Shadow Theme In Macbeth

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Significance of the Tomorrow Soliloquy
(Three Major Themes) Have you ever felt as if each day that went by and nothing ever changed, or as if everything was a waste and not going as planned? This is how Macbeth felt when he gave his “Tomorrow” soliloquy in Act five Scene five of Macbeth. At this point in the play, Macbeth’s suffering is at an all time high. He is in fear of Banquo’s ghost that keeps visiting him, his guilt from all the murders are eating him alive and now he has just heard that his wife went so delusional that she committed suicide. This soliloquy has several instances of vivid imagery that really makes it an important piece of the play. “There is no intellectual logic in the development of the passage but the poetical, imaginative logic makes the piece very tight, and one of the most remarkable achievements one could find in English poetry.” (Breuer) This soliloquy has several themes that are expressed which make the images really have meaning. Three significant themes are the candle theme, the actor/theater theme and the shadow …show more content…

This theme is referred to as the walking shadow theme. The shadow comes from the candle in the first theme. “A walking shadow is another term for an actor on the stage, so the shadow thrown by the candle creates the image of the actor on the stage.” (Hoefer) Each theme ties in with the other making the themes even more interesting. The shadow in the soliloquy is the shadow of the actor on stage. “Life’s but a walking shadow.” (Act 5, Scene 5, Line 24) The shadow symbolizes all the awful things that the actor has done. It shows how no matter what, that shadow will follow the actor. Which explains why Macbeth starts to get delusional in the end of the play, because all his wrong doings follow him like a shadow and he cannot escape them. Clearly, the shadow theme is significant to show the actor and his regrets that will not escape or go

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