“Out, Out” is a graphic and emotional poem about the tragic death of a young boy. It is a powerful expression about the shortness of life and the fact that death can strike at any time. ¹ The fact that the boy’s death came right before he could “call it a day” leads one to think that the tragedy could have been avoided (line 10). This poem brings the question of mortality to the reader’s attention and shows that death does not discriminate. It could strike at any time no matter who the person is or what they have or have not done in their life. ² Frost also makes a reference to William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, in which Macbeth’s famous speech is a parallel to the occurrences in this poem. The poem brings out several important issues such as the uncertainty of life, the inevitable acceptance of death, and the unpredictability of what the future may hold. This poem also represents the harsh reality of life in the countryside and its sometimes fatal endings.
“Out, Out” was an appropriate title for this poem because the famous soliloquy where this comes from is when Macbeth learns about the sudden death of his wife, Lady Macbeth. ¹ The first line of his acclaimed quote is that “she should have died hereafter.” He is stating that it was not her time to leave the world yet, just like it was not the young boy’s time either. The boy had so much to live for, but now it will never be. He used those two specific words for the title of his poem because in Macbeth’s soliloquy, he states “Out, out, brief candle!” in which he is imagining a candle being blown out. Just like a candle, the lives of Lady Macbeth and the young boy were taken out, or blown away, forever. Unlike the lives of the two characters, a candle can be relit and start...
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...there just was not time to do so.
In the last line of this poem, the narrator enters a state of complete detachment, almost as if indifference is the only way to cope with the boy’s death. Nothing can be built on nothing. The living have lives to lead, things to still “build on.” Macbeth did thesame. He turned to his pressing affairs after mourning his wife’s death for only a short moment. He knew that there was nothing that he could do to change what had already been done. In Macbeth’s soliloquy, he says that “life...struts and frets his hour upon the stage,” but this young boy had far less than his allotted hour. The boy’s death was a prime example of how death is completely unexpected. No one likes death, especially when it takes the life of an innocent child. Death cannot be predicted, and this poem proves the fact that it can strike at any time to any one.
An unknown author once wrote “Never take life too seriously; after all, no one gets out of it alive”. When reading this quote, there can almost be an immediate connection between two very good works of writing: Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” speech from Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, and the poem “Out, Out --” by Robert Frost. Both allude to the idea that a single life, in its totality, denotes nothing, and eventually, everyone’s candle of life is blown out. However, each poet approaches this idea from opposite perspectives. Frost writes of a young, innocent boy whose life ends suddenly and unexpectedly. His poem is dry and lacks emotion from anyone except the young boy. Whereas the demise of Shakespeare’s character, Macbeth, an evil man, has been anticipated throughout the entire play. Through these writings, we are able gather a little more insight as to how these poets perhaps felt about dying and life itself.
The one thing that all of Shakespeare’s plays have in common is a tragic conclusion, which results in the death of the hero. What is unique about the deaths of these heroes is that all of the problems that lead them to the end are self-induced. The heroes are always in control, and make crucial judgemental errors which ultimately lead to their own demise. While it is clear that the hero Macbeth causes his own death in this famous play, there are also third-party influences which push him towards this end. The three witches plant a desire for power and growing confidence in Macbeth, while Lady Macbeth eventually persuades him to go down a path of violence, and kill King Duncan in order to take his place on the throne.
The title ‘out,out’ is taken from the shakespearean play Macbeth. In which the main character Macbeth begins to speak after finding out his wife is dead. There is a comparison between Lady Macbeth's death and a blown out candle, there is effective use of the simile “Out, out, brief candle!” The boy’s death and lady macbeth’s death are both tragic disasters. Both Lady Macbeth and the boy in ‘out, out’ have their lives taken away before it is time for them to die, they haven’t been given the chance to live a long life and die a natural life. The comparison between the two and the candle is effective as it symbolises how quickly a candle can be blown out, just like how quickly their lives were taken away from them. The use of the candle once again, shows how when the light it taken away from the candle, it is left with nothing but darkness, which is similar to how the families of Lady Macbeth and the boy would have been left with darkness in their hearts after facing such a loss. The use of “brief candle” is symbolic as it is a direct comparison to the boy, his life was taken way from him before he could even become a man and reach manhood. Another similarity between Lady Macbeth and the boy, is once both their lives have been taken away, their surroundings move on and go back to their regular routine, almost forgetting completely about the death. Macbeth shows how brief and meaningless life really is, “Life's but a walking shadow…is heard no more…signifying nothing…” Similarly, in ‘Out, out’ the boy also demonstrates how meaningless life is throu...
