OUT, OUT BRIEF CANDLE

In one of Shakespeare’s most haunting soliloquies, Macbeth responds to the crushing grief of Lady Macbeth’s death with words that have echoed through the centuries: “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…” Here, he laments the relentless march of time — a slow, weary trudge that feels to him both hopeless and meaningless.

When he declares, “Out, out, brief candle!” Macbeth recognizes how fleeting human life truly is. Our days, like a candle’s flame, flicker briefly before vanishing into darkness. He deepens the metaphor by likening us to actors upon a stage: “struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.” The performance ends, the curtain falls, and silence swallows the noise.

This idea reverberates with Shakespeare’s As You Like It: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…” — a reminder that each of us has entrances, exits, and roles to play across the span of a life.

Macbeth concludes with perhaps his bleakest vision: life as “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Though steeped in despair and colored by his mental state, this line captures a sobering truth. Life itself may not come prepackaged with meaning. Apart from the centrality of love, existence offers no built-in purpose — it is we who must create it.

Yet this is where hope emerges. When we root our lives in compassion and embrace the command to “love our neighbor,” we uncover a wellspring of meaning and connection that transcends explanation. It is precisely this love — fragile yet enduring — that redeems the futility Macbeth perceives, offering solace in grief and purpose in the face of life’s brevity.