Macbeth Figurative Language Essay

In Macbeth, Shakespeare addresses the conflict between the insignificance of life and the moral choices one can make throughout the time they have by placing Lady Macbeth’s untimely death in the middle of a battle instead of afterward where there “would have been time for such a word” (5.5.21). The continual use of figurative language throughout Macbeth’s soliloquy heightens the idea that life is meaningless, especially through diction in the personification of the future as “creep[ing] in this petty pace” (22). The unimportance of one’s future and meaning in life is emphasized through being described as petty. While this may seem like just a small adjective, Shakespeare builds onto this meaninglessness by having his character say that the hopes and dreams of what is to come all mean nothing. The theme of …show more content…
Another jab is taken at life’s value when it is compared to “a walking shadow” (27). Though a shadow at times may seem to be lifelike, this metaphor uses the side of shadows that is dark, empty, and without substance or value. To make Macbeth’s attitude of life’s insignificance more passionate, he brings in a Biblical allusion that most readers would recognize. “The way to dusty death” in which life leads points back to the Biblical story of how man (Adam) came from the out of the dust and must return to it once he dies. When this connection is made, it brings with it a sense of eternal meaninglessness. When all man is destined to do is come out of the dust just to go back to it, it takes the meaning out of whatever happens in between. The final diction used really accentuates the theme when it is said that life is only “a tale / Told by an idiot... / Signifying nothing” (29-31). The theme of life being a story that ends up having no meaning is highlighted by ending a substantial soliloquy with declaring that it all signifies