Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5 Analysis

The following is from act five, scene five, during Macbeth’s monologue, with Seyton speaking once:

“I have almost forgot the taste of fears. // The time has been my senses would have cooled // To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair // Would at the dismal treatise rouse and stir // As life were in ‘t. I have supped full with horrors. // Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, // Cannot once start me. // Wherefore was the cry?”

[SEYTON:] “The Queen, my lord, is dead.”

“She should have died hereafter. // There would have been a time for such a word. // Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow // creeps into this petty pace from day to day // To the last syllable of recorded time, // And all our yesterdays have lighted fools // The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! // Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player // That struts and frets his hour upon the

Though normally one would be shaken by the death of their wife, especially one like Macbeth, who is shown throughout the play to love his wife even during the various conflicts, he seems not bothered by this hallowing news. Macbeth reminds the audience of the futility of life itself, asserting that life is “as brief as a candle” and just a “walking shadow”. This use of imagery in these lines calls forth the images of the ephemeral items named, drawing forth in our mind imaginings of the briefness that is life. Macbeth also cites the metaphor of people as actors in a play, worrying about their time on stage, only to be heard no more. This represents the fear people have of life, only to die unknown and unremembered. Macbeth argues that this fact of life is one that has happened and will happen until the “last syllable of recorded time”. By using this exact and rather severe phrase, Macbeth reminds us that this is a fate all humans must and will face, as death excludes none from its