Role of Motifs in Shakespeare's Macbeth The best way to draw a reader into a story is to focus on knowledge from other sources and add it in a way that the reader can relate to. William Shakespeare achieves just this with his ability to enrich Macbeth with recurring motifs throughout the play. Perhaps the most important and the ones that represent the largest are the motifs of sleep and the snake. J When one has a conscience, the function of distinguishing between right and wrong; it impedes the ability to make positive or negative decisions. If one has a clear conscience, he usually possesses the ability to sleep. But when our conscience is filled with guilt, it experiences a state of insomnia. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the motif of sleep and insomnia to represent Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's conscience and the effect Macbeth's conscience has on the country of Scotland. Lady Macbeth begins with an unrecognizable conscience. He explains to Macbeth that if he said he would kill his son, he would rather do it than go back on his word. He soon begins to develop a conscience. After planting the daggers for Duncan's murder, she makes an excuse not to kill Duncan herself: "If he had not looked like my father while he slept, I would not have done it" (2.2.12-13). These words introduce his consciousness. Towards the end of the play, Lady Macbeth falls into a state of sleeplessness, and this sleeplessness represents her guilt for her role in Duncan's death, as well as for all the murders Macbeth has committed..