Sleep-Symbol in &quote;A Midsummer Night's Dream&quote; and in &quote;Macbeth&quote; by William Shakespeare

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2, , language: English, abstract: This paper is about the symbol 'sleep' in Shakespeare's plays "e;A Midsummer Night's Dream"e; and "e;Macbeth"e;. The author will discuss the definition and the role of sleep, in the two already mentioned works, in chapter 2 and 3 by analysing the symbol in detail, by giving examples and quoting relevant passages from the text. As A Midsummer Night s Dream is a comedy and Macbeth a tragedy, these terms also have to be explained. Therefore, sleep further has to be analysed by taking the aspects of a comedy and tragedy into consideration. The next chapter is dedicated to the comparison of the sleep-symbol between A Midsummer Night s Dream and Macbeth . To sum it up, the main focus of this paper is to emphasize the importance of the sleep-symbol and its consequences on the plot and outcome of the two plays (chapter 5).