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Else the Puck a liar call; William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 5 Scene 1

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If you haven’t believed what you’ve seen then call me a liar. Liar here could also be read as the actor’s mission. To make the lie as believable as truth.

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And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long; William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 5 Scene 1

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Think of me as “honest” – a true, real character. Puck is asking the audience to suspend their disbelief to let the narrative and the events they have just seen wash over them as in a dream. This is the highest calling of the theater. If I have done my job as an actor and character, Puck is saying, then I hope you will not boo me off stage.

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Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend: William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 5 Scene 1

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By referring to the audience as “gentles” there is the connotation of “gentlepeople” of a higher class. But also people that are “gentle,” calm and kind. Puck is essentially sucking up to the audience.

He speaks to the audience formally. “…if you pardon, we will mend.”

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6 years

Give the analysis the actual will or the point of the speech or simply translate it

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mark gentles

9 years

can send more information about gentles name

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If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear. William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 5 Scene 1

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream is concerned with verisimilitude. Both in reality and in art. Dreams and reality become entangled in the play. Love is nothing more than a fantasy caused by fairies in the forest and by extension reality is no different. There are plays within the play. Characters acting out of character and so on. The audience is distinctly aware that they are watching a play.

It is not surprising that Puck (whose name has become synonymous with mischief) closes the play by breaking the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience.

He plays coy and his wordplay acts as nods and winks to the audience. The “shadows” in the first line are not only the characters but the actors themselves, “shadow” being a synonym for “actor” and an apt metaphor for an actors duty. If they’ve “offend[ing]” the audience they have not done their jobs by making the story too fantastic to believe. Puck goes on to say that we should, if offended, simply think what we’ve been watching has all been a dream, a fiction.

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*A Midsummer Night's Dream* is concerned with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verisimilitude_(narrative)">verisimilitude</a>. Both in reality and in art. Dreams and reality become entangled in the play. Love is nothing more than a fantasy caused by fairies in the forest and by extension reality is no different. There are plays within the play. Characters acting out of character and so on. The audience is distinctly aware that they are watching a play.

It is not surprising that Puck (whose name has become synonymous with mischief) closes the play by breaking the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall">fourth wall</a> and speaks directly to the audience.

He plays coy and his wordplay acts as nods and winks to the audience. The "shadows" in the first line are not only the characters but the actors themselves, "shadow" being a synonym for "actor" and an apt metaphor for an actors duty. If they've "offend[ing]" the audience they have not done their jobs by making the story too fantastic to believe. Puck goes on to say that we should, if offended, simply think what we've been watching has all been a dream, a fiction.

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it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5

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http://youtu.be/kqkJOAo94AU?t=40s

Shakespeare shifts the metaphor from life being a minor actor to life being the actor’s speech, or the play itself. Not only are the actors absurd in themselves, they are acting in an absurd play authored by an idiot and filled with distracting but meaningless “sound and fury.” As humans we make a great clamor about ourselves; we philosophize and pontificate about “the meaning of life,” but we are doomed to find out there is none.

This is one of Shakespeare’s most iconic lines and has inspired many variants and tributes, most notably the title of William Faulkner’s 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury. Faulkner’s novel is in part narrated by a mentally retarded man, and its major theme, as in Macbeth’s speech, is the nature of time.

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1,584

4 years

Video’s broken, “National Theatre Live” claimed the video and removed it from being viewable. You need to use another or have none.

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8 years

In this last bit of the soliloquy Macbeth is saying that life is nothing. I get the impression that Macbeth wants the end to come as he has nothing to live for.

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8 years

fix video

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Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5

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The metaphor begun in the previous lines comes to fruition here. Macbeth speaks directly of “life,” dismissing it as a walking, or strutting, shadow–an insecure nothing, a minor actor who overacts his way through the play but is not memorable, and exits never to be heard from again.

“Shadow” in Shakespeare’s day could mean “actor”–as it does, for example, in Puck’s speech at the close of A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended…

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100

4 years

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139

4 years

He is talking about how someone comes, does their part for humanity and then disappears – dying – and are forgotten. This shows how he thinks of life – nothing more than walking across a stage, then being forgotten, lost in the sea of time and historical figures.

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8 years

In this extract maybe Macbeth is talking about how Life is not real and that your fate is already decided for you, as he is comparing life to an actor. When it says ´and then is heard no more´ Macbeth is saying once your dead then there is nothing after, which scared a lot of people in Macbeth´s time as most people back then were religious and the thought of nothing after death scared them.

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A.B.

8 years

This monologue shows some of the influence of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

The allegory presents four stages of thinking. The allegory starts with prisoners who have lived their entire lives chained up in a dark cave, forced to stare at a wall, where shadows are projected from puppets and statues passing in front of a fire located behind them. The prisoners believe that what they see is reality (the first stage of thinking). One prisoner is set loose and forced to turn around to look at the fire and the puppets and realizes that what he has always known has been nothing but a walking shadow, and he accepts the fire and the puppets as reality (the second stage). The prisoner is then dragged out of the cave into the sunlight and shown houses, people, trees, animals, etc. He realizes that the puppets and statues were only poor copies of these things, and recognizes the living world as reality (the third stage). He then looks directly at the sun and realizes that it is the true source and reason for everything he sees (the fourth stage). Plato’s point was that society is charged with the duty of educating its people and pointing them towards the truth (which would lead to wisdom and goodness).

