Act 5 Scene 5

Act 5 Scene 5

1. Macbeth defies the siege

   • Seyton bring news of Lady Macbeth's death

2. Lady Macbeth's death

   • 'A cry within of women'
   • Leads Macbeth to reflect on life and how meaningless it seems
     • Futility of life
       • 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day'
         • Repetition- life is monotonous, lacking meaning/ vitality
           • Time dragging on 'day to day'
             • verb 'creeps' -slow, sluggish movements
             • Simply enduring each day
           • Time references
             • Past, present and future
               • how fragile and empty he finds life
                 • Lack of meaning 'full of sound and fury signifying nothing'
                   • Contrast between 'fury' and 'nothing' - highlights the futility of his actions
                     • Life is full on meaningless sounds and actions
       • 'Out, out, brief candle'
         • Echo of Lady Macbeth- her guilt- blood
         • Life as a 'brief candle'
           • Short-lived- does not provide substantial light
             • Reflects his lack of hope for the future
             • darkness
               • 'life's but a walking shadow'
                 • Not expressive/bold- concealed
                   • Macbeth compares his existence to the condition of being a mere ghost
                     • Shadows are gone as soon as they appear, and actors only assume their character: the people they represent have no true meaning
                       • here he realises his pitiful existence, from the moment he decided to kill King Duncan to the moment when his beloved wife killed herself, has been destroyed by his reckless ambition
                 • 'Poor player'
                   • goes on to compare people to actors who worry about their brief moment in the spotlight only to cease to exist before he realises his life is over.
                     • emphasises the fleeting nature of life
               • METAPHORS
     • Change in Macbeth
       • 'I have supped full with horrors'
         • extent to which he has experienced the horrors of life e.g murder, guilt
         • Lost all sense of fear
           • Contrasts with Macbeth before who was unnerved by the knocking or the shriek of an owl
         • 'What is that noise?'...'Cannot once start me'
         • 'I have almost forgot the taste of fears'
           • Repeated motif of banqueting and feasting- nourishing image - causes him to reflect on his 'diet' of murder
   • 'She should have died hereafter'
     • Sudden, unexpected death

3. Macbeth's Anagnorisis

   • 'To doubt h'equivocation of the fiend that lies like truth'
     • Realisation- echo Banquo's warning in Act 1 Scene 3
       • 'The instruments of darkness tell us truth...to betray's in deepest consequence'
         • Highlights the dangers of the supernatural
           • Link to context
   • Shocked to hear the news of the 'moving grove'

4. His response

   • I 'gin to be aweary of the sun/ and wish the estate of the world were now undone'
     • Rhyming couplet
       • Wants to die- links to sleeplessness/envy of Duncan
   • Contrasts with his perseverance
     • come rack../At least we'll die with harness on our back'
       • Rhyming couplet again
         • Reminded of the noble warrior in Act 1