The scene presents to the audience a different side of Macbeth, the side that is vulnerable to the insecurity that is so seldom shown throughout the play. The beginning of the scene sees a self-assured Macbeth, positive that his “castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn.” However, when Seyton departs to examine the cries’, Macbeth’s apprehension surfaces, expressing that his “fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir.” The extract further reiterates that Macbeth is only human, and is not able to keep his act up eternally. His indifferent response to his wife’s suicide reflects the despair that has seized him as he realizes that what has come to seem the game of life is almost over. “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day,” he says grimly. One can easily understand how, with his wife dead and armies marching against him, Macbeth succumbs to such pessimism. Yet, there is also a defensive and self-justifying quality to his soliloquy. If everything is meaningless, then Macbeth’s awful crimes are somehow made less evil, because, like everything else, they too “signify nothing.”
Fate, guilt, and the discrepancy between appearance and reality are all central themes to this passage. As the weird-sisters have foretold that none “woman-born” can kill Macbeth, he is confident that he will win the battle, for as far as he is concerned, nobody who is waging a war on him was not woman born. Fate plays a key role in this passage and ties in directly with the theme of the discrepancy between appearance and reality. Since Macbeth is absolutely positive that he will triumph in the battle, he puts on a act in front of Seyton, an air of confidence and arrogance, certain that they will, indeed, be victorious. However, when Seyton departs to inspect the cries, Macbeth frees himself of his feelings of insecurity and uncertainty. He expresses that he had “supped full with horrors.” This discrepancy between appearance, the front Macbeth puts up in order to make Seyton believe that they will prevail, and reality, the timidity that Macbeth is going through internally, presents to the audience the idea that Macbeth may not be all that he seems. Guilt also plays a part in this situation as there is no doubt that Macbeth feels a little guilty about leading his men on about winning the battle, when inside he thinks something entirely different. At the news of his wife’s death, the audience can also see the theme of guilt slowly creeping in. Through Macbeth’s belief that “she should have died here after,” the audience can sense a hint of guilt in his voice. It is almost as if he feels that he is indirectly responsible for Lady Macbeth’s death, and that he could’ve stopped it.
Shakespeare utilizes several key literary devices to convey his ideas in this brief but significant scene, the most effective being his use of the extended metaphor. In Macbeth’s soliloquy on Lady Macbeth’s death, he compares life to “a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, then is heard no more.” This relation is ironic in that intrinsically, Macbeth is just a “player” on a stage, making it seem as though Shakespeare’s own perspective is shining through the thespian’s words. However unlikely this may be though, Macbeth’s words remind us of the fundamental theatricality of the play, that every word uttered and every action executed is not meant to capture reality but to re-examine it in order to evoke a certain emotional response from the audience.
In addition, Shakespeare employs such techniques as personification, alliteration, and repetition in order to intensify the scene and to induce more of the aforementioned emotional response from the audience. The opening of the scene starts out with the brilliant application of personification, with Macbeth expressing that he will defeat his enemies “till famine and the ague eat them up.” The line presents the audience with an image of disgust, an image that something will eat up human flesh until nothing is left of them. His use of alliteration gives the words a sound that is more pleasing to the ear, making even harsh words sound pleasant, as used in describing a “dusty death.” In the same soliloquy, Macbeth elaborates on his feelings upon the news of his wife’s death, saying that “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day.” With the repetition of the word “tomorrow,” Shakespeare provides the readers with the impression that tomorrow is so extensive, and implies at the same time its tediousness. It is without a doubt that these devices pose as auxiliaries in making the scene as effective as it is.
This passage is undeniably one of the most important scenes of the play, as it is the indication that Macbeth is slowly starting to weaken. I found that this excerpt gripped me in that Shakespeare used such vibrant language to portray the fervent emotions present in the scene. As a whole, Macbeth’s soliloquy on his wife’s death had the most impact on me. In the past scenes, the audience saw a side of Macbeth that really cared for his wife, however as stated in a previous paragraph, his response to her death in this extract is strangely subdued. As the theme of fate was portrayed through Macbeth’s words, we see the gaffe Macbeth makes in being overconfident in regard to the battle, subsequently muting his reaction to the death of a loved one. However, the ambiguity of his emotions provokes sympathy from the audience, and it made me realize that Macbeth is just another human being, and that like everyone else, he cannot be perfect all the time. As a person, Macbeth will always have the ambition and determination that got him this far, but as King of Scotland, this excerpt implied with enormous clarity that his reign was soon to be over.
