Macbeth

Macbeth

     These words are uttered by Macbeth after he hears of Lady Macbeth’s death, in Act V, scene v, lines 16–27. It is a speech of such pessimism and despair. It shows how completely his wife’s death  has affected him. His speech insists that there is no meaning or purpose in life. She should have died a little later, he said. There would have been a better time to receive such tragic news.

  Then he reflects on the emptiness and meaninglessness of human life. Time moves on slowly from day to day and every tomorrow gets engulfed in a yesterday, till the whole span of life is run through. Each passing day carries us, fools as we are, nearer to our grave.  Time is compared to a book whose pages are turned one after another till the last word of the book is reached and then the book is closed forever. The ultimate end of human life is death.  Shakespeare uses very nice images here. Human life is as short as the life of a candle. It is like a walking shadow, a poor actor who performs on the stage for a little while and then is heard no more. Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of idle pain and rage, with little meaning in it.