OUT, OUT BRIEF CANDLE

This famous soliloquy by Macbeth in the Shakespearean play of the same name, is the result of a profound grief experienced by Macbeth, who has just learned of the death of Lady Macbeth.  “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” is Macbeth ruminating on the persistent and, in his current mindset hopeless, forward motion of life on a daily basis.  The phrase, “out, out brief candle” is a commentary on the brief time that we possess on this earth in the grand scheme of things.  He then goes on to relate our lives to actors on a stage who “struts and fret’s his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more”.  This reminds me of another Shakespeare play, As You Like It; “All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.”  Finally, he compares life to a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing”. While this part sounds quite fatalistic, and in his depressive state he is probably being a bit hyperbolic, there is a bit of truth here.  Apart from the clear central importance of love at its core, life has no inherent meaning.  Rather, we create meaning in our individual lives and when we recognize the importance of “loving our neighbor” as the main driver of our motivations, we find a wealth of deep meaning and connection that defies explanation and could perhaps eventually console Macbeth, bringing him some peace through his journey of grief.