CC - IV: Write a Critical note on the Sleep-Walking scene in Macbeth

         "A little water clears us of this deed," says Lady Macbeth in Act II, scene II and in act V, scene I [the sleep-walking scene] a terrible boomerang occurs and Lady Macbeth now a shadow of her former self, pathetically utters - "here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand, oh, oh! "Mark the contrast between" 'a little water clears us of deed' and 'here's the smell of the blood still'. The irony inherent in the contradiction attains to the heights of excellence in which Sophocles generally specializes. Shakespeare's treatment of irony is at its best in Macbeth and there is no denying that the poignancy of irony in the sleep-walking scene is beyond parallel.

                                The sleep-walking scene unfolds itself with a doctor and  gentle women exchanging words between themselves. The topic of discussion is lady Macbeth, her terrible illness. It is reported that Lady Macbeth suffers from 'slumbery agitation''. That is to say that she walks, while she sleeps. Moreover, when she sleeps and walks, she speaks. Her words are rather disheveled, chaotic and irregular. while the doctor and the gentle woman speak about the lady, she makes herself risible. There is a candle in her hand and she appears to be in a state of trance. the doctor articulates his response-"you see her eyes are open".  The gentle woman adds," Ay, but their sense is shut". The doctor describes her gesture -"Look, how she rubs her hands". The gentle woman throws further light on the matter -"It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands: "I have known her to continue in this a quarter of an hour". 

                    The doctor and the gentle woman stand aside and the lady is in the lime light. What the lady speaks may be taken for a slice of soliloquy. Usually, when a soliloquy is uttered, the speaks is alone. If there are other characters on the stage, what the speaker says becomes an aside, not exactly a soliloquy. we find two other characters, the doctors and the gentle woman standing on the stage and so what the lady says cannot technically be called a soliloquy. But when one examines the situations closely one gets to know that the speech of Lady Macbeth is every inch a soliloquy. why? Though there are a doctor and a gentle woman beside [or, behind] The Lady, she is altogether unaware of their presence. In other words, she is so absorbed in herself that she has no knowledge of some other characters listening to her. Indeed, she is alone, terribly alone, and what she utters issues from her bottomless aloneness. The Lady rubs her hands. She is under the impression that her hands contain the blood of Duncan whose murder, she thinks, proceeded from her instigation. she vainly tries to remove the stain of blood which exists not in her hands, but in her mind. she rubs her hands, though she requires to rub her mind. She is lost in reminiscence. The face of Duncan-the face that resembles the face of her father-flashes on her mind and a sense of guilt grips her lightly. Though her husband is no  where round the corner, she imagines his presence. She talks to Macbeth, and this is reminiscent of king Lear holding an imaginary trial of Goneril and Regan. Lear holds the trial when the wind blows violating and his madness is complete. Is Lady Macbeth a victim of madness in the sleep-walking scene? It is quite a relevant question, but unfortunately our critics and scholars have not attached adequate importance to it. It occurs to one that even if Lady Macbeth does not totally yield to derangement, her behavior pattern in this scene is anything but normal and the doctor categorically declares that her case is beyond the province of medical science -"this disease is beyond my practice'. The Lady is obsessed with the blood-image that stars her in the face. She expresses her utter helplessness painting out that it is not possible for even all the perfumes of Arabia to sweeten her little hands. A 'sort of fixation' tells upon her nerves, and she cannot release her mind from the thoughts of Duncan; a father-substitute -"yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"