Act 5 Scene 5.

Characters: Macbeth and Seyton. Also some soldiers, and a messenger.

Time: War time will begin.

Location: Dunsinane, within the castle.

Events: Macbeth says the english army will fail and run out of food before they can break down the walls of his castle. Then we hear the screams of women from inside the castle, which Macbeth didn’t recognise. He then says something about his inability to feel fear. Then he discovers the screamer was his wife as she died. Then he speaks, and in that speech, Shakespeare talks about how life is just a player on a stage. He is despairing.             Then a messenger comes in and talks of how Birnam forest is walking towards his castle.

Quote: “Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me.” this is said by Macbeth, after hearing a woman scream(His wife dying), and realising he hasn’t felt fear in a while. Then he says this, which counts towards how insane he is, as he talks about how he continues to think horrible, murderous thoughts about everyone, and he doesn’t even care. At this point the reader/watcher will begin to realise that Macbeth is truely lost. He doesn’t feel fear, he wants to kill and he can’t see a problem in this, and his reaction to someone screaming was that, he doesn’t care. Macbeth has lost all his empathy for anyone but himself, and even then, he reckons that it doesn’t matter as he “Can’t be killed.”

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