Research Essay Example

Mine's a little different from yours, because mine focuses on a specific passage from a Shakespeare play. This means that my essay also has some elements of literary analysis. Otherwise, your should look like this: specific quotes from specific sources, and an answer to the question you were looking into -- in my case it was "Why is this speech so famous?"

"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."

--William Shakespeare, Macbeth, V:v:17-28


This is one of William Shakespeare's most famous soliloquies, from one of his most famous plays. It is the last soliloquy delivered by the title character in Macbeth; coming in the final act, just before Macbeth's tragic downfall, this speech expresses Macbeth's final all-consuming despair upon hearing of his wife's suicide, while his usurper's reign is facing its final defeat at the hands of Malcolm and Macduff's army, and when he himself is gearing up for his final fight. But like all of Shakespeare's great soliloquies, that is not all it is about. This speech, coming at this moment from this character, is not simply about despair and doom and death: it is about the futility of all of our actions, all of our acts, all of our fine words and noble deeds -- and thus, finally, it is about the courage and dignity of the human animal. Because we, like Macbeth, like William Shakespeare, know how useless it all is -- and we do it anyway.


Let us be clear: the speech is most certainly about doom and despair and death. Sir Ian McKellen, one of the more famous Macbeths of the last half-century, summed up this soliloquy by focusing on the final words of each line: hereafter, word, to-morrow, day (McKellen emphasizes "to day," joining the word with the emphasized "To-morrow" and "all our yesterdays" to include all of "the whole complex of time (video.google.com)," because Macbeth "is talking about eternity and [is] going to say something about it (video.google.com)."), time, fools, candle, player, stage, tale, fury -- nothing. Shakespeare's imagery, which McKellen believes is actually intended to help the actor find all of the different elements of despair that inform Macbeth's outlook at this moment, are nothing but the bleakest descriptions of a useless life with an equally useless ending -- lighting fools the way to dusty death; a poor player strutting and fretting his hour upon the stage and then vanishing, to be heard no more; an idiot's tale which means -- nothing. It is all nothing. Macbeth, prophesied by the three Witches to be the next King of Scotland, has wasted himself and his wife and his reputation and his honor and his king and his kin and everything he has -- for nothing. He did indeed become king, but because he used murder as his means, because he allowed his ambition to lead the way into that greatest role, it has all been a colossal waste, of himself, his country, everything.


But here's the remarkable part. The play doesn't end with this speech. In fact, the scene doesn't end with this speech. Just after Macbeth delivers these lines, he is confronted with more news: his enemies have come to his castle, and one of the impossible circumstances of his downfall, which made him so arrogant because it seemed impossible, has come true: Birnam Wood, an inanimate forest, has come to his castle of Dunsinane (Because the troops of his enemy have cut limbs from the trees in order to conceal themselves as they approached.). Any other tragic hero of Shakespeare's -- Marcus Brutus from Julius Caesar, King Lear, Othello, even that fop Romeo -- would already be jumping on his sword with this news on the heels of that speech. But not Macbeth. Macbeth, known from the play's beginning as the greatest warrior in Scotland, charges out to face his foes, taking solace in the fact that he, at least, will die armed and armored, in combat: "Ring the alarum bell! Blow wind, come wrack,/ At least we'll die with harness on our back. (V:v:51-52)"


Macbeth refuses to surrender to the inevitable. He refuses to give in to the knowledge that his actions have no meaning in the grand scheme of things. He knows, as we all know, that he will die; in his case he must know that he will die soon, because even though he has heard the witches say that he cannot be killed by any man "born of woman," he also heard that he would never be defeated until Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane -- and that just happened. Macbeth isn't fool enough to think the second prophecy would hold up any better than the first, but he wades into combat anyway -- saying "Lay on! And damned be him that first cries 'Hold, enough!'(V:viii:33-34)" Even though he is doomed, Macbeth fights until he can fight no more. Even though it is all futile, even though it was all for nothing, and even though he knows it, he keeps trying.


This is why Macbeth is noble. It is why all humans are noble, including Shakespeare, who must have been referring to himself when he wrote the words -- "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, and signifying nothing." It is why the actor reciting the lines is noble, even as he says "A proud player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more," even as he thinks that someday he will be heard no more -- perhaps even after this performance; perhaps, considering that the play is rumored to be cursed, considering that several actors have died during the rehearsal or performance of this play over the years (including one man, playing Macbeth's first innocent victim King Duncan, who was the victim of murder most foul when "in Amsterdam in 1672, the actor playing Macbeth substituted a real dagger for the blunted stage one and with it killed Duncan in full view of the entranced audience(pretallez.com).") -- and yet despite that final uselessness, or perhaps because of it, still the man gives it his all, tries to summon up and express the full character of Macbeth.


We are, all of us, doomed to be nothing. All of our actions are, most likely, going to be forgotten eventually. Most of them will be forgotten shortly after we finish doing them, and in some cases, even while we are right in the middle of the act. Even the Bard's words are not, despite the usual description, immortal; someday he will either be superseded by a greater author, or, more likely, simply vanish, lost in the tides of time. But as long as we, like Macbeth, fight to the last breath, as long as we continue trying to create meaning where there seems to be none, we create meaning. There is no stronger definition of courage than this: one who knows that he is doomed to fail, but tries anyway. Macbeth finished the fight, the actor finished the scene, William Shakespeare finished the play (and several more, as well), and we should finish what we start, as well. No matter how brief, no matter that it will eventually go out -- still, our candle is lit.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. "Macbeth." The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. David Bevington, ed. New York: Longman, 1997. 1219-1255.


"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow -- Ian McKellen analyzes Macbeth speech." Google Videos. 17 May 2010. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7225091828250988008#


Tritsch, Dina. "The Curse of 'Macbeth:' Is there an evil spell on this ill-starred play?" Orig. pub. in Showbill, 1984. The Unofficial John Vickery Homepage. 17 May 2010. http://pretallez.com/onstage/theatre/broadway/macbeth/macbeth_curse.html