Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(from Macbeth, spoken by Macbeth)

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.

I was first introduced to the lines of the "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy when I was 12, listening to Hamilton for the first time. Although I didn't know it at the time, when I joined my high school theatre department and picked up Macbeth 3 years later, I discovered Lin Manuel was not the genius to be accredited. Those famous words belonged to Shakespeare and were one of the most famous speeches to ever be produced from his work.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to write a paper about Macbeth for a class here on English plays. My paper ended up being about time, and the misuse of it in the play. For the first time, I examined his famous soliloquy and the feelings that came along with his words. I wrote "This soliloquy illustrates Macbeth’s introspection on his current life, what might have been, and how it will inevitably end in death. He describes the resolution of death by stating, “To the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death” (Shakespeare, 5.5, 24-25). This line addresses the inescapability of running out of time. In the end, death will always be the final destination, no matter our choices. The use of “tomorrow” and “yesterdays” in this soliloquy demonstrates the importance of time as a theme. All the choices in his “yesterdays” have led the character into a dreary state of being. Macbeth adequately describes the inability of anyone to halt the passage of time with his words “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.” Due to his immoral actions, Macbeth made many enemies and has limited “tomorrows” to come after this scene."

A week later, I travelled with friends. We stayed in a group hostel and one of the girls, at 5:30am, pulled out her Kindle. We asked her what she possibly could be reading at this hour and she told us about the book, 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.' She read out a passage to us.

Not long after, I was sitting in the Gatwick airport getting ready to board for another flight when I saw the book in a storefront. I bought it and read it in 24 hours. The book references the Macbeth soliloquy frequently and the general themes of the story were about the brevity of death, new beginnings and rebirths, the fleeting yesterdays and passage of time. Sam wasted his possible yesterdays with Sadie due to his fear. As the characters age, they feel as though they are about to lose the possible "tomorrows" in the gaming industry. The characters relationship grows and evolves in so many ways. The grayer times in life, when they grow apart, only allows room for their love to grow. Love does not only look like one thing forever. Sometimes its important to shed old skin, in order to grow back something stronger. When the characters examine the Macbeth soliloquy towards the end of the book, Marx says on page 405, "It's the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever."

I've been thinking about Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow in regards to my own life. The importance of being present, and living in the now. But also the power of love, and friendship over time. The passage of time has always scared me. Aging into adulthood and seeing the ones around me age too. But it is also a beautiful thing! A beautiful gift- to see the people you love change and evolve and being able to love them actively at times but passively at times too. The permanence and impermanence of everything offers a chance at new beginnings and fresh starts. No one is meant to be one thing, one type of person, for forever.

Anyways, pretty early on in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, page 56, Sam says "yes, what greater enemy does one have than oneself?" He robs himself of the tomorrows that come after this for years! Don't rob yourselves. Don't be scared to evolve and change and say yes to things because you don't want to end up like Macbeth in the end, sad that he let all the choices in his yesterdays lead to bad tomorrows.

I'm not sure if this stream of consciousness article made a lot of sense but thank u for reading what I had to say and let me know your thoughts if you want.