By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand?’ So begins one of the most famous soliloquies in Shakespeare’s Macbeth – indeed, perhaps in all of Shakespeare. Before we offer an analysis of this scene – and summarise the meaning of the soliloquy – here is a reminder of the famous speech. (If you would like an overview of the whole of Macbeth, we have analysed the play here.)
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Macbeth’s speech beginning ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow …’ is one of the most powerful and affecting moments in Shakespeare’s tragedy. Macbeth speaks these lines just after he has been informed of the death of his wife, Lady Macbeth, who has gone mad before dying (off stage). You can find our fully plot summary of the play here and our analysis of Macbeth here.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly’: so begins one of the most famous and revealing soliloquies in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth is widely regarded as one of the most villainous female characters in all of English literature, and perhaps Shakespeare’s most cold-hearted female character. Not only does she urge her husband to murder their King for no other reason than heartless ambition, she also states that she would dash out her own baby’s brains rather than lose her courage for such a regicidal act.
Yet to an extent, she is villainous more out of what she says than what she does. She doesn’t personally kill anyone in the play, although a modern court of law would still come down heavily on her for inciting her husband to do the deed and acting as his accomplice. And although she says she would kill her own baby, she is trying to outdo her husband in ruthlessness here, and spur him to ‘man up’, as she sees it.
Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragic heroes, not least because he represents the Man Who Has It All (seemingly) and yet throws it away because of his ‘vaulting ambition’ to have Even More: to be king. A brave and effective soldier who is rewarded by the King, Duncan, for quelling a rebellion against his king, Macbeth decides to kill this same king, while Duncan is a guest under Macbeth’s own roof, just so Macbeth can seize the crown for himself. What’s more, he embarks on this course of action largely because he is tempted to do so by the Three Witches (who prophesy that he will be King) and by a woman closer to home, his ruthlessly ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, who taunts his courage and his manhood (as it were) when Macbeth seems reluctant to go through with the deed.