Tuesday, September 27, 2011

What are some important quotes from Act 5, scene 3 of Shakespeare's play Macbeth?

When Macbeth is alone on stage, he delivers a soliloquy that reveals his innermost feelings at this point in the play.  He says,



My way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
I must not look to have, but in their stead
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath
Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not.  (5.3.26-32)



He means that he has begun to age, and all the things that typically come with old age such as good friends, respect, and love, he doesn't have.  Instead, he is cursed by others, not loudly (because they fear him) but deeply (from their hearts), and the only honor he gets is from people's mouths rather than their hearts because no one is loyal to him.  People would want to speak against him from their hearts if they were not so afraid to do so.  In other words, we see some regret here, a little remorse that Macbeth's reign, and life, have not turned out the way he thought they would.


Further, when Macbeth speaks to the doctor about his wife, he asks,



Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart? (5.3.50-55)



By this, he means that he's surprised the doctor can do nothing to help his wife.  He knows that she's tormented by her guilt, and so he tells the doctor to find a way to get inside Lady Macbeth's brain and get rid of the memory that bothers her.  He wants the doctor to unburden her somehow, but that is not what medicine does (as the doctor tells him).  This quote really helps to show how distant Macbeth and his wife have become, especially given that they thought of each other as "partner[s]" before they committed the murder of Duncan together.  Now Macbeth can hardly be bothered with her and her regret.

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