Question

How is Macbeth's life comparable with 'a little candle'?

Answer 1

I believe that Shakespeare often expressed his own thoughts and feelings through his characters and that it isn't really Macbeth saying that life is but a walking shadow but Shakespeare himself. He expresses similar sentiments through Hamlet and also notably in a long speech by Duke Vincentio inMeasure for Measure, in which the Duke says that it's much better to be dead than alive. Shakespeare also expresses very similar ideas throughout King Lear, where at one point the King says that when we are first born we weep that we have come to this great stage of fools. (This is a nice metaphor because all babies cry when they are first born.) Duke Vincentio says that our own children, who are really parts of our own selves, do curse the gout, serpigo and rheum for not killing us off sooner. Do we think that all these characters are real people making up their own dialogue? I believe it is a mistake to attribute Macbeth's nihilism and cynicism to the character called Macbeth based on the fact that he has just heard that his wife has died. Shakespeare is expressing his own opinions about life--that it is meaningless, a great stage of fools, a tale told by an idiot--or "vanity of vanities (Ecclesiastes)." If we attribute these thoughts to a mere character in a play they lose their universal applicability and significance. We're saying, in effect, "Oh, he's just feeling bad because his wife died and he's losing the war. We all know that life is lots of fun and full of great expectations."