Michael on Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Michael Davison)

The thrice quoted words from Macbeth exemplify his mood at the time of the soliloquy, however the speech starts earlier on with him addressing the news of his wife’s death. His reaction to her death is essentially “if not today than someday soon so might as well be today” so it is understood that Macbeth is not in a sound place mentally.

The outlook on death (and the thin meaning of life as a whole) demonstrated here shows how little meaning he attributes to the human life. Despite humans having a sense of purpose, the reality is that life is empty and people are soon forgotten after their death regardless of the impact they had on the world. Macbeth’s days are dragging on and each is as miserable as the last. He is overcome with a sense of nihilism as he begins to question whether his life holds meaning any longer, or ever did to begin with. “Life’s but a walking shadow” there is a sense of emptiness in relation to what had originally been foretold by the witches. He draws comparisons of life to an actor who is never heard from on stage, and a story told by an idiot full of excitement and emotion but lacking meaning of any kind. After the witches let him in on the secret of his imminent kinghood, Macbeth is filled with a sense of expectation, anticipating how great he and lady Macbeth’s life will become. And not only is does he expect these things, he acts on them (often at the urging of Lady Macbeth) in such a way that he thinks will fulfill what he was told. This ultimately alters the course and leads to his downfall as his actions are counterintuitive to the desired outcome. This speech is the shining moment in which we see his sanity take full flight as he is reduced to an emotionless, hopeless, empty being who understands that his own actions caused his demise.