Apon hearing of his wife’s untimely death, Macbeth reflects on the pointlessness of life with his newly found pain. Macbeth relates life to a shadow in the metaphor “Life’s but a walking shadow.” A shadow is a projection, it repeats what you do, it has no control of this. Macbeth could be meaning that he has no control of any point in his life, and only realized it today. This links to one of Shakespeare’s favorite ideas, fate. If he has no control or choice in what he does, what is the point of doing anything? Another thing about a shadow is that it is a dark being but also a fragile being. It requires just the right amount of light at just the right angle to survive. If it’s surroundings become dark too, it fades out of existence for it is indivisible to the other darkness. And if there is light all around it then it has nowhere to go and ceases to exist. Relating life to a shadow is essentially saying that you have no control over your predetermined and very fragile and limited life. A candle in a dark room is a beautiful thing, and if it goes out then you are plummeted into infinite darkness. The metaphor “Out, out, brief candle!” could relate to Lady Macbeth being Macbeth’s only source of light and power. Everything that Macbeth has done has troubled his mind in some form however he always thinks that what he does is for someone else, specifically Lady Macbeth. When he became king, she became queen, when he was planning to kill Duncan, she planed with him. Both of them benefited equally and in tough times Lady Macbeth was always there to help his troubled mind. Now he has nothing to fight for and nobody will benefit with his deeds aside from his enemies like Banquo’s lineage. He has no goals, friends, morals, subjects and all he can look forward to is the illusion of immortality presenter by the witches. Even now that illusion fades.
Raise your voice, open your mind, unlock your imagination