Macbeth

1
Macbeth

• Act 5 Scene 5 Solioquy

Jamie, Pat, Tyler, Liz, and Zoe
2
Context

• Macbeth just found out that his wife has died
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•  Lady Macbeth has been driven crazy by guilt
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• Macbeth's confidence shaken but still holding on
  to the witches' prophecies about the Woods of
  Birnam and a man not born of a woman.
•  
•  Lady Macbeth's death makes him contemplate
  mortality and value of life
•  
•  

3
Soliloquy

• She should have died hereafterThere would have
  been a time for such a word.To-morrow, and
  to-morrow, and to-morrow,Creeps in this petty
  pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of
  recorded time,And all our yesterdays have
  lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out,
  brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor
  playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the
  stageAnd then is heard no more. It is a
  taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and
  fury,Signifying nothing.

4
 

• "She should have died hereafterThere would have
  been a time for such a word."
•  
•  -It was not Lady Macbeth's time to die. 
• -Should have or could have lived a longer and
  fuller life
• or
• - at a time when Macbeth can mourn her properly 
• -"Word" refers to death, the "time" for it was
  not right

5
 

• To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,Creeps
  in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last
  syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays
  have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out,
  out, brief candle!
•  
• -Repitition of tomorrow for emphasis
• -Time moves on, however slowly, forever
• -Everybody is going to die eventually, each day
  brings us one step closer to "dusty death"
• -"Brief candle" - metaphor for short life,
  contrasting with endless time-"Petty" Slow
• -Gothic Imagery 

6
 

• Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat
  struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then
  is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot,
  full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.
•  
• -Embraced a nihilistic view that life is
  meaningless and everybody is going to die
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• -DISTRAUT that his wife is dead
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• -"Shadow" signifies the insubstantiality of life,
   "tale" connotes insignifigance.
•  

7
 

• Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat
  struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then
  is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot,
  full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.
•  
• Reminiscent of line in As You Like It
• "All the world's a stage,And all the men and
  women merely playersThey have their exits and
  their entrances,And one man in his time plays
  many parts"
•  
• -Metaphor Life as a nervous actor that completes
  a play.
• play is life!
•  

8
Importance to play as whole

• Macbeth is riding the karma train now
•  
• Audience begins to feel sympathetic towards
  Macbeth
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• First of many events leading to his downfall
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• Foreshadows Macbeth's downward spiral
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• Reveals Macbeth's attitude towards death