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“She should have died hereafter; there would have been time for such a word. 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.” Macbeth, pg. 90


Shakespeare opens the passage with Macbeth’s shocking response to the news of his wife’s death. Instead of shock or horror, Macbeth shows a different kind of melancholy. He says that Lady Macbeth would have died eventually; that if not this day, another day would certainly have brought the dire news of her death. Even though the Lady seemed super-humanly cunning and strong-willed, in the end she proved to be only mortal. Here, Lady Macbeth is a symbol for the doomed race of human kind, and through Macbeth, Shakespeare introduces the idea of inevitable death and the frailty and unimportance of human life.
Using repetition of the word “tomorrow” Shakespeare emphasizes that life goes on and death succeeds it, no matter what man does to try and slow it. “Tomorrow” is also personified and said to “creep[s] in”, making the point that time goes by quickly and death sneaks up from its many hiding places. The “pace” of time is also personified to be “petty” cruel and meaningless by connotation. The “yesterdays” of time are also personified and said to have “lighted fools the ways to their dusty deaths.” Life plays tricks on the human race to make them believe they are making the most of their lives, but it all amounts to nothing in the end; men are forgotten, time goes on.
“Out, out, brief candle,” cries Macbeth, using a “candle” as a metaphor for the life of a man or woman, so fragile, vulnerable, easily swayed by the winds of the world, and all...