Macbeth
She should have died hereafter.
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
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.
has written for us - roles "Which must be acted ere they may be scanned"? Or
is Shakespeare adding one final sin - the sin of despair - to the catalogue of
Macbeth's moral failings?
hubris; for "Not in the legions / Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned /
In evils to top Macbeth". He is "... bloody, / Luxurious, avaricious, false, de-
ceitful, / Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin / That has a name". Oedi-
pus has nothing on Macbeth.
temp'rance, stableness, / Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, / Devotion,
patience, courage, fortitude". And now, he is without hope.
brief (Christian) explanations of Virtue, Vice, and Sin taken from different cat-
echisms. The goal of these explanations is not to make you good, but to give
you useful tools for dealing with Western literature.