Blog Entry 3.2 Shakespeare: "Macbeth" (Judi Dench) - sleepwalking scene

This video appealed to me not only because of how well a job the actors did to bring the scene to life but also because it showed all the different dimensions within the scene and within Lady Macbeth. The scene begins with a holy woman and a man of the lord waiting and conversing about Lady Macbeth. The holy woman denies the man of her knowledge of what Lady Macbeth has been saying during her sleepwalking episodes, right as Lady Macbeth enters. She enters the darkness of the room holding a lit candle, takes a seat and begins to attempt to wash the blood off of her hands. There is no actual blood on her at this moment but it shows the state of her collective unconscious, not allowing her to forget what has been done or move on. Lady Macbeth is clearly in an abnormal condition throughout the scene, you can really begin to see how her feelings and thoughts seem to turn against her, forcing her into a state of self-destructive misery.

Afterwards, Lady Macbeth confesses of the horrors that she and her husband had been committing themselves to, she then exits the room leaving the holy man and women practically terrified of what they had just witnessed.

            There were two main sets of contradicting symbols found in this scene; light vs. dark and water vs. blood. In reality there is not much to be gathered from these words; Light being a type of illumination and dark being a lack of light, but if you were to look deeper into these symbolic words and what they could represent one would find that light and dark has been connected to good and evil and a less famous connection, but more appropriate, consciousness and unconsciousness or awareness and ignorance. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth always wanted to stay within the darkness and now during these times of vulnerability she has a candle by her at all times showing that she is no longer oblivious; instead she has become enlightened and realized the seriousness of the crimes that she had helped commit.

            As for water vs. blood, water being pure liquid hydrogen and oxygen, and blood being a red body fluid, there is much more to be understood by these symbolic words. Water represents purity and blood represents impurity, guilt and murder. So the action of Lady Macbeth attempting to wash her hands free of blood with the water is an attempt of hers the purify her guilt and wash it from her mind, so she can continue living with herself in better form than she hardly is now.

            The character portrayed in this scene would most likely fit a combination of both the collective unconscious and the vulnerable archetypes. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and crying of her cursed bloody hands, the fact that she is asleep at the time is a direct connection with the collective unconsciousness that got built up over time collecting getting stronger and harder to contain. The only reason that I bring the vulnerable archetype into the description of Lady Macbeth in this scene is because she was extraordinarily strong throughout the play, until now, she is showing exactly how vulnerable and weak she truly is on the inside.

           

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