Lady Macbeth Soliloquy Analysis

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Shakespeare chose the phrases "brief candle" and "walking shadow" in Macbeth's soliloquy when he discovers that Lady Macbeth committed suicide because these key terms connote intense feelings of being devoid of meaning as well as show how defeated Macbeth had become. As he commands soldiers to hang banners on the outward walls of the castle, Macbeth hears a woman scream and Seyton then rushes to bring the ill baring news that Lady Macbeth had committed suicide; Macbeth then voices his thoughts: "She should have died hereafter/There would have been a time for such a word/ Out, out, brief candle!" (Act 5, sc 5 lines 20-21&26).With the loss of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth feels like he has become a "brief candle", which has a negative connotation of