Sure, we'll experience highs and lows, we'll struggle and we'll love (life is, after all, "full of sound and fury"), but what does it mean in the end? According to Macbeth, "nothing." Humanity's conflicts, successes, failures - all petty and meaningless. The only surety we have is that life will continue ("To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow") - and that, someday, it will end. There's no underlying reason for anything that happens. If life is a play written by an idiot, the stories of our lives are incoherent and illogical.
#Macbeth monologue full#
Macbeth calls life "a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing." This expansion in scope from the individual to the world surrounding the individual signals that Macbeth is no longer talking about one person's life - he's talking about all of human existence.Īnd boy, does he have some harsh words for the experience. He then compares life to the play ("tale") the "poor player" is acting in. In other, simpler words: People live for a short time, they experience highs and lows, they die, and the world goes on.īut Macbeth isn't done. Extended MetaphorĪt the close of the soliloquy, Shakespeare deploys an extended metaphor to clearly express the depths of Macbeth's despair.įirst, Macbeth compares life to "a poor player" - an actor in a play, perhaps one playing a bit part - who "struts and frets his hour upon the stage." This player experiences joys and fears (he "struts and frets") but once his hour upon the stage is over, he "is heard no more." In Macbeth's despairing worldview, there is no growth, only an inexorable march to the grave.
Macbeth's focus is so narrow here that he can only see the passing of time as something leading to death. He uses figurative language to express a literal truth. Shakespeare personifies "yesterdays" here, essentially saying that every day that passes leads people closer to death. By repeating "To-morrow" three times, Shakespeare shows us Macbeth has come to the conclusion that one "To-morrow" is no more significant than the next - Nothing new will happen, nothing matters, existence is meaningless. The repetition of "To-morrow" in the third line of the soliloquy establishes the tone for its remainder. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,Ĭreeps in this petty pace from day to day,Īnd all our yesterdays have lighted fools There would have been a time for such a word. From Macbeth Act V, Scene v: She should have died hereafter Let's take a look at the final soliloquy from Macbeth and see how Shakespeare uses rhetorical devices to convey Macbeth's overwhelming despair. William Shakespeare's hands were certainly skilled, and students will benefit from analyzing the rhetoric he used in his works. In skilled hands, rhetorical devices can add power and gravitas to a text, evoking strong emotional responses from an audience. Students with the ability to dissect these messages will be better equipped to accept or reject the arguments underneath the rhetoric on their own merits. if someone is trying to convince you to do or believe something, you can almost guarantee they'll toss in a hefty chunk of rhetoric to win you to their cause.Įvery rhetorical device has specific effects on a text, and the ability to recognize these devices and understand their effects is vital, especially as the number of persuasive messages students are exposed to daily seems to be growing exponentially. They're used in all kinds of persuasive messages, from commercials to newspaper editorials to website articles to cable news commentaries. Studying rhetorical devices is one of the best ways for students to learn about the power of language.
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