ACT V – Scene 5

MACBETH
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.
Re-enter SEYTON
Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
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.

TRANSLATION

MACBETH
Ho quasi dimenticato il sapore delle paure;
Il tempo è passaro, in cui i miei sensi si sarebbero congelati
Nel sentire un grido notturno; e i miei capelli
Si sarebbero raddrizzati e mossi al trattato pauroso
Come se ci fosse stata vita in loro: mi sono saziato con gli orrori;
Le atrocità, familiari con i miei pensieri omicidi
Non possono più spaventarmi
Rientra Seyton
Per cos'era quel pianto?
SEYTON
La regina, mio signore, è morta
MACBETH
Lei doveva morire prima o poi;
Sarebbe venuto il tempo per una parola del genere.
Domani, e domani, e domani,
Striscia a piccoli passi di giorno in giorno
Fino all'ultima sillaba del tempo descritto,
E tutti i nostri ieri hanno illuminato i pazzi
Alla via polverosa della morte. Spegniti, spegniti, breve candela!
La vita non è che un'ombra vagante, un giocatore scarso
Che avanza e agita sul palco la sua ora
E dopo non è più udito: è una storia
Raccontata da uno stupido, pieno di grida e di furia,
Significando nulla

ANALYSIS

In this act, at first, Macbeth reflects on himself. He says how he has forgotten the taste of fear meaning that he doesn't know anymore what fear is and that he's leaving in a period where he can't feel any senses. There was a time where he could feel them but at the moment, since he has been used to coping with horrors that he can't feel anything. In the first line he uses the expression "taste of fears" and that means that he's using the language of sense impression to leave a more vivid impression on the watchers or the readers to understand better how he feels. He says that in the past, he would have reacted to a night shriek but now he can feel nothing. The topic of this first soliloquy is how people can change time and the passing of time because he feels like he has lost all humanity and that in the passing of time he has eaten all the sorrows.

After this, Seyton re-enters and Macbeth asks what was that cry for and Seyton replies saying that the queen has died.

Now comes the most important and beautiful part of this play: the reaction of Macbeth to this news. He starts saying that Lady Macbeth was bound to die and that this time had to come. In the forth line there is an alliteration: petty pace. In this last part, life is described through some metaphors. Shakespear says that life is like a candle whose flame at some certain point will go out and like that, even life one day will end. The other metaphor that he uses to describe life is the one of stage. He says that life is paragonable to a walking shadow (personification) and theatre stage where the actor has to act. So what he's trying to say is that we are like actors that have to act on a stage for a certain period and when it ends, no one will notice it. Here the watcher or the reader can understand the reflection of life expressed by Macbeth. Important thing to notice is that even to a such drastic news, he doesn't show emotions because like previously told by him, he can't feel anything. He says our life is a continous passing of time that goes from today to tomorrow. In order to describe the segment of life he uses the word syllable. The last metaphor that we can see here is the one that describes life as a story told by a fool. Life is like a story because it starts and it ends also but it has no meaning.