At the end of the third scene, Macbeth speaks with the doctor regarding the health of his wife. The doctor tells Macbeth that his wife is troubled with many visions or hallucinations in her mind (“thickcoming fancies” – line 40). Macbeth then asks if the doctor can cleanse or remove “that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart” (46-47). The word stuff here refers to the acts of evil or the guilt that is a result of those evil acts. Obviously, the doctor has no medicine to remove guilt.
The connection between the state (kingdom or nation) and the king is also reflected in the dialogue with the doctor. Macbeth asks the doctor to “cast the water of my land, find her disease” (52-53). The word cast here means to test. Just as a doctor will test or analyze the urine of a patient to see what is wrong, Macbeth wants this doctor to test the waters of Scotland to find out what is wrong with that nation. Once again Shakespeare is asserting the idea that the state of the state depends upon the state of the king. Scotland is ill because it has an evil king sitting on its throne. Macbeth himself is the problem. This line is similar to the one spoken by Oedipus to the soothsayer in Oedipus the King. Oedipus asks the gods to find out what is wrong with his city, but Oedipus does not realize that he himself is the source of the problem.
In the brief fourth scene of this act, Prince Malcolm orders his soldiers to cut down branches from the trees of Birnam Wood. The soldiers will then hold the branches in front of them as they advance on Macbeth’s castle. Thus, the branches will hide Malcolm’s troops; and the people in Macbeth’s castle will not be able to notice the movement of the troops coming closer to them until it is too late. The troops will most likely make their movements toward the castle in the very early hours of the morning. Then it is dark and foggy. By the time the people in the castle realize that Birnam Wood has come to them, they will be too late. They will not have enough time to prepare properly for the attack.
In the fifth scene, in Macbeth’s castle, the people hear a blood-curdling shriek from several women. The shriek or scream comes from the women who cry upon discovering the dead body of Lady Macbeth. The cry or scream, however, does not startle Macbeth. He is still without fear at this point because he still believes that he cannot be harmed.
When Macbeth is informed of his wife’s death, he regrets that he does not have time to mourn her (16-17). There is a battle coming, there is a war to be fought.
Nevertheless, Macbeth does make a very brief speech not about his wife, but about life in general. The lines (forming a poem) are perhaps the most important lines of the play. The lines are also extremely existential in meaning:
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle.
The first two lines of this poem (18-19) indicate that each day, one after another after another after another, is like the next. The movement of time is slow (“petty pace”) in that each day is painful and agonizing and never seems to end. Macbeth is referring not only to his own lifetime, but to the entire history of mankind (“recorded time” – line 20). The word yesterdays (line 21) suggests the entire past history of mankind. Macbeth states that all that the past has really accomplished is to bring everybody to a dusty death. Everybody is a fool, according to Macbeth. All actions are foolish, all thoughts are meaningless. Man accomplishes nothing, and then he dies. But his death is a dusty death. He is buried in the ground or dust, and that is the end. There is no mention of a grand soul rising to heaven. Man starts as dust and ends as dust. There is nothing else before or after. The life of a man means nothing.
Macbeth then begins listing a series of metaphors for life. The first metaphor indicates that life is a candle (line 22). The life of an individual, like a candle, burns brightly and intensely for a very short time. After a candle is burnt out, there is nothing left but some melted wax to be thrown away. The leftover wax is just trash. A person’s dead body is like the leftover wax. It also is just trash to be thrown away. And the memory of the dead person is not any more significant than the memory of the used candle.
In the second metaphor, life is compared to a shadow (line 23). A shadow has no substance. It is airy. It is nothing. Macbeth is basically saying that life is nothing.
In the third metaphor, life is compared to an actor (or player – line 23). An actor pretends to be somebody important or significant while he is on the stage, but he is really quite unimportant or insignificant in reality (actors were considered as lowly commoners during the Renaissance). Macbeth is thus asserting that all people may think they are important or significant, but they are not. Everybody is insignificant. This metaphor also indicates how short life is. An actor may appear in a particular role for the short time of two or three hours that he is on the stage (“his hour” – line 24). But then the play ends. That character is no more. He was only alive for a short time. And everybody’s life is also short. A human life lasts but a brief moment, and then it is gone forever.
The fourth and final metaphor compares life to a story (or tale – line 25). A story is fictional. It is not real. Macbeth is suggesting that life itself has no real meaning or existence. Not only is life a story, but the author of it is an idiot. He has written nonsense. He has not put any meaning or significance in the story. Rather, life is just a random series of events that have no connection with each other. The story just does not make any sense. The story may be “full of sound and fury.” People may yell or scream as if they were important or significant and that everything matters. But, in reality, their lives signify “nothing” and nothing really matters at all.
This speech is a classic example of existentialism in literature. Existential literature usually focuses on the meaningless or purposelessness of life. Macbeth certainly feels that his own life has had no purpose or meaning. Shakespeare, then, is indicating that the achievement of one’s ambition will not necessarily provide significance or meaning to one’s life. In fact, the achievement of one’s ambition may have precisely the opposite effect.
At the end of the fifth scene, a messenger informs Macbeth that Birnam Wood is indeed coming toward the castle (32-33). When Macbeth realizes that the third prophecy will come true after all, he becomes weary or tired (47). He no longer has any confidence that he will survive the battle. And, so, Macbeth’s only wish now is that the world will come to an end (48). He is tired of performing on the stage of life.
In this extremely brief scene, the soldiers who are marching with Prince Malcolm throw down their tree branches and advance upon Macbeth’s castle.
Macbeth is still experiencing mixed and confused emotions at this point in the play. On the one hand, he feels trapped: “Bear-like I must fight the course” (2). During the Renaissance, bearbaiting was a popular (but cruel) form of entertainment. At such events a bear would be tied to a stake (or post), and dogs would then be released to attack it. Macbeth then feels like a trapped bear being attacked. But like such a bear, he is also quite violent and savage.
On the other hand, Macbeth also feels
confidence in the prediction made by the witches. The battle has begun at this time, and a soldier named Young Siward attacks Macbeth. Macbeth kills Young Siward and comments that no soldier born of woman can harm him.
Macduff enters the stage, seeking vengeance on Macbeth.
The forces of Prince Malcolm have almost won. Many of Macbeth’s own soldiers are turning against the evil king.