Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...

"She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
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 17-28)

The ‘Tomorrow’ soliloquy is one of the most famous in the Shakespeare’s series. The speech comes from act 5, scene 5, of Macbeth and although there is a further three scenes of the play, in many ways this speech marks the end or, at the very least, the beginning of the end for the main named hero.


“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” is actually the third line of the soliloquy. It begins with Macbeth's response to his wife's death which is very much cold. "She should have died hereafter," he says, "There would have been a time for such a word tomorrow." In these first two lines, Macbeth essentially means that Lady Macbeth would have to die sometime, which is very different from the affectionate relationship the pair shared at the beginning of the play. His response shows his complete emotional shut-down and the unbearable personal cost of his rise to power.

In this speech, Macbeth battles with classical metaphors about the nature of life. Through his words, he shows the tragic consequences of his own actions: he has become an emotionless, apathetic creature, unable to feel even the most basic and primal of emotions which really shows Macbeth’s mental state at this point in the play in which is decreasing so much so that his sanity begins to unravel even before the murder of Duncan, “A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”.


The news that he is ‘invincible’ only calms him for a short time and, as the armies draw closer to Dunsinane, Macbeth displays denial, “I have almost forgot the taste of fears.”, which is suggestive of his awaiting downfall. In fact, it could be argued that the ‘Tomorrow’ soliloquy is Macbeth’s first moment of clearness since the ‘killing of the king’ plot was decided upon. This speech takes place directly after Lady Macbeth’s plummet to her death.

By act 5, insomnia and increasing notions of paranoia have caused him to murder everyone who he thinks is a threat to his throne. He goes on to state that “It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” which further emphasizes the notion that an individual’s life has no meaning, supposedly. The soliloquy suggests that Macbeth is struck by a clear realisation of the fragile and brief nature of human existence. Macbeth’s speech is an extremely depressed view of human mortality. His assertion that “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.” suggests that he believes his efforts to become King have been in vain, because the nature of existence will make certain that his memory dies with him.


The only way that he can deal with the guilt of his actions is by insisting that they are ultimately insignificant. Macbeth's final speech makes the nature of his tragic defeat clear: in pursuit of his "single state of man," he has shed the complexities which once made him whole.


Macbeth's speech plays on the Biblical themes of life as light and life as a story; namely, it harshly refutes these ideals. Life, according to Macbeth, "is a tale told by an idiot...signifying nothing." This is in direct opposition to Matthew 5.16, which instructs the faithful to "let your light shine before others." Macbeth, unlike his rival Macbeth, is unwilling and unable to accept the "welcome and unwelcome" aspects of his life.


The soliloquy is written in iambic pentameter, (a particular rhythm, measured in small groups of syllables, that the words are established within a certain line). This provides an emphasis of Macbeth’s feeling of hopelessness and pointlessness. A regular beat coupled with the repetition of the word ‘tomorrow’ gives the reader, or audience, a sense of the never-ending sense of time, which leads to the last syllable, ultimately, death.

I wanted to research further into this soliloquy and find other peoples opinions and views on it, so I decided to turn to my preferred field, Art.
I searched through many artists including Leonardo da vinci and Durer, but I couldn't find any drawing or painting of which I thought had real substance to it in order to embrace the emotions and the character of Macbeth and what he was feeling within this scene. I then researched into Vanitas artists in which also linked within my head, to the period of time within Macbeth and so to Macbeth himself. The Vanitas artists are a group of artists who feature objects that are rich in morbid symbolism such as skulls, reminding us of death, rotting food and fading flowers symbolising decay and aging, smoke, watches and hourglasses symbolising the brevity of life as well as either a peeled lemon or seafood that sums up life as being attractive to look at but with a bitterness to taste. This intriguing genre of still life became known in the 16th and 17th century, actually 5 centuries after Macbeth was set but in the same century of when it was written.
It's known that Shakespeare actually drew inspiration of mobidity and the realism of life and death from these artists and their paintngs, to create characteristics within the characters of Macbeth.
I found a few paintings of which I found quite intriguing and had real substance to them, substance of which, to me, link to that of the scene concerned and Macbeth's characteristics.

The painting above actually reminded me of the first part of the speech, where Macbeth first learns of his wife's death, "She should have died hereafter;There would have been a time for such a word."

The painting reminded me of this quote as it's where Macbeth is sayingthat his wife would have died sometime in the future anyway so she hasn't really shortlived her death. Quite a harsh speech which links with the coldness of the painting. Eventhough the couple are within an embrace, capturing the loving emotions of Macbeth and his wife at the start of the play of which by this scene is lost,  you still have that dominant deathly eyre to it, not only because the couple are posed as skeletons but you can see within the body language that underneath the loving embrace you have a superiority of the male skeleton as he holds the womans head to his chest, almost saying that he would hold her to his heart if he had one, but only breifly as he looks on ahead of her body, much like that of Macbeth within this scene.

I chose this second image as a possible representation for this scene and the mental state of Macbeth as I found that the way the artist has captured the isolaton of the skull - standing within the centre of the painting, of which has it's jaw unattached from it really demostrates the feeling of becoming nothingness, with the break down of the skull and it's bodily components. It shows the breakdown of an object of which was whole and together and now is apart and broken. By having the candle by the side of the broken skull of which has no flame is the symbolism of the fact that Macbeth's time is up. His life has become nothing, it has been blown out from sin of which the writing beneath connects with the parchment of the ten commandments. The fact that the words are in a language we cannot understand shows the language barrier of which keeps us at distance with that language, keeping Macbeth at a distance from god and his sinless pastlife.

After looking through the paintings, above, I found that I didn't feel that the paintings were enough to sum up the complete feelings of this scene and speech, they could only tell half the story. So I decided to seek inspiration within another artistic medium.

The Split Man sculpture, created by a group of artists called 'Buddhists of Ireland', represents the mental state of the dysfunctional human - here represented as a 30 year old. This human is falling apart because he cannot or will not dedicate his life to one goal, consequently can’t create his true self, and, by failing to apply that true self, achieve self-realization. He has now realised how frail and ‘pointless’ life is for him and everyone else around him since birth. How he is not secure within himself and his surroundings around him. Failure to make the goal a reality results in endarkenment, to wit, and ends in depression. Achievement of the goal results in enlightenment of himself and experience the experience of rapturous joy.

The Split Man wants to die, in fact, needs to die. He needs to return to his original state in order to recover his essential self, therefore his unique life and purpose will not continue due to his past sins. It’s the 100% application of life purpose that leads to the experience of the true self.

I found that this sculpture, the split man, in particular links well to that of Macbeth's character and emotions within the soliloquy scene that I have chosen as the pure self expression and body language that you can see within the sculpture is the pure imaginary expression of what you can imagine of Macbeth's pain and facial expression. The hatred found on the face of the statue as well as the deep distress pouring out of the split down the man's body coming from within, that's maybe be covered up and kept inside for a long time, craving to get out. It shows just how much the man has suffered to get to this point in time, to his death brought on by his sins. His bad choices have brought him here. It's like the devil has finally split through him to reach to his soul just like that of Macbeth's. Macbeth had no love towards his wife, only a cold emotion when finding she had thrown herself from the roof. She was going to die anyway, is the approach he took to it. You can see within your mind the rapid downfall of Macbeth's sanity and the on come of depressive behaviour and hatred towards himself, which can be found within the very foundation of the sculpture above. The terror and yet liveliness of the piece is everything Macbeth is within this scene.