Shakespeare in the Sound and the FuryThe soliloquy "Tomorrow" in Act V, scene v of the Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth provides the central theme and imagery for The Sound and the Fury fury. Faulkner may or may not agree with this dark and nihilistic characterization of life, but he examines this characterization in depth. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow slips in this insignificant rhythm from day to day until the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays lit fools. path to a dusty death. Extinguish, extinguish a brief candle! Life is only a walking shadow, a poor player, who struts and frets during his hour on the stage, and then we hear him no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, which means nothing (Shakespeare 177-8). The passage suggests that man is mortal while time is immortal. Time maintains its rhythm independently of man's actions; it seeps into man-made institutions, ultimately leading to man's death. However, time maintains indifference towards man. Lifespan is infinitesimal compared to the smallest division of time. In reality, the meaning that man attributes to human existence is false: life has no meaning. Life is just a brief bout of strutting and worrying, “full of sound and fury,…meaning nothing.” » Each section of The Sound and the Fury relates to Macbeth's speech. Each narrator presents life as “full of sound and fury,” represented in futile actions and dialogues. Benjy, Quentin, Jason and Dilsey share constant work...... middle of paper ...... Faulkner's view on life, a supposed contrast to Macbeth's. After hundreds of pages of examination of Shakespeare's passage, Faulkner concludes his work with an uplifting transcendence of nihilism. Faulkner leaves the reader with hope, the significance of meaning to come. Works Cited Commentary. The sound and the fury. Olemiss Resourceshttp://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/n-sf.htmlFaulkner, William. The sound and the fury. New York: Vintage Books, 1984. Harold, Brent. “The Volume and Limits of Faulkner’s Fictional Method.” Contemporary literary criticism. Flight. 11, 1975. Irwin, John T. "A Speculative Reading of Faulkner" Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 14, 1975. Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. New York: Washington Square Press,1992.