Act 5 Scene 5

Act 5 Scene 5

1. Macbeth: "I have almost forgot the taste of fears; The time has been, my sense would have cool'd"

   • Macbeth reacts with a hint of fear at the "cry of women" - suspects it is news he has dreaded, the death of Lady macbeth
   • Conventional view is Lady dies off stage so that Shakespeare can show the distance between her and Macbeth
     • He doesn't allow himself any grief, simply complaining that she has chosen a bad time to commit suicide
       • Macbeth: "She should have died hereafter" - wished it was a more convenient time
       • Instead, he is more wrapped up in his own feelings
         • Macbeth: "I gin to be aweary of the sun"
           • decides that his life has been pointless "signifying nothing"
             • gives Lady barely a second thought to refelct that she now signifies "nothing" to him either
   • His stronger emotion is nostalgia - "I have almost forgot the taste of fears"
     • he is looking forward to feeling a sense of fear again - as though he has become numb through his bloodthirsty slaughter
       • Sense of yearning is created with the real sense of "taste" - he wants to savour fear again
         • explains his nihilism, he now finds it almost impossible to feel normal emotions - but also explains his attraction to battle - only there can he hope to experience true fear
           • When he appears to react unemotionally to Lady's death, "She should have died hereafter"
             • We see earlier that this can't be true, he is looking forward to his own death, and desperate to find a "cure" for his wife's "diseased" mind
               • This line then must mean that he had hoped she would live, sad she died so soon
                 • We can infer a level of upset from the seven syllable line, and his failure to use pentameter
                 • The langauge he uses to remember Lady suggests his love for her
                   • metaphor likens her to a "brief candle" - to lament that her life was too short
                     • candle symbolises light - her death now leaves him in darkness - suggests a powerful love for her

2. Macbeth: "Out, out, brief candle"

   • Bill gaves Macbeth a direfct quotation from his wfie, "out, out"
     • deliberately changes her "damned spot" to the much more positive "candle" a deliberate contrast from darkness of hell to light"
       • Reflects his unnatural perspective - suggests Macbeth is worshipping evil
         • Jacobean audience can enjoy his final punishment as divine justice
       • Reflects the strong bond of love he has for Lady, her words have become a part of him, because he still loves her
         • emotional upset at her death is conveyed in how he loses control of the pentameter in these two lines - both have eleven syllable
           • her death therefore causes him to reflect on the purpose of life

3. Macbeth: "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage"

   • Bill gives him very personal imagery, perhaps as close as we might get to Bill's view of the world - Makes Macbeth liken life to a bad actor
     • Society is like a bad actor - attracted to status, behaving ridiculously on stage in an effort to steal the limelight, and failing
   • Describes life as brief, taking a metaphorical "hour" but also lived for the entertainment of an audience, as it takes place on "the stage"
     • implies the greater audience is either society, or God
       • we either live to satisfy social values others impose on us, or we live it in order to please a God who will finally judge us
   • Jacobean audience would see this as a just punishment for regicide
     • Macbeth is arguing this punishment is actually universal - society doesn't let us choose to be who we truly are, but makes us follow a series of rules
       • We are only bad actors because someone else, society or God, has writen the script of our lives
     • Macbeth has achieved the highest possible status, yet has no joy

4. Macbeth makes another nihilistic claim: "It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing"

   • Jacobean audience sees this as part of his divine punishment - he has been the "idiot, full of sound and fury" who has pursued an empty ambition
     • having become king, he has found his life is meaningless "signifying nothing" because everything he values will be taken from him
       • it is a 11 syllable line, which begins with a trochee - normally this has indictated an evil intention or deceit, this time it might suggest that society is wrong
       • Macbbeth is also making a universal point - all our lives are brief, and we live them out as thou our "sound" matters and as thou the story of our livves has meaning
         • actually, our stories do not make sensse, which is why they are "told by an idiot"
   • Bill is joking with his audience - the "idiot" who has written Macbeth's tale is Bill, himself

5. Macbeth "I gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish the estate o' the wrold were now undone"

   • "Sun" is a metahpor for life - he is no prepared for death
   • "sun" is also symbolic of God and kingship - macbeth has tired of being king
     • he is also tired of the Christian perspective of the world
       • he wants to undo "the estate o'the world" - suggests that he deliberately attacks God's creation, the wrold God has made
         • Blasphermous criticism of God himself - makes the audience keen for his death - Macbeth attacked their faith
         • Macbeth makes a political point - "estate" also refers to status and aristocracy
           • Macbeth means the political system whihc places the king at the top of the Great chain of Being is bad
             • Bill hints that society would be better with a different social hierarchy and "estate" - possible this is demonstrated by the lack of rights of woman

6. In order to overcome his sense of nihilism, h etries to meet his death with purpose, and chooses bloodlust once more (G7)

   • Macbeth: "At least we'll die with harness on our back"
     • characteristic of a tragic hero, who knows that fate cna't be escaped