Day 9 – Shakespeare & Plato
Shakespeare: Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow”
Context:
Macbeth hears of Lady Macbeth’s death. His response is not grief but a weary
nihilism: life as meaningless repetition, “a tale told by an idiot.” Few
speeches in Shakespeare are darker, or more haunting.
Extract (~20 lines):
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
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 a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Reflection prompts:
- Copy
the phrase “Out, out, brief candle!” and sit with its brevity.
- Compare
with Jaques’ “seven ages of man.” Both frame life as theatre — but Jaques
gives a cycle, Macbeth gives emptiness.
- Does
this ring as despair, or as clarity?
Plato: Phaedrus
Socrates’ second speech — divine madness and the soul as
charioteer
Context:
Having mocked love in his first speech, Socrates suddenly stops, declares
himself guilty of impiety, and reverses course. He now praises love as a divine
madness, a gift of the gods, that can lift the soul toward truth. He introduces
the great allegory: the soul as a charioteer driving two horses — one noble,
one unruly.
Long extract (~6 paragraphs, Jowett translation, public
domain):
“The greatest of blessings come to us through madness, when
it is sent by the gods. The prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses at Dodona,
when out of their senses, have conferred great benefits on Hellas, both in
private and public life; but when in their senses few or none. And in proof of
this, if we were to collect the ancient traditions, we should find that in all
cases the greatest blessings have come by divine madness.
“There are in fact four kinds of divine madness: the madness
of the prophet, the madness of the poet, the madness of the mystic, and the
madness of love. Of these, the last is the best; for he who is inspired by love
is touched by the god of love, and is carried out of himself toward the vision
of true beauty.
“Now let me describe the condition of the soul. Of her
nature, she is like a pair of winged horses and a charioteer. The horses and
charioteers of the gods are all good and of good descent, but those of other
beings are mixed: in us, one of the horses is noble and good, the other the
opposite, and the driving of them necessarily gives great trouble to the
charioteer.
“When the soul is perfect and fully winged, she soars upward
and is carried to the divine, where she is nourished by truth, beauty, and
goodness. But when she loses her wings, she falls down and takes an earthly
body, and then, through successive lives, may regain her wings by seeking what
is true and beautiful.
“Of all these visions, none is so great as that which the
soul beholds when she sees the beloved, who is herself an image of beauty
divine. Then the soul remembers the wings which she had before, and she longs
to fly upward; but she is weighed down by the two horses, one obedient, the
other disobedient. The obedient horse is modest, lover of honour and reason;
the other is insolent, companion of wantonness and pride. The charioteer is
pulled first one way, then another, in pain and struggle.
“At last, when he beholds the face of the beloved, the
obedient horse restrains himself, and the charioteer is drawn by reverence. But
the unruly horse, maddened by desire, drags them all toward pleasure. The
struggle is fearful, but if at last the better elements of the soul prevail,
then she follows the beloved in reverence, and is led to true happiness. Such
is the victory of divine madness over mortal reason.”
Reflection prompts:
- Copy
the phrase “The soul is like a pair of winged horses and a charioteer.”
- Compare
with Macbeth’s “walking shadow.” Both grapple with what drives us — but
Plato imagines upward wings, Macbeth imagines emptiness.
- Do
you recognize the “two horses” in yourself — one noble, one unruly? How
does the charioteer (reason) fare?
✨ Today’s resonance:
Macbeth’s despair sees life as shadow, noise, nothing. Socrates’ vision sees
struggle, but also upward flight through divine madness. Between them lies the
whole range of human meaning.
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