Macbeth realizes now that he really did get what he wanted but lost what he had. Not only did he lose his wife, the one person with whom he shared his life with and spent his days with, but he lost everything. He lost his loyalty, he lost his strength, morally and physically, and he lost a friend and family members. He comes to the realization that all these losses are his
Another silence fell over the room until Macbeth began to explain how she needed to get her emotions under control before the funeral today. “ These outbursts of guilt and sadness can’t happen at the funeral.” She was furious and shocked by his words, as if her emotions were the
At the end of the book, Macbeth causes himself to be more in pain and if fed up of his actions. He considers: “life but a walking shadow”(VI,vi,27). Macbeth just wants to give up on life and he signifies life as a play that is told by someone meaningless. At the end of the play Macbeth is killed by Macduff and Macbeth words do come true since he did not care about life since everyone he had loved at one point had left him in a big way and he had no one to support him, which lead to the isolation of
In brief, the three scenes discussed above are illustrations of the compunction the two Macbeths are equally afflicted with after they preside over the murders of their king, a close friend, and an entire innocent family. Neither one was expecting such a strong impact on their minds, but neither could hide from their guilty consciences after the fact. Inevitably, Lady Macbeth is overcome with despair and commits suicide, not surprising given her poor, ravaged mind. Macbeth, too, seems to succumb to his inexorable destiny by Macduff’s sword, solidifying the pervasive theme that unchecked ambition must lead to an unpleasant end.
Throughout the play, Macbeth’s character has changed immensely since his spirit became envious of others and he came to the solution of violence. His desire for power has caused many problems in his heart. These problems resulted in a change of his character. All the jealousy that has come over Macbeth has caused him to murder more than three innocent people that did not deserve to be murdered.
Macbeth’s story highlights the inherent goodness found in all of us, but also the evil that lurks within us, unnourished. Although there is no redemption for Macbeth’s evil sins, he finally comes to acknowledge his crimes and thus can provoke pity in the eyes of the audience. Macbeth’s psychological journey from a courageous general to a “ dead butcher” (5.9.41) is one that truly merits to be called a tragedy.
Macbeth is seen as a “valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” (I, ii, 24). He is a brave warrior who is well respected in his community, until the witches prophesied to him that he would one day be king (I, iii, 50). Macbeth interprets that he must act to fulfill the prophecy. He sends a letter to lady Macbeth asking what to do. She suggests that he should kill Duncan. Macbeth follows the plan and kills Duncan (II, ii, 15). Directly following the murder Macbeth can no longer say amen (II, iii, 31-33). Macbeth also hears a voice in his head say, “sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”(II, ii, 35, 36). For the rest of the play Macbeth suffers from insomnia. When Macbeth pretends to be surprised by Duncan’s death he says, “ Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time, for, from this instant, there’s nothing serious in mortality. (II, iii, 92-95) he is saying that if he had died before he murdered Duncan he would have lived a great life, but now that he’s committed murder, life is just a game and nothing is important anymore. These are suicidal thoughts and show how his grip on reality has greatly slipped.
Macbeth starts losing his mind he hears people saying that he killed the king and then he just starts hallucinating when he sees a dagger "Is this a dagger which I see before me....”(II, I, 33) He is losing his mind and it's because of the people that influenced him. Then when lady Macbeth dies he is just done with life when someone that's been through everything with him he just loses it he says “The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player”(V.V.2). He is basically saying he doesn't care about life and it's nothing more than an illusion now. He is just basically done and everything and everyone have driven him mad.
Macbeth explains that Lady Macbeth, like all people, would have died eventually. If she had lived, the fear of dying would only intensify from one day to another. The general belief that life is important and full of fruit had been extinguished from the mind of Macbeth. In his soliloquy, he uses the phrase, "Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow." The candle represents the days and one's life is like a shadow created by daylight. It has no significance and is already empty. Its emptiness and insignificance grows once the candle is blown out. The shadow disappears without the light and the new canvas created is purely dark and without color (significance). In fact, Macbeth continues shining light on his idea by saying that a person
Macbeth’s first few lines reflect regret of his ambitious drive towards the beginning of the play with the conclusion that life lacks meaning. When he and Lady Macbeth collude to kill Duncan, they do so with the goal of living out their lives together in great luxury and prosperity, and they use these aspirations to justify their bloody crusade. However, Macbeth expresses a much more pessimistic attitude with the notorious words, “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow/ Creeps in…” until reaching a “...dusty death…” (5.5.19-20, 23). Macbeth’s fantasies to live out his perceived immortal life with his wife at his side shatter with these lines. He finally grasps the idea that his unchecked ambition一arguably his fatal flawー led to his destruction. He expresses a Nihilistic viewpoint of
When he hears of Lady Macbeth’s death from his servant, Seyton, Macbeth is less than indifferent. He feels no grief, just inconvenience, “she should have died hereafter.”
In “Out, Out-”, Robert Frost utilizes symbolism to compare the death of a forcibly matured child to that of a drafted soldier. Throughout the poem, he uses personification, and symbolism to achieve this. The personification of the saw personifies a barking, hostile dog, that, because of his upbringing the child trusts. The symbolism is present throughout the poem, as to reinforce the idea of the hostility of war. The child’s superior figure, which is thought to be his father, symbolizes the oblivious officials that send and opt to draft soldiers into the war. The last line represents the apathy that soldiers are forced upon as their friends and fellow peers die. “Out, Out-” by Robert Frost is meant to question the ethics of wartime by paralleling