Macbeth Soliloquy Literary Devices

The Darkness of Macbeth Begins!

William Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest writer and poet ever known in the English language who authored world's greatest poems, drama and sonnets, including Macbeth. Most of Shakespeare’s famous works are viewed all over the world. Throughout the play of Macbeth, Shakespeare had written a famous soliloquy in Act V called “To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow.” In Macbeth’s soliloquy, Macbeth’s words capture a major theme of the play. It presents a dark and pessimistic view of humanity. All the characters show a good and evil side to them, which is also represented as the theme. Therefore, Shakespeare makes each character have certain qualities that contribute to the dynamic story and theme.
In Macbeth’s soliloquy, “To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,”(5.5.17-28), Shakespeare uses a lot of imagery and describes the scene very well. For example, Macbeth says, “She should have died hereafter/There would have been a time for such a word/To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,”(5.5.17-28). Macbeth is literally saying that she would have died later anyway and that news was bound to come someday. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. This is telling the readers that Macbeth didn’t really care about his wife that much because he knew she would eventually die someday. Also, another part of his soliloquy is, “Creeps in this petty pace from day to day/To the last syllable of recorded time/And all our yesterdays have lighted fools/The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!”(5.5.17-28). He is saying how the days creep slowly along until the end of time and every day that’s already happened has taken fools that much closer to their deaths. Out, out, brief candle. The last part of the soliloquy is, “Life is nothing more than an illusion/ It’s like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again/ Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning,”(5.5.17-28). Furthermore, Macbeth’s overall meaning towards this soliloquy was how life is too short and pointless. Macbeth’s words capture a dark and pessimistic view of the play. From the very beginning to the end of the play, characters had been murdering each other and dying. For example, in Act 1 of Macbeth presents and demonstrates a world full of deception. The uncertainty and inconsistency in the characters keep interest level up and the audience on the edge of their seats. The audience is forced to think about the concept of good and evil. This mental involvement in the play draws a lot of interest to the play and thoroughly prepares them for the evil that is about to follow. Also, another example is when the witches tell Macbeth that he will be king, which makes him very happy, but this is his inner struggle that has a big impact upon the theme of Macbeth. However, there are also other genres like horror, suspense and drama that come later on during the play.

In the play the readers see many comparable and contrasted lines that Macbeth says throughout his speech.
Macbeth’s speech is overwhelmingly pessimistic and is spoken in a dark way. Lady Macbeth says, “Yet do I fear thy nature. / It is too full of the milk of human kindness . ,”(1.5.15-18). This quote represents a contrasts to what Macbeth is saying in his soliloquy because Lady Macbeth feels that Macbeth is too kind by nature to do what needs to be done in order to become king. This next quote is also a contrast of Macbeth’s speech, which Malcolm says, "Nothing in his life / Became him like the leaving of it,"(1.4.6-8). Malcolm’s quote contrasts from Macbeth’s speech because he had did a lot of bad things in his lifetime, but he acted like a good man as he was dying rather than Macbeth’s life being meaningless. Also, a comparable line to Macbeth’s speech is, "Fair is foul and foul is fair . . ,"(1.1.11.). This is spoken by the witches in Act one, that signifies that there is no significance of good and bad things and is related to the soliloquy because it is signifying nothing. Another comparable line is said by Macbeth, "The time has been/ That, when the brains were out, the man would die, / And there an end,"(3.4.82-84).Macbeth is saying that the mans time is up and it is now time for him to die, which is similar to his speech because he expresses darkness and death. In conclusion, throughout the play of Macbeth, there are both contrasts and comparable lines of Macbeth’s speech that represent some sort of darkness or
fear.

Lastly, Macbeth’s perspective on life signifies nothing at all and he is saying that he had lived life for no reason. Also, he believed that life had been an illusion and was very short and pointless. Shakespeare had wrote the book, Macbeth, to have a pessimistic theme and get the audiences attention. All of the character’s fear, self-doubt ambitiousness, good, evil and darkness had been used in the play because Shakespeare wanted to make the readers understand by having lots of imagery. In conclusion, Macbeth’s soliloquy is one of Shakespeare’s most famous writings today and makes every reader think deeply about each part of it.