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Sound and Fury
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
[B]told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.[/B]
[B]Signifying nothing.[/B]
Macbeth, Scene V.
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Re: Sound and Fury
I'm not sure I get what you wrote....but for some reason or another it sounds to me like it's geared towards the POTUS.
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Re: Sound and Fury
Chub, I didn't write it, Shakespear did and its aimed at all of us.
Grumpy
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Re: Sound and Fury
Shakespeare's message in this passage is essentially a Nihilist one: life is futile and meaningless, and not worth living. His secondary purpose in writing these lines, most critics believe, was to criticize the insipid nature of popular theater, which (like cinema today) relies heavily on special effects and conflict without context.
Which one of these sentiments, Grumpy, is "aimed at all of us?"
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Re: Sound and Fury
JCB. neither and both. The thing I love about political stuff and especially about Shakespear, is that it can be interpreted in so many different ways. However, I don't get my interpretations from Google. Keep looking.
Grumpy
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Re: Sound and Fury
[QUOTE=Grumpy;428140]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
[B]told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.[/B]
[B]Signifying nothing.[/B]
Macbeth, Scene V.[/QUOTE]
That is from Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5, Lines 19-28. The speaker was Macbeth.
Macbeth, my old high school nemesis, has once again raised his lode of Bardisms. He should have been dropped into the witches cauldron. lol
After hearing that his wife had died, Macbeth takes stock of his own indifference to the event. Death - our return to dust - seems to him merely the last act of a very bad play, and idiot's tale full of bombast and melodrama ("sound and fury"), but without meaning ("signinfying nothing"). murdering King Duncan and seizing his throne in retrospect seem like scenes of a script Macbeth was never suited to play. The idea that "all the world's a stage" is occasionally very depressing to Shakespeare's heroes.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow -- along with the other phrases culled from this lode of Bardisms - conveys the mechanical beat of time as it carries this poor player-king from scene to scene. "The last syllable of recorded time -- what Macbeth earlier called "the crack of doom" - casts time as a sequence of words, as in a script; history becomes a dramatic record. If life is like a bad play, it is thus an illusion, a mere shadow cast by a "brief candle." The candle is perhaps the soul, and the prospects for Macbeth's are grim. Enotes
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Re: Sound and Fury
[QUOTE=Grumpy;428179]JCB. neither and both. The thing I love about political stuff and especially about Shakespear, is that it can be interpreted in so many different ways. However, I don't get my interpretations from Google. Keep looking.
Grumpy[/QUOTE]
Grumpy could you possibly ever answer a question with facts or details, instead of vague anti-aphorisms?
I'd be interested to know what unique interpretation of this scene you have, especially if it differs from the ones I mentioned, which are the only ones I've ever heard. As an English major, and one of those weirdos who actually enjoyed Shakespeare, I'd love to hear it.
You said "neither" of these was what you intended. (You also said "both" but I'm trying to ignore nonsensical statements.) What IS the interpretation you intended?
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Re: Sound and Fury
jcb, birth is a terminal illness!!
Grumpy
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Re: Sound and Fury
Um...purple yesterday banana morning pretzel?
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Re: Sound and Fury
jcb, Yum, Yum!! Sounds good to me, but I don't understand what is nonsensical about the meaning of something being neither and both at the same time. As i mentioned in political speach, it happens all the time.
Anyhow, you are not the only weirdo who enjoyed Shakespear. I am sure that there are many many people that still enjoy his works. I didn't care for most of the comedies, but I did like the tragedies and even a few of the Kings.
Grumpy
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Re: Sound and Fury
[QUOTE=jcb;428159]Shakespeare's message in this passage is essentially a Nihilist one: life is futile and meaningless, and not worth living. His secondary purpose in writing these lines, most critics believe, was to criticize the insipid nature of popular theater, which (like cinema today) relies heavily on special effects and conflict without context.
Which one of these sentiments, Grumpy, is "aimed at all of us?"[/QUOTE]
If he wass saying that life is futile, isn't that inherently aimed at all of us? Did he not mean all of our lives? Or was he saying that only certain lives aren't worth living?
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Re: Sound and Fury
[QUOTE=Grumpy;428193]jcb, birth is a terminal illness!!
Grumpy[/QUOTE]
Very true! Reminds me of another quote:
"He not busy being born is busy dying."
-Bob Dylan