Textuality » 4A Interacting
MACBETH – Act V, scene 5
TRANSLATION
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ENGLISH
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ITALIANO |
| MACBETH: What is that noise? SEYTON: It is the cry of women, my good lord. MACBETH: I have almost forgot the taste of fears:(10) SEYTON: The Queen, my lord, is dead. MACBETH: She should have died hereafter; | MACBETH: Cos’è questo rumore? SEYTON: È il pianto delle donne, mio buon signore. MACBETH: Ho quasi dimenticato il sapore della paura. È passato il tempoin cui I miei sensi si sarebbero gelati Udendo un urlo notturno, e I capelli Mi si sarebbero rizzati, tremandi, ad un racconto pauroso Come se fossere vivi. Mi sono riempito di orrori, e il terrore, familiari ai miei pensieri omicidi, non mi fa più sussultare. Perchè quell grido? SEYTON: La regina, mio signore, è morta. MACBETH: Sarebbe dovuta morire, prima o poi: Sarebbe venuto il momento per una parola così. Striscia a piccolo passi da un giorno all’altro, Fino all’ultima sillaba del tempo prescritto; E tutti I nostril ieri hanno illuminato agli stolti La via per una morte polverosa. Spegniti, spegniti, breve candela Al vita è come un’ombra che cammina ; un povero attore Che si pavoneggia e si agita per la sua ora sulla scena E del quale poi non si sente più nulla: è una stroia Raccontata da un idiot, piena di rumore e furore, Che non significa nulla. |
DENOTATIVE ANALYSIS
The text is an extract from the tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, in particular from act V, scene 5.
The text starts from a question: Macbeth asks to Seyton, the king’s armour-bearer, what is the noise he hears. The soldiers are advancing against Dunsinane castle and Seyton answers that the women are crying and shouting. Then Macbeth thinks about fears and how much the events have changed him.
In fact, after the murders he had committed, he admits that he had forgotten the taste of fears.
After that, Seyton enters again and communicates to the king that the queen is dead. Macbeth replies with indifference saying that she should have died hereafter. Finally he reflects upon the meaning of life, comparing life to a walking shadow and men to actors that walk on the stage and at the end, are heard no more.
So Macbeth thinks that life is like a tale, told by an idiot, that has no meaning.
COMPREHENSION
- Macbeth is surprised that he fells no fear and his senses haven’t become cold for the women that are crying. The he reflected on the reactions he would have had before his horrible feat to become king and now, nothing frights him no more.
- When Seyton tells the king that the queen is dead, he doesn’t despair of it, but he considers that she should have died hereafter.
- The queen dies because she became crazy. Her madness probably is due to her ambition and her sense of guilty because, in the previous scenes (V,1), Lady Macbeth speaks alone, as she’s having a vision about her hand that are full of bloody.
INTERPRETATION
1. I am impressed by the image of the human being as actors that are acting a tale, written by an idiot.
2. The metaphor underlines that human being seems to have to act a play that has been written for him by someone else. So he doesn’t control his life of he controls it a few by his actions. That’s what Macbeth lives because he urges to face his destiny by the witches and his wife, and so, first he killed Duncan, the king and one of his friend, and then Banquo.
3. The repetition of the word “tomorrow”, may mean that death should come sometimes and it “creeps in this petty pace from day to day”. So no one is immortal and death is written by destiny but the human being doesn’t know when she will come. It could happen tomorrow, tomorrow or tomorrow.
4. Macbeth reactions could be explained using the expression “he is unfeeling”.