The following images have had Macbeth Soliloquys attached to them
by Joe Lacy
Anne Olofsson
Soliloquy for Anne Olofsson
This is one of the oddest soliloquies. In it, Lady Macbeth tries to prepare herself
for the act of regicide by calling on demons to possess her. It’s bristling with
imperatives, (come, stop, shake etc) & has a mad urgency, but at the same time a
sort of fearfulness. Those last two words are said in fright at her own nature. It’s
weird.
Act 1 Scene 5: The Raven Himself Is Hoarse (Spoken by Lady Macbeth)
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry 'Hold, hold!'
Sam Taylor Wood
Soliloquy for Sam Taylor Wood
This is fab! It’s near the end of the play; Macbeth has just heard of his wife’s suicide,
he knows the witches have tricked him & his whole world is unravelling before his
eyes. This is a bitter moment for him in which he compares life to a stage actor who
only thinks he has self will. The last line is devastating.
Act 5 Scene 5: Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow (Spoken by Macbeth)
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
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.
Gillian Wearing
Soliloquy for Gillian Wearing
Again, an obvious one. Macbeth is packed with references to appearance
& reality, disguise and truth. Here, Macbeth muses on murder, but wants
to seem the innocent.
Macbeth Act 1 scene 4
[Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.