Macbeth
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
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Macbeth Act V, Scene v Summary

Act V, Scene v

  • Macbeth (still at Dunsinane) insists that banners be hung outside the castle.
  • Many of his former forces are now fighting against him on the English side, making it difficult for him to meet the army in a glorious blaze. He does not despair though, as Dunsinane is so fortified that he imagines the enemy army will die of hunger and sickness before he ever even needs to leave the castle. In other words, he's going to wait this one out.
  • In the meantime, a shrieking of women tells Macbeth that his wife is dead – it's suicide. Macbeth here launches into one of Shakespeare's (and literature's) best known and oft-quoted speeches, beginning "She should have died hereafter," meaning one of two things: she would've died eventually so she might as well have died today or, she should have died later because I'm super busy defending the castle right now. (As an aside, Macbeth's statement in this scene that "Life's but a walking shadow […] a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury" is maybe the first occurrence of Existentialist thought in literature—it's also the basis of William Faulkner's famous work, The Sound and the Fury.)
  • Macbeth is quickly distracted by the news that a "grove" of trees seem to be moving towards Dunsinane, which is all around bad news, since said "grove" is likely Birnam Wood. Macbeth, realizing the prophecy was as twisted as the prophets, decides to go out and face the army, leaving his fortress. He admits he is weary of the sun anyway, and if one must go down, best to go down fighting.