Life Is Not Futile If You Are Not Macbeth: You Have More Than One Chance on the SAT

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Although Macbeth is not exactly an idol for the ages, given that he committed murder in a crazed pursuit of power, he certainly does have some notable words to impart through the illustrious voice of Shakespeare. Catch this monologue:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing (5.5.2)

In a nutshell, he is saying: ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Way before his time, Shakespeare in Macbeth created a nihilistic character far before the concept of nihilism came into being. While Macbeth's message is that life has no significance, he certainly utters the words in a significant way. At times in the play, we do not know if events are really happening, or the products of Macbeth's mind. We arrive so deep into his subconscious that his conflict becomes our conflict, no matter how horrific or unbelievable his actions are on the surface. It is much like the film American Psycho, in which we follow the logic of a serial killer. Although senselessly horrific, the film guiltily makes sense as it fascinatingly leads us into the depths of Christian Bale's twisted mind.

Macbeth speaks this monologue upon hearing word of his wife's death. He has plunged so far into regret that he shows no grief for her passing. Ironically, his wife often lit a candle when committing an illicit act, trying to bring light to a dark deed to justify her actions. Macbeth now sees the futility of her measures, just as he now believes in the futility of life. Faulkner was so taken aback by this monologue, that he took the phrase "the sound and the fury", and turned it into the title of one of his most famous novels. Upon accepting the Nobel prize, he alluded to the last line of this quote from Macbeth, asserting that life is neither worth living, nor writing about, if one does not explore universal truths. In other words, Macbeth became an idiot whose life signified nothing in the fictional universe, but is of great significance for the reader. His vie for power was but a stage play of a poor actor whose fame extinguishes quickly. Although Macbeth's descent into evil lead to his untimely end, his character has eternal significance: life is short.

Luckily for the rest of us, we in most cases have many chances to get it right, not just one. Life may be short, but it is certainly not futile when you make the most of it. This extends to the SAT. The test will not make or break you, since you have ample time and opportunities to practice. You just need to embrace them. In other words, if you did not do as well as you expected on the PSAT, the candle has not burnt out. It only means that instead of believing that you are controlled by the fates, as Macbeth mistakenly does, study, and you will certainly realize that willpower and hard work is the key to a prosperous future.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include SAT, PSAT, and ACT Prep. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

Losing Their Heads: Inner Beasts in Lord of the Flies and Macbeth Summary

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William Golding's classic Lord of the Flies is probably not the best book to read if you want to feel good about humanity or feel comfortable about babysitting a family of little boys all by yourself on a Friday night. It is also not a good beach read for pig lovers. Instead, it is a blunt allegorical look at what can happen when civilization's law and order vanishes, and humanity is left to its own beastly instincts.

Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of British boys marooned on a remote island-without adult supervision, mind you- in the Pacific Ocean after their plane crashes. The boys, ranging from age six to twelve, have to fend for themselves. They try to establish order and strategies to increase their chances at survival and perhaps rescue, but as boys will be boys, they become pig-headed (pun definitely intended) over what's more important: maintaining a constant signal fire to alert passing ships or violently hunting down poor little mama pigs. Naturally, two headstrong boys who head each respective cause-Ralph and Jack-disagree, and the battle for island power begins.

The most memorable takeaway from the book is the lasting image of the rotting pig head aptly named "Lord of the Flies" (you can probably guess why). Being that the novel really sets itself up as an allegory, the pig head is typically read as a potent symbol of the evil savagery that lies within all human beings. After all, a pack of wild twelve-year-olds did violently kill, decapitate and skewer the pig's head like a shish kabob to make a offering to the imaginary beast they are all frightened of. Childish innocence? Nope. No such thing, unless you count Simon, and Piggy but no one ever counts Piggy. In fact, poor little Simon-who is arguably a symbol of human goodness as he suggests that the beast is "only us"-hallucinates that the rotting pig head is talking to him, saying: "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill...You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?" This instinctual savagery, so says the pig head, is an unavoidable part of the human psyche and experience-much like death. One could easily recall Hamlet quotes and that iconic scene when Hamlet is pondering and turning over a human skull in his hands, pontificating on how death can easily reduce life and reason to a discarded bunch of bones, much like the Beast can reduce a group of proper British boys to complete savages.

