Tag Archives: nihilism

Taking my own look at this highly scrutinized and famous speech – Macbeth’s response to hearing that Lady Macbeth is dead – I think that Macbeth’s level of despair at this point is beyond words (figuratively speaking). Regardless of whether or not we can point to his villainous nature and or “monster-like” behavior, what we see Macbeth experiencing hear is raw human suffering. Yes, he has killed his way to the throne and killed to keep himself there, but at this point I think Macbeth truly realizes the level of failure of all his actions. His effort hasn’t gotten him anything but pain and misery. His wife dead, his enemies advancing, his brief rule about to end – the realization of it all is simply too much for Macbeth to bear. I would argue that it’s not PTSD, per se, that causes Macbeth’s descent into madness, but rather his own realization of his systematic failure.

These lines contain some very nihilistic musings on the part of Macbeth, and while they’re interesting to analyze (with regard to what they say about the nature of a play, among other things), I’m not entirely sure whether or not they’re meant to be taken seriously. After all, even now when we’re driven to despair about something or another, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear something along the lines of “life sucks” and “what’s the point” – not because it’s true, but because we feel that much despair at that one point. For us, it usually gets better; for Macbeth, obviously not. The words he says, then, bring up a quite worrisome philosophical debate.