”Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow Creeps in 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 stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing. ” This speech illustrates the idea that a single life, in its whole, symbolizes nothing, and eventually, everyone’s candle of life is blown out.
The final demise of Shakespeare’s character, Macbeth, an evil man, has been anticipated throughout the entire play. Language such as ”Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow”, ”day to day”, ”out, out” create a tone of weariness, a suggestion of endlessness. Life will go on and on, the world will not stop for anyone. Macbeth is weary of the world, he ”wants out”. The trials and tribulations of life begin to overwhelm him. Repetition changes the pace of the speech; it quickens and generates an abrupt angry tone. Repetition also emphasizes the language.
Shakespeare uses the word ”creep”. His choice of verb suggests something threatening, evil and insidious. Tomorrow creeps up on us and demonstrates that the idea of the future is something to be feared. The brave hero we met in the beginning who at least seemed honorable is completely twisted. Macbeth’s crimes have cost him dearly. His reaction to Lady Macbeth’s death is a sign of complete despair all feeling is dead in him. Macbeth’s ambitions are now stronger than his conscience. The witches have tempted and controlled him with the idea of becoming king.
Lady Macbeth manipulates him to overcome his natural hesitation to commit murder. Due to his manipulation, Macbeth chooses the crown over his honor and material gain. Once he has killed to get the crown, the other crimes seem inevitable. In order to keep what he has taken, Macbeth learns to lie and kill as a matter of course. His values become totally confused. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” expresses both grief and the meaninglessness of life. Roman Polanski’s more traditional version of Macbeth, Macbeth looks over Lady Macbeth as she lies dead on the floor and says, out, out brief candle.
Shakespeare uses the image of a delicate candle fluttering in the wind which reinforces man’s vulnerability and fragility showing how easily we are disposed of in this world. In the speech Shakespeare emphasizes the insignificance of life, ‘Signifying nothing’. The words demonstrate negativity and are short and abrupt. The words are powerfully selected to show the sense of disgust Macbeth has in himself and humanity itself. In both modern Penny Woolcock’s more contemporary version of Macbeth, Macbeth express’s the words “signifying nothing” in such a powerful and influential way that it makes us to think that life is utterly irrelevant.
Shakespeare talks about the past and gives us the hope that all of our “yesterdays” may account for something more than just a “dusty death”. Shakespeare creates pessimistic illustrations of life. ”A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. ” This emphasizes the sense of frustration and lack of purpose to life. He compares all of us, with our busy lives, to mere actors on a stage. He implies that life is not ”real” at all but a measly play, or a charade to take part in until we are knocked out or leave the stage.
He therefore suggests it is a pointless, futile activity which ultimately amounts to very little. Shakespeare is trying to say death is inevitable. It takes place at different times and under different circumstances for everyone, but none-the-less, it cannot be avoided. No one has any control over their fate or destiny. Everyone deals with death in their own way. Macbeth almost discards the news of his wife’s death, as he talks about life itself and how he feels about it. Shakespeare highlights in the speech that people move forward with their lives.
People everyday are faced with decisions. The way one decides to act on these determines the outcome of the days in their life. In Shakespeare”s tragedy Macbeth, the characters are developed so their decisions determine their fate. Sometimes tomorrow never comes and as for Macbeth, tomorrow meant another day of inner torment and guilt. This victorious Thane literally got the better of himself as soon as he started to believe in the witches. Act 1 scene 5 “The raven himself is a hoarse, That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull Of dearest cruelty; make thick my blood, Stop up th’access and passage to remorse That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between Th’effect and it. Come to my women’s breasts And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on natures mischief. Come thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That may keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
To cry, “Hold, Hold. ” Lady Macbeth is full of murderous thoughts about king Duncan. She persuaded Macbeth to kill the king whilst he is a guest in their home, the castle of Dunsinane. ‘The raven himself is hoarse. ‘ In the Roman Polanski’s version of Macbeth the image of a raven creates the image of death, evil or even the apprehension and the fear of the unknown. Lady Macbeth notices birds shrieking around Duncan trying to signalise a warning of danger. Lady Macbeth stands tall, confident and conceited on top of the castle of Dunsinane. We hear her inner thoughts and plans.
The director uses close up shots of Lady Macbeth which convey the power, control and domination which are expressed on her face. In the Penny Woolcocks more contemporary production of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth looks more physically strong and seems to portray relatively strong signs of masculinity not only through her dominant and authoritative personality but in addition to her appearance. Lady Macbeth whispers poignant words, we can see the hard act she tries to prevail but is not portrayed as much in this scene as we are drawn closer to her feminine side.
She breathes heavily as tears fill her eyes. She goes to her babies room touches the babies picture crouches down and cries. There is almost a sudden change of reflection in her and she turns to evil. She stands up and starts talking of her murderous thoughts. The baby mobile is playing this creates an extremely disturbing atmosphere. In the speech the language, “Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, ” demonstrate Lady Macbeth’s wish to be a man. She sees man as being cruel and cold hearted.
