Macbeth Ambition Quotes Page 4

The story of Macbeth and his wife serves as a cautionary tale for the overly ambitious. By the play's end, the once power hungry Lady Macbeth is plagued with guilt and turns to suicide. Macbeth's response to the news of his wife's death is just as bleak. The words "to-morrow, and, to-morrow, and to-morrow" suggest that the world has lost all meaning for him. He says life is a "tale" "full of sound and fury" and, ultimately, the story signifies "nothing." In the end, Macbeth sees himself as nothing more than a character in a story that has absolutely no meaning, which is a pretty depressing point of view.

Of course, this reminds the audience that these words are being spoken by an actor on stage. This self-conscious moment is pretty typical of Shakespeare, who often reflects on the workings of the theater in his plays. In As You Like It, Jaques says something quite similar: "All the world's a stage/ And all the men and women merely players"(2.2.139). The difference between Macbeth and As You Like It, however, is that Jaques, an amused cynic, seems to take some pleasure in the similarities between the theater and the world. Here, Macbeth is full of despair.

FYI: This passage inspired the title of William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.