The dominant device used in Macbeth doth murdered sleep; the innocent sleep is

Analyze the question: The line is from Shakespeare's Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 2). After killing Duncan, Macbeth says he heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep." The question asks for the dominant literary device in the phrase "Macbeth doth murder sleep; the innocent sleep."

Concept: Personification gives human qualities, actions, or feelings to abstract ideas or non-human things. Here, "sleep" is treated as a living person who can be murdered and who is described as "innocent."

Checking each option:

• A. Alliteration: This is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. There is a little of it ("sleep... sleep"), but that is repetition, not a real pattern of alliteration, so it is not the dominant device.
• B. Conceit: This is an elaborate, extended metaphor, usually a far-fetched comparison. The line is not extended in this way. (Later lines do add images of sleep as "balm of hurt minds" and "chief nourisher in life's feast," but the phrase in question is not a conceit.)
• C. Metonymy: This means replacing a thing with something closely associated with it, such as "the crown" for the king. That is not happening here.
• D. Personification: Sleep is "murdered" and called "innocent," which are qualities and experiences of a human being. This is the dominant device.

Solution: "Murder" is something that happens to a person, and "innocent" describes a person's moral state. Shakespeare applies both to sleep, so sleep is personified. This also carries the meaning: Macbeth has killed an innocent king, and he feels he has destroyed peace of mind and will never rest again.

Answer: D. personification.

Exam tip: When an abstract thing (sleep, death, time, nature) is "killed," "murdered," "weeping," or "smiling," think personification first. Ask: "Is a non-human thing doing or suffering something only humans can?" If yes, it is personification.