Macbeth is like a man who turns around and sees the fire and the puppets, recognizes that what he has always known has been nothing but a shadow on a wall, but who believes the puppets are all that there is–that there is no real light, no sun and no living world. He has focused his sight on the wrong things (power and wrath, rather than loyalty and goodness) and believes that’s all there is.

This monologue shows some of the influence of Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

The allegory presents four stages of thinking. The allegory starts with prisoners who have lived their entire lives chained up in a dark cave, forced to stare at a wall, where shadows are projected from puppets and statues passing in front of a fire located behind them. The prisoners believe that what they see is reality (the first stage of thinking). One prisoner is set loose and forced to turn around to look at the fire and the puppets and realizes that what he has always known has been nothing but a walking shadow, and he accepts the fire and the puppets as reality (the second stage). The prisoner is then dragged out of the cave into the sunlight and shown houses, people, trees, animals, etc. He realizes that the puppets and statues were only poor copies of these things, and recognizes the living world as reality (the third stage). He then looks directly at the sun and realizes that it is the true source and reason for everything he sees (the fourth stage). Plato's point was that society is charged with the duty of educating its people and pointing them towards the truth (which would lead to wisdom and goodness).

Macbeth is like a man who turns around and sees the fire and the puppets, recognizes that what he has always known has been nothing but a shadow on a wall, but who believes the puppets are all that there is--that there is no real light, no sun and no living world. He has focused his sight on the wrong things (power and wrath, rather than loyalty and goodness) and believes that's all there is.

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Out, out, brief candle! William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5

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Lady Macbeth is here associated with candles. He is speaking directly to her, saying “goodbye,” but is also describing the nature of life in its fragility. Our lives are brief, burning things.

Notice the slight echo of Lady Macbeth’s earlier line: “Out, damned spot, out.” Serious guilt leaves a permanent stain on a life, but life itself is highly impermanent. Only death has gotten the hallucinatory, maddening spot “out”: thus it brings a sort of peace to the deceased along with grief to the living (Macbeth).

Robert Frost quoted this line in the title of one of his most famous poems, “Out, Out–.”

Orson Welles performing the speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcvh35RcoXA

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12 months

The brief candle could also refer to life itself. In this soliloquy, Macbeth ponders upon time and the meaning of living. As we find out, Macbeth believes that life is short and it has no real meaning – like how his endeavours for an easy life as king meant nothing in the end. Since he is literally saying that he wants to snuff the candle out, it could show that he wants his life to end quickly, hence his strong use of imperatives.

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4 years

Macbeth appears to reachhis lowest point in here. His life is nothing. Macbeth refers to his wive’s life as a brief candle, which is now extinguished. However, it also refers to the end of his kingship which was as short as a “brief candle” which fire was mute and small.

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Alfie Wallace

4 years

Macbeth could also be referring to the past that have “lighted fools the way to dusty death” when he says this line. He does not want to remember what he has done or he wants the guilt of his deeds to be snuffed like the light of a candle.

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5 years

Ian Mckellen’s performance is inarguably much better don’t @Me

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7 years

Perhaps the spot has been removed from her hands but surely even in death it will mark her soul as nothing is truly washed away from the eyes of God, least of a sin as great as that which Lady Macbeth has committed.

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8 years

In this phrase maybe Macbeth is talking about himself, as he is the candle and that his time is at an end.

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And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5

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Shakespeare begins a metaphor of the fool as a stand-in for all humanity and as an actor, which will be expanded upon later lines. Our pasts, “our yesterdays,” have shown each of us the way to our deaths.

Macbeth’s nihilism is on full display. The notion that our pasts would give us a way to live is here rejected and perverted into simply lighting the way to our “dusty death[s].” The dust having, of course, biblical overtones. “…for dust thou art, and unto death shall thou return.

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4 years

“dusty death” relates to when Thanos snapped his fingers.

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4 years

*“…for thou dust art ,and unto dust shall thou return.”

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Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time, William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5

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“To the last syllable of recorded time” metrically stresses “syllable” and “time.”

The image further links the temporal and linguistic metaphors: by using “syllable” rather than, say, “instant,” Macbeth is linking the fallibility of language with the petty tedium of time. It’s as if all our tomorrows were slowly, pedantically enunciated words. Many actors highlight this implication in the way they deliver the lines themselves:

https://youtu.be/4LDdyafsR7g?t=21s

Time is also “recorded,” like the written word; but as the rest of the speech shows, Macbeth views the whole record of human experience as a brief, meaningless babble.

