In Act 5, Scene 5, the political authority Macbeth has tried for five acts to establish is rapidly crumbling around him. Duncan's son and heir, Malcolm, has returned from England to take up arms against his usurper, Macbeth. The price of Macbeth's tyranny grows ever more dire; murder and oppression are the only way the Thane can hold onto his crown. Macbeth's only solace is the witches' promise that he cannot be killed by any man of woman born.
In the midst of all this turmoil, Seyton, one of the few Scottish lords loyal to Macbeth's regime, arrives with unthinkable news: Lady Macbeth has died. Macbeth's response to Seyton is one of his most famous speeches, generally referred to by the line, "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow." In this speech, Macbeth battles with classical metaphors about the nature of life. Through his words, he evidences the tragic consequences of his own actions: he has become an emotionless, apathetic creature, unable to feel even the most basic and primal of emotions.
I Have Supped Full with Horrors
Just before Seyton enters, Macbeth speaks a few words as he prepares for the battle to come. "I have almost forgot the taste of fears," he begins, going on to describe the fundamental change in his personality. At the beginning of the play, the very thought of killing King Duncan provokes a tactile emotional response in Macbeth.
As he says, the suggestion makes "...my seated heart knock at my ribs / against the use of nature." The Macbeth who speaks to the audience in Act 5 does not feel this unnatural dread. "The time has been my senses would have cooled / To hear a night-shriek," he says in Act 5, Scene 5, "Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, / Cannot once start me." Macbeth has lived so long by the sword that he is utterly incapable of fear. More complicated emotions are still more distant from the ruined Scottish lord.
She Should Have Died Hereafter
Macbeth's response to his wife's death is decidedly cold. "She should have died hereafter," he says, "There would have been a time for such a word tomorrow." In these first two lines, Macbeth essentially means that Lady Macbeth would have to die sometime. This scene stands in sharp contrast with a similar discovery by Macduff, in Act 4, Scene 3.
When Ross informs Macduff that his castle has been ruined and his family slaughtered, Macduff breaks down. Ross urges Macduff to act more masculine, but Macduff protests, claiming that though he will fight against his aggressor as a man, he "must also feel it as a man." Throughout Macbeth, the title character is searching for his own perfect identity, which he refers to in Act 1, Scene 3 as his "single state of man." it is obvious that Macduff has a firm hold on his own identity as it relates to gender and emotion. Macbeth, however, has no option but to entirely shut down.
Life's But a Walking Shadow
Macbeth's speech plays on the Biblical themes of life as light and life as a story; namely, it harshly refutes these ideals. Life, according to Macbeth, "is a tale told by an idiot...signifying nothing." This is in direct opposition to Matthew 5.16, which instructs the faithful to "let your light shine before others." Macbeth, unlike his rival Macduff, is unwilling and unable to accept the "welcome and unwelcome" aspects of his life.
He cannot show his true emotions among his fellow soldiers, as Macduff does in Act 4, Scene 3. He is not a shining example to which his servants can aspire. The only way that he can deal with the guilt of his actions is by insisting that they are ultimately insignificant. Macbeth's final speech makes the nature of his tragic defeat clear: in pursuit of his "single state of man," he has shed the complexities which once made him whole.
Joshua Harrison - Joshua Harrison is originally from New Hampshire, but he currently makes his home in New York City. He is a sophomore at New York ...
