Scene Revision Guide
Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5 Summary & Meaning
Macbeth shrugs off a women's cry, learns the queen is dead and delivers his bleak 'to‑morrow' soliloquy; a messenger then reports Birnam Wood moving, shattering his confidence and forcing him to arm for the imminent fight.
Companion video lesson: myShakespeare | Macbeth 5.5 Performance: Macbeth, Lines 17-28
A short performance of Macbeth’s response to the Queen’s death and the complete ‘Tomorrow’ soliloquy.
Companion video presented by myShakespeare.
What happens in this scene?
Macbeth begins confident in Dunsinane's strength, imagining a siege laughed to scorn. A distant cry of women interrupts, which Seyton identifies; Macbeth announces his numbness to fear, claiming he has 'supp'd full with horrors.' Seyton returns with the blunt news that the queen is dead, and Macbeth answers with fatalistic, weary reflection ('She should have died hereafter'), launching into the 'to‑morrow, and to‑morrow' soliloquy that renders life a brief, meaningless performance. The scene turns when a messenger reports that, from his watch, Birnam wood appears to move toward Dunsinane. Macbeth first lashes out, then recognizes the collapse of the witches' equivocations and the literal fulfilment of the warning he once trusted. Confronted by the moving wood and the loss of his wife, he resolves to raise the alarm and meet the coming assault, accepting that there is neither effective flight nor waiting — at least they will die with arms on. The stakes become immediate: prophecy, loss, and the end of illusion.
Key themes in this scene
- fatalism and the erosion of meaning
- prophecy, equivocation, and literal fulfilment
- desensitisation to horror and emotional numbness
Revision focus
Key takeaway: The news of the queen's death provokes Macbeth's nihilistic soliloquy, but the messenger's report that the wood moves transforms philosophical despair into the urgent reality of a collapsing prophecy and impending defeat.
Close-reading question: How does Macbeth's succession of theatrical and natural images—'a walking shadow,' 'poor player,' and 'brief candle'—shape the tone of his response to his wife's death and prepare the audience for his reaction to the messenger's news?
Frequently asked questions about this scene
Why does Macbeth say 'She should have died hereafter' instead of mourning immediately?
Macbeth's line expresses weary fatalism rather than immediate grief. He deflects private mourning into a general meditation on time and meaning, using the occasion to launch the 'to‑morrow' soliloquy. The response signals numbness: he treats death as inevitable and subsumed by the relentless, diminutive progress of days.
What does Macbeth mean by 'I have supp'd full with horrors'?
By this image Macbeth claims to be desensitised: he has so often 'dined' on violent thoughts and deeds that traditional sources of fear no longer affect him. His earlier physical reactions—hair rising at a night‑shriek—are now replaced by a blunt, exhausted steadiness that explains why the women's cry does not startle him.
Why is the messenger's report about Birnam wood so important in this scene?
The messenger's claim that 'the wood began to move' functions as the decisive turning point. It literalizes the ominous prediction Macbeth had taken to be equivocal, collapsing his remaining confidence. Dramatically, the report converts rumor into an imminent threat, jolting Macbeth from solipsistic despair into immediate martial resolve.
How to study this scene
Track the changing language, identify a recurring image or contrast, and connect the scene's conflict to the play's larger dramatic movement. Use the linked reader to compare the original with the modern-English paraphrase.