To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
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.
— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 19-28)
STARTER: What does Macbeth mean? INTERPRET the passage.
Do you agree with Macbeth? Why or why not?
Macbeth may have been an early existentialist...
He suffered from an “existential attitude”, defined by Robert C. Solomon as “a sense of disorientation, confusion, or dread in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.”
JOURNAL #6:
Which pieces of existentialism are you attracted to? Repulsed by?
Do any of these tenets have a place in your own personal philosophy?
With which quote do you agree more? Macbeth’s “Tomorrow” speech or Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle…”?