To help convince Macbeth not to call the murder off, Lady Macbeth questions his manhood. She says, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man”. The sad part is that Lady Macbeth truly does believe that Macbeth wouldn”t be a man if he didn”t agree to the killing. “make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse” if her blood is thicker, then less emotion will be able to reach her hart and she will be able to stand up to them and be evil. “take my milk for gall” take all that is womanly.
She believes that the spirits are real, but she just can”t see them. “pall the in the dunnest smoke of hell” she wants to be shrouded in the darkest spirits or “smoke” from hell to make her as evil as possible. ” The word “fatal” creates the image of death and danger. This use of word covers the entire play. Its meant to happen pre-destined the idea of pre-destination. Women have always been considered as the gentler and fair sex. Lady Macbeth feels that to commit this crime, she must become as cruel as she believes men are.
She calls for the spirits to ‘unsex her’, so she may act as a man so that she may commit these acts and think ambitiously, to become more manipulative and give her clarity of mind to perform such an evil act and to give her the power to pursued her honourable husband into such an act. She wishes to be possessed to avoid her emotions of guilt and regret to hold her back. Also the statement “unsex me here” could link to the witch’s ambiguous sex and how their strangeness confused her husband. It is obvious from the letter Macbeth sends to lady Macbeth that he is amazed and intrigued by these strange “women”.
If these people were to reduce Macbeth the strong general into a curious child in only a few words then she could surely pursued him to murder Duncan to achieve both their aims if she put her mind to it. When Macbeth finally comes home soon after Lady Macbeth reads the letter, Lady Macbeth asks him to get rid of Duncan. While his answer is evasive he has clearly been giving the subject a great deal of thought and seems preoccupied. The following scene is clearly an illustration of how deceitful Lady Macbeth can be.
It seemed that despite only moments before lady Macbeth had been plotting to kill Duncan, she is able to greet him as a gracious hostess. She is being fair to Duncan while her inner thoughts are foul, this is again confirmed in Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth is doubtful of Lady Macbeth”s plot to murder the king. He doesn”t think that he will be able to live with the guilt of regicide while the king is staying under his very roof, and then decides that he will not kill the king. When Lady Macbeth notices that Macbeth has left the room, she goes to speak to him.
Macbeth firmly tells her that they will he will not take any part in the killing: “we will proceed no further in this business”. Lady Macbeth changes his view by turning from broadminded to narrow minded to psychologically drain Macbeth, causing him to reluctantly agree to the murder. Another example of this broadminded/narrow minded imagery is when she uses the realistic image of her baby to convey her foul feelings towards Macbeth’s refusal to murder Duncan. Macbeth is not very confident in her own actions so calls to the spirits to possess and unsex her.
This possession only lasts until the end of the murder of Duncan where she begins to feel the pangs of guilt. When Macbeth follows on to kill Banquo and Macduff’s family she finally goes over the edge. I believe that she feels partly responsible for the events unfolding as it was her that unleashed the demon in Macbeth and also he is acting like this so that she will love him. She accused Macbeth of being cowardly that he will not kill Duncan, it is a possibility that Macbeth is killing all these people to gain her love and, after all he is serving her needs as well by securing their throne.
Act 1 scene 7 “What beast was’t then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more than a man. Nor time nor place Did than adhere, and yet you would make both: They have made themselves, and there fitness ow Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash’d the brains out, had I sworn as you Have done this.
Macbeth If we should fail a€“ Lady Macbeth We fail ? But screw your courage to the sticking a€“ place, And we’ll not fail. ” In Macbeth’s soliloquy Macbeth hesitates because of both realistic and moral causes; although, his moral conscience seems to overpower the realistic arguments. Macbeth is torn between these two issues, and his unique way of interpreting problems is exhibited in this scene. Lady Macbeth is so desperate to get Macbeth to continue the plan that she says that she would do the most evil thing possible for a woman.
She would take her smiling child whom she loves dearly and is what makes her a woman and “dash’d the brains out” so as to kill it, rather than take this opportunity to kill Duncan. Macbeth is very shocked about this and realises how much it means to her. This also shocks the audience because such a deed would be unimaginable for any mother at the time and would leave the audience to believe that Lady Macbeth is becoming more evil. Macbeth is close to agreeing to the plan. He wants to do it now, but is worried about what would happen if they fail.
Lady Macbeth simply replies “we fail? ” She doesn”t want to think about failing, it is out of the question. They won”t fail as long as Macbeth screws up his courage. Lady Macbeth’s conscience is incomparable to that of her husbands. She is even more ambitious than her husband and exhibits no sense of morality. In many instances, she uses emotional blackmail to seduce her husband to proceed with this ambitious enterprise, “when you durst do it, then you were a man. ” She makes an analogy to emphasise the importance of Macbeth keeping his promise.
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are in bed as when the speech is said. Macbeth pins her down as he lay on top of her showing that he is trying to have some say and control in the situation but Lady Macbeth uses her manipulative and deceiving mind to overpower him. The roles reverse and she’s gets on top of him showing him that she’s in control and he will undertake this deed. She sexually controls him and is almost astonished that he even thinks they will fail “we fail”‘she knows a man’s weak spot which ultimately results in her accomplishing what she wants.
