Act 5 Flashcards
LADY MACBETH: Out, damned spot! (Act 5, Scene 1)
Links to when Macbeth says, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand?”
and also to when Lady Macbeth says that “a little water clears us of this deed”. This is ironic because now we see that she will forever be plagued with guilt.
MACBETH: My way of life
Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have, but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath
Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not.
Seyton!
The metaphor here is used to compare Macbeth’s life to a dying leaf falling off a tree evoking his world-weariness.
Furthermore, this links to another plant metaphor at the beginning of the play where Macbeth was a seed about to be planted and nurtured.
This shows how Macbeth’s bright future was sacrificed for his dissolutioned ambitions of becoming king. Thus, he i
MACBETH:Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth is world-weary and nihilistic. He is also angry at God for seemingly abandoning him.
A Jacobean audience may see his comment as blastphemous because he calls God an idiot.
MACBETH: They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly,
But, bear-like, I must fight the course.
d
MALCOLM: this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen…
e
