All Is But Toys II (2.3.89-94)

Bill Long 8/14/05

The Shape of Macbeth's Grief

The previous essay focused on the word "chance" in 2.3.89 and concluded that it reflected Macbeth's despair of how things had "fallen out," how things had spun out of control (as we would say) beyond what he had imagined. He is not disclaiming responsibility for his action but he now knows that he cannot control his future. One of the many tragedies of Macbeth is how he, who now knows he can't control the future, nevertheless tries to do so as the play progresses. His ambitions founder on the hard reality of his own tyrannical nature, the incompleteness of his takeover and the the strength of the surviving thanes who will take up arms against him. This essay explores points (2) and (3) from the previous essay: Macbeth's sense of hopelessness in the speech, and the appearance of "renown" and "grace" next to each other.

Macbeth's Hopelessness

The words of the speech are worth repeating (and memorizing):

"Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant,
There's nothing serious in mortality;
All is but toys; renown, and grace, is dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of" (2.3.89-94).

He repeats himself in four different ways, each of them arresting in its brevity or in its picture. His "thesis statement" is in the first two lines. Had he died an hour before the events culminating in Duncan's death and the immediate aftermath, he would have lived a blessed life. How felicitously expressed. Rather than just saying, "I am undone," which he goes on to say, he uses words of blessedness. The effect of his inclusion of "blessed" is to heighten the sense of the reversal that has occurred. We often think that longevity is, by definition, a good thing. This is certainly the assumption behind many of our public debates about advances in medical technology or the (im)morality of assisted dying. But Macbeth's words here point to the poisonous gift of longevity. It is reminiscent of Herodotus' story in Book 1 of his Histories where he narrates the story of Candaules and Croesus of Lydia, where the latter realizes, after having experienced a great reversal, how "chancy" life is. Macbeth is speaking of the blessedness of dying young.

Then follow the four images that emphasize something slightly different--that his life is, in fact, over. They serve as repeated exclamation marks or different modes of expressing the same truth. Life, in its richness, its fulness, its varied plaid, is done, over, gone. There is no seriousness in mortality anymore. Life is merely trifles. Respected traits are no longer important. The "dirt" is all that remains of the sweetest drink known to humans. He needs these four images to stress the utter finality of something, since it is otherwise so difficult, if not impossible, to grasp. How could Macbeth's life be "over" when it is, in fact, just beginning? He will be crowed King in Duncan's place; the world is supposedly "just opening" up to him. How, before this happens, could the doors be closing, the breathing constricted, the hopes dashed? Thus, the repetition.

Mirroring Othello's Despair

We don't hear the full scope of Macbeth's despair at this moment until we place it side by side with Othello's words in Othello 5.2. He kills his wife Desdemona in that scene, but he justifies this action as a necessitated by her supposed infidelity. He tamps down whatever inner voices are encouraging him not to murder her, and then he does the deed. As the scene develops, and as Desdemona's body is discovered, Emila, Iago's wife, gradually realizes what has happened, and goes straight for Othello's jugular, so to speak, in seeking an explanation. Finally, Othello realizes that Desdemona has not been faithless, that his judgment was clouded by Iago's bitterness and that, in fact, he had "kill'd the sweetest innocent/ That e'er did lift up eye" (5.2.199-200). When the true horror of his act dawns on him, Othello knows too, that his life is over. No Gospel would be strong enough to carry good news to redeem him. Christ would have had to shed oceans, rather than pints, of blood to try to wash away Othello's ineradicable stain. When he realizes this, Othello says:

"Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail" (5.2.267-268).

Othello's suicide, which contributes to "the tragic loading of this bed" (5.2.363), is the inevitable result. Why didn't Macbeth likewise commit suicide? Possibly because he was still involved in the world of appearances and deceptions; Othello's illusions had all been shattered by the time he utters these words.

A Word on Two Words

Finally, in this brief speech Macbeth uses two words that are unusually suggestive. He says "renown, and grace, are dead." No edition that I consulted has footnotes for these words; they are seemingly straightforward. And maybe the first one is. "Renown" is fame or wide recogntion. To say that it is "dead" means that ambition, fame's fuel, is also worthless. The second word, however, caught my attention. Grace can have a secular meaning--honor--and so the meaning would be that fame and the honor attending it perished with Duncan's death. But why not read it as a theological term too? Macbeth is suffused with biblical images and terminology; why not see this as an indication of Macbeth's awareness that he has, by this act, absented himself from the realm of grace, placed himself beyond where forgiveness can reach? The blood of Christ no longer redeems because the blood of Duncan is ineradicable. Blood doesn't wash out blood. Ambition's legacy is the death of grace.

Conclusion

Who feels this way today? Many of us have felt hopelessness in life and perhaps have even uttered words not dissimilar to Macbeth. But those who are most on my mind are those who have lost loved ones through violence. Parents of Murdered children, whose web site (www.pomc.com) gets you started in understanding the variety of feelings that loved ones left behind experience, is the group that most knows the hues of hopelessness in our society today. I await conversations with them to tell me the full meaning of Macbeth's words.

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