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8 years

The P’s in ‘Petty Pace’ are known as plosives. Plosives is the sound made by closing the mouth and then releasing a burst of breathe.
Using a plosive in this soliloquy makes Macbeth almost like spit out the words ‘petty pace.´

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Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5

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This line only contains only two words, “tomorrow” and “and.” The rhythmic, childlike repetition mirrors the idea the words express: the relentless and absurd passage of time. The compulsive repetition also expresses Macbeth’s growing madness.

Here as always in Shakespeare, an actor’s delivery can bring out subtle elements. If recited slowly the words both illustrate the “petty pace” of the following line and illuminate Macbeth’s search for meaning, as if each “tomorrow” is a longing for another word.

Time has become an intolerable burden for Macbeth. The future now seems an overwhelming force leading him to his doom: the opposite of the tame, easy future he and his wife fantasized about before killing Duncan. See 1.5: “to all our nights and days to come / Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.” Now that his wife is gone, the future also seems hopelessly empty and tedious, even as life itself seems ridiculously short.

Ian McKellen analyzing and performing the speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGbZCgHQ9m8

Patrick Stewart analyzing the speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YGf_goOoDk

Patrick Stewart performing the speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZnaXDRwu84

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This line only contains only two words, "tomorrow" and "and." The rhythmic, childlike repetition mirrors the idea the words express: the relentless and absurd passage of time. The compulsive repetition also expresses Macbeth's growing madness.

Here as always in Shakespeare, an actor's delivery can bring out subtle elements. If recited slowly the words both illustrate the "petty pace" of the following line and illuminate Macbeth's search for meaning, as if each "tomorrow" is a longing for another word.

Time has become an intolerable burden for Macbeth. The future now seems an overwhelming force leading him to his doom: the opposite of the tame, easy future he and his wife fantasized about before killing Duncan. See [1.5:](http://genius.com/7501255) "to all our nights and days to come / Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom." Now that his wife is gone, the future also seems hopelessly empty and tedious, even as life itself seems ridiculously short.

*Ian McKellen analyzing and performing the speech:*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGbZCgHQ9m8

*Patrick Stewart analyzing the speech:*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YGf_goOoDk

*Patrick Stewart performing the speech:*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZnaXDRwu84

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119

3 years

3 metaphors for life, candle, shadow, actor

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6 years

After the death of his wife, Macbeth says that another day in his life would be just a futile and monotonous crawl towards the inescapable end. He mourns his wife’s death and the time after Lady Macbeth’s death (which indicates that Macbeth did love her a lot).
He also states that life is full of events and action, however absurd and short, and completely meaningless at the end.
Progressing towards the end of his soliloquy, Macbeth states that life is meaningless, useless, and empty, and that everyday just creeps by like every other day. After Lady Macbeth’s death, time seems to Macbeth an intolerable burden, and the future an overwhelming force that leads him to his destiny.
This is entirely opposite to the conventional and easy future he had fantasized about having with his wife before murdering King Duncan.
He feels his future is hopelessly tedious, and empty, while life looks ridiculously short.
The theme of these lines are: time, fate, fortune, and war. When Macbeth hears that his wife is dead, he expresses his indifference to the occasion. For him, death is merely a last act of a bad play, and like an idiot’s story-full of melodrama and bombast, but meaningless.
Killing Duncan, taking his throne, and now viewing all this as past memories, seems to be the scene of a well-planned script. If human life is a bad play, then it is an illusion- just a shadow spread by a candle, which is perhaps the soul, and hence a prediction for the life of Macbeth is grim. He refers to life as a tale told by an idiot and that there is not point in life, which also refers to the point that Macbeth is really depressed and sad because of his wife’s death.

After the death of his wife, Macbeth says that another day in his life would be just a futile and monotonous crawl towards the inescapable end. He mourns his wife's death and the time after Lady Macbeth's death (which indicates that Macbeth did love her a lot). 
He also states that life is full of events and action, however absurd and short, and completely meaningless at the end. 
Progressing towards the end of his soliloquy, Macbeth states that life is meaningless, useless, and empty, and that everyday just creeps by like every other day. After Lady Macbeth's death, time seems to Macbeth an intolerable burden, and the future an overwhelming force that leads him to his destiny. 
This is entirely opposite to the conventional and easy future he had fantasized about having with his wife before murdering King Duncan. 
He feels his future is hopelessly tedious, and empty, while life looks ridiculously short. 
The theme of these lines are: time, fate, fortune, and war. When Macbeth hears that his wife is dead, he expresses his indifference to the occasion. For him, death is merely a last act of a bad play, and like an idiot's story-full of melodrama and bombast, but meaningless. 
Killing Duncan, taking his throne, and now viewing all this as past memories, seems to be the scene of a well-planned script. If human life is a bad play, then it is an illusion- just a shadow spread by a candle, which is perhaps the soul, and hence a prediction for the life of Macbeth is grim. He refers to life as a tale told by an idiot and that there is not point in life, which also refers to the point that Macbeth is really depressed and sad because of his wife's death.

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