Shakespeare's Treatment Of Death In Macbeth

From the title to the concluding line, death is present in the poem “Out, Out —”. The wider connections used in the poem and the impersonal choice of pronouns, increase the impact of death and how relatable the poem is however, it also shows how little an impact death causes on the world. It could be argued that life is unlikely to amount to anything so, in turn, neither will death. This can be contrasted by the theory of the butterfly effect; small causes or actions can have large, unknown effects on events many miles away. In this poem we can see how little decisions such as the sister calling out “Supper” or granting the boy permission to do a “man’s work” may have led to his untimely death. The poem however, also agrees with the idea that life, and death, have no impact on the world so when the boy is gone from it, everyone eventually continues as normal. The title “Out, Out —” alludes to Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, when he laments about how fast Lady Macbeth’s life was over. The speech in Macbeth containing “Out, out, brief candle!” shows the fragility of life and continues on to say how death “signifies nothing”. This sets up the subject of the poem, death, and prepares us for the tragedy to come. Lady Macbeth’s death was accidental and reminds us of the
The contrast in blame is created “he must have given the hand”, which puts the onus onto the boy for placing his hand in the way of the saw. Finally a euphemistic metaphor “neither refused the meeting” shows that neither were to blame and that both were at fault but it also introduces the central tension, destiny, as the use of the word “meeting” suggests the accident was not entirely random but predetermined by