In scholarly studies, Shakespeare’s Macbeth is frequently referred to in a vague, atmospheric sense as a “nightmare” play. This intuitive insight is susceptible of substantiation; the genre of the play is the key. Like a number of ancient tragedies (notably Aeschylus’ “Oresteia”), Shakespeare’s drama provides evidence for the theory that tragedy as a genre is one of the loci where literature seeks an approach to the experience of nightmare. In Macbeth the disruptive and destructive function of nightmare is a leitmotif that leaves its imprint on the play right down to the structural level. Here the fantasy of the »murder of sleep« plays a crucial role. With explicit reference to Melanie Klein’s fantasized internal objects, the author analyses the concatenation of metaphors surrounding this fantasy. The way in which such fantasies are symbolized in Macbeth casts light on the function of tragic literature in general.
Koppenfels, M. von. (2021). “Macbeth”: the tragedy of sleep. Revista Chilena De Literatura, (103), pp. 19–42. Retrieved from https://revistachilenahumanidades.uchile.cl/index.php/RCL/article/view/63979
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