In fact, Shakespeare was a big fan of investigating the internal struggles and evils that exist in us mere humans-as well as how our heads screw with our perception of reality. Enter Macbeth. This Scottish king-killer is not unlike those island boys, losing his head-literally and figuratively-due to his thirst for power that prompted him to commit ruthless murders. In the Macbeth summary the Scottish nobleman comes across a trio of witches who prophesize after kicking major battlefield butt while fighting for King Duncan, even disemboweling a dude. It is likely no coincidence that we hear about Macbeth gutting some guy before we actually meet me-gives us a taste of what we're in for. Anyways, the witch encounter gets Macbeth's ambition bubbling. He ends up killing King Duncan while he sleeps (prompted by his famously emasculating wife Lady Macbeth), becomes king and then starts to slew anyone and everyone he considers a threat, including another Scottish nobleman Macduff's entire family. What a jerk.

The play ends with Macbeth's severed head served to King Duncan's surviving sons by Macduff, having properly avenged his family and order restored. Again with the heads. While a decapitated pig head symbolizes our inner beast, Macbeth's bloody noggin suggests the consequences of giving in too easily to that inner beast, which causes us humans to lose our heads. If both a bunch of pre-teen boys and a noble Scottish man could wreak such havoc because of their inner, evil ambitions, surely the whole of humanity can. Gulp.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Lord of the Flies, Macbeth summary, and Hamlet quotes. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

Double Double, Toil and Trouble: Assessing the Supernatural Through the Macbeth Summary and Quotes

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The supernatural is big these days. The Harry Potter film franchise just wrapped up, Twilight is still on the boy-crazed minds of adolescent girls (and a handful of older woman), while the ever popular True Blood book and TV show series is satisfying the grown-up purveyors of the magical and superhuman persuasion.

Vampires, wizards, witches, werewolves: they've completely saturated film and books the past few years, reawakening the popular mainstream desire for the fantastical.

Yet, those who'd like to indulge in some classic supernatural fun have plenty of options. One excellent option, especially if you're into witches and prophecies of power, is the William Shakespeare's famous cautionary drama Macbeth. It has spooky spells, bubbling cauldrons, haunting ghosts, eerie hallucinations, and a pack of mysterious women with beards to boot. What's not to love?

The play's opening is the real cincher. It's a dark and stormy night-always a good sign for some kooky stuff, not unlike another good classic supernatural option Edgar Allan Poe's equally blustery and creepy poem The Raven about a grieving man who encounters an otherworldly and knowing raven with a vocabulary of only one word. Talking birds? Spooky.

Back to the Macbeth summary. An eerie fog is rolling in on the night-covered plain of Scotland, where three witches-or weird sisters, as the play calls them-are planning something mysterious to do with Macbeth, speaking in rhymes and using nutty words like "hurly-burly," "eye of newt" and "toe of frog."

In fact, the Macbeth quotes are what really drive the supernatural fun, originating the famous couplet "Double, double toil and trouble/Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." Coincidently, that was the name of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Halloween movie. Equally spooky.

Later in the play, when Macbeth stumbles across these lovely ladies following an epically violent battle in which Macbeth kicked major, they snare him in a strange prophecy. They call him the future king of Scotland, just to pique his egotistical and ambitious tendencies, and then vanish into thin air like all good evil witches do. The seed has been planted, and thus begins Macbeth on his bloodthirsty path to the Scottish throne.

It is important to note, however, that the witches do little in terms of action to aid Macbeth in this so-called prophecy, leaving readers to assume that what is at work here is not supernatural forces of fate, but rather supernatural elements preying upon the egos of man in a game of sport. Macbeth himself comes up with the whole murder-everyone-in-my-way plan, with a little goading from Lady Macbeth, of course.

Harry Potter fans may see some commonalities between Macbeth and Lord Voldemort, where a single prophecy about an infant adversary sets the dark wizard off on a years-long path of supernatural destruction, only to end up missing the larger picture and getting Avada Kedavra-ed to death in the end.

Such commonalities, though few, are prompted by supernatural elements and are efforts of both Shakespeare and J.K. Rowling who comment on the dangers of ambition and power being in the wrong hands. It's the classic good-versus-evil theme, amplified by creepy women who speak in rhymes and say enigmatic things like "fair is foul, and foul is fair." But that's usually the goal of most supernatural and fantastical literature: to reflect and comment on what brings out the worst or the best in humanity. Macbeth certainly positions itself as a cautionary tale about the uncontrollable ego, ambition, and evil inside man and how we can conquer it. And it takes only a few meddling witches to show us.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Macbeth summary, Macbeth quotes, and The Raven. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.