Macbeth

by William Shakespeare

Macbeth is the loneliest of the tragedies because the Macbeths, having begun the play as one of the few happily married couples anywhere in Shakespeare, drift apart and each dies profoundly alone.

There is no Horatio or Earl of Kent to “Give sorrow words” on behalf of the audience. Only in this play could Shakespeare have described life as a walking shadow, a poor player, a tale “Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.”