Shakespeare also uses the conversation between the Dcotor
and the Gentlewoman to convey images of light and sleep. When Lady Macbeth enters
sleepwalking they have this exchange:
Doctor
How
came she by that
light?
Gentlewoman
...She
has light by her continually. 'Tis her
command.
Doctor
You
see, her eyes are
open.
Gentlewoman
Ay,
but her senses are
shut.
Shakespeare makes a
connection between light and sight through these rather minor characters that
illuminates Lady Macbeth's state of mind. Even though she has light and her eyes are
open, her senses (her true means of awareness) are shut. So, it might be observed that
Lady Macbeth is stuck, sort of like a broken record, unable to use the light to see her
own past cleary and feel remorse; but also unable to accept her deeds and rest easily at
night, and sleep.
The images all add up, in the Doctor's
estimation, to the need for religious salvation. At the end of the scene he
concludes:
More needs she the divine than the
physician.
God, God forgive us
all!...
And still keep eyes upon
her....
My mind she has mated and amazed my
sight.
So, the connections
between light and sight, between looking and really using the senses that the Doctor and
Gentlewoman start the scene underscoring are reiterated here.
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