The only thing to do now is to muse on the futility and fury of the world, the unfairness of it all, and the cyclical, cruel nature of life and death itself. It begins as a speech about the vitality and power and in a weird way the excitement of life, even if the excitement is for something pretty grim.īut by the end of the speech, we find ourselves with Macbeth in a hole so deep it feels as if there is no way out. This speech, on the whole, is about life, death, and time. Let’s explore exactly what’s going through the Mad King’s mind… Thought & Language Breakdown Seyton leaves and Macbeth is left alone with his thoughts. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player There would have been a time for such a word.Ĭreeps in this petty pace from day to dayĪnd all our yesterdays have lighted fools He says what would have scared him before is nothing compared to the horrors he’s seen now. So in the first half of this soliloquy, Macbeth is speaking to how little he fears anymore. Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stirĪs life were in’t: I have supp’d full with horrors ĭireness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts To hear a night-shriek and my fell of hair The time has been, my senses would have cool’d This is where we find him, pumping himself up, preparing as he always would for battle. Macbeth believes that no one of woman born can kill him, and thus in his increasingly deteriorating mind, he is unstoppable. In this scene, Macbeth is preparing to go to battle with Malcolm, the son of the late King Duncan who has been murdered earlier in the play by Macbeth. We have the unstoppable, bloodthirsty warrior King Macbeth, and the guilt-ridden, overcome and shattered Macbeth who has just been informed of the death of his wife and queen Lady Macbeth. Macbeth’s final soliloquy in Act 5, Scene 5 can be broken down into two parts both literally, with the interjection from Seyton, and figuratively, as it’s almost as if they are two separate speeches from two separate characters.
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