ACT 5 SCENE 5.
Dunsinane. Within the castle. Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours Reminds us that he’s still king
MACBETH
Hang out our banners on the outward walls; Pride
The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strength Pride/confidence, false confidence
Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie Personification
Till famine and the ague eat them up: Metaphor
Were they not forced with those that should be ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, Alliteration, vivid vocab, ‘beard’
And beat them backward home.
A cry of women within Haunting – gives us facts
What is that noise?
SEYTON
It is the cry of women, my good lord.
Exit
MACBETH
I have almost forgot the taste of fears; Metaphor
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 Personification
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors; Metaphor
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts Personification
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, Personification / repetition
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time, Metaphor
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Symbolism – Queen’s life – Life
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player Personifcation
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage Character referring to acting
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Modern Prose translation.
Hang out our banners on the outward walls, because the enemy has arrived. The strength of our castle will easily withstand a siege; they will be beaten by famine and disease if they besiege the castle. If the English were not supported by our own fellow Scotsmen, we could have ridden out there and fronted them face to face and beaten them backwards.
I have almost forgotten what if feels like to be scared. Once I would have been startled by a night owl (like the night when he killed Duncan) or a scary story. Now, however, I have seen and done such terrible things that nothing alarms me.
I wish she could have died later not now, then I could mourn – or she would have died sooner or later. My life has become boring and repetitive and goes on until the end. Life is short like a candle’s flame - or - her life was too short like a candle’s flame. Life is just a shadow, something lesser and incomplete that doesn’t last and doesn’t get heard of again. Life often involves stress and excitement and worry but in the end doesn’t mean anything.