Macbeth Then And Now Literary Techniques

Without literary techniques to guide his writing, Shakespeare would never have achieved the success that he did or portrayed the ideas of his characters as easily. In Shakespeare's famous tragedy Macbeth, various literary techniques are used to sum up Macbeth’s existential state of mind in his final soliloquy, effectively communicating a theme of the meaning of life for someone evil. In Macbeth’s soliloquy, Sheaksphere writes the character Macbeth repeating the word “tomorrow,” to put emphasis on the time it takes for each day to pass. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time,” (5.5. 19-21) Macbeth says this because to him, each day means nothing in the long run, and he realizes this, contributing to an existential state of mind, and the literary technique of repetition makes this all the more obvious. Life means nothing and yet life going slowly and painfully on could be described as agony, what Macbeth feels at this point in the soliloquy. He can no longer justify his deeds but feels he doesn’t have to anymore because he has decided that life itself is devoid of its meaning.

Metaphors such as comparing life to a poor player, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more.” (5.5. 24-26) can enhance the sentences meaning and what it might mean to Macbeth. Living and then dying and having lived badly or unexcitedly and it not mattering could contribute to a very depressing way of thinking, again referring to the existentialism Macbeth seems to have subscribed to. Nothing to live for and yet having done so much to achieve what he thought was his life’s meaning could result in hopelessness. Macbeth’s description with the use of a metaphor connects to an overarching theme of life’s