12

Quotation: Banquo: Hold. Take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven; their candles are all out. Take thee that too. A heavy summon lies like lead upon me, and yet I would not sleep: merciful powers! Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature gives way to in repose.

Clarification: Banquo is worried that something terrible will happen later that night.

Paraphrasing: Hold, take my sword. Something bad that will occur. I had the chance to sleep, yet I couldn't. Restrain in me the terrible thoughts of what might happen later on tonight.

Conclusion: The word sleep is a symbol of relaxation. Banquo is given the chance to go to sleep, and relax yet he doesn't. It is the one time where sleep resembles loyalty. He will not sleep because he is loyal to his king and he feels that a terrible deed may be done later on that night. This is perhaps foreshadowing the fact that Banquo and his family may later become royalty because of their loyalty to the king.

2. lines 60-62

Quotation: Macbeth: Now o'er one half-world nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse the curtain'd sleep.

Clarification: Macbeth is saying that after Duncan has been killed nature will die and that there is nothing to protect the innocent sleep and now he's left to be guilt ridden.

Paraphrasing: Over half the world nature seems dead, and wicked dreams shall harms sleep.

Conclusion: In this passage, Macbeth is saying that nature will die, the nature that protects sleep from guilt. Now that his sleep has been abused by wicked dreams, it can no longer stay innocent, and in turn becomes anxious and guilty. Throughout this act there is a repeated theme of sleep representing innocence, when someone is able to sleep there sins have been washed away by confession and they are redeemed. When people can't sleep they must stay guilty of their sins.