What does motif mean?

First, list the occurrences of the images of sleep. You can legally call on a Concordance of Shakespeare (library?), look up "sleep," and list the instances in Macbeth on a separate sheet of paper, quotes and all. now start asking QUESTIONS of that list. Is there a progression? Does sleep start out as a positive thing, and then turn into a tormentor? Look up the most famous ones: "sleep, that knitteth up the ravel'd sleeve of care"; "Macbeth hath murder'd sleep"; our lives being "rounded with a little sleep"; and Lady Macbeth's sleepwalk. Is there a progression there? If so, there's your essay. A thesis paragraph, a paragraph on each image explaining its meaning and how it fits into the progression, and a conclusion: voila: instant 9-paragraph essay that practically writes itself. They always told you to write an outline first and then write the essay from it--but they never told you how to derive an outline. I just showed you how. By the way, a motif (or in music, a motiv or motive) is ANY repeated element: an image, an action, a phrase in language or music all qualify, plus lots more. This stuff is NOT hard if you get the right tools, and these are the best--the keys are the LIST and ASKING QUESTIONS.