Out, Out by Robert Frost and Macbeth

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/53087 This is the link to the poem

While reading Macbeth, I realized that there are numerous themes, quotes, and character traits that modern writers, artists, and directors take inspiration from. With all these options to explore, I decided to compare a poem to the play. ‘Out, Out’ by Robert Frost is a poem that includes events and a character that can be related to Lady Macbeth in Act 5. (Just for some basic background information) ‘Out, Out’ is a short poem that harshly and artistically tells a story of a boy cutting wood with a saw and accidentally cutting off his hand. The story takes place in the mountains of Vermont, so unfortunately, a doctor cannot get to the boy quickly enough to help him, and he dies. I think the most obvious similarity that shows that Robert Frost is inspired by Macbeth is the title. The phrase out, out is used by Macbeth when he says, “Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow,”(Act 5, Scene 5, 23-24) I think that this line can be connected to the poem because Macbeth is saying that life is over quickly, and in this poem a young boy loses his life quickly and the experience is over and done being described in a short poem. Lady Macbeth also says out, out when she says while sleepwalking, "Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!" (Act 5, Scene 1, 34) Another resemblance that this poem has to Macbeth is that in both, a doctor is unable to help the injured/sick person. In the poem, the doctor can not save the boy and in Macbeth, the doctor can not help Lady Macbeth. Also, each character that is hurt for different reasons, is hurt because they have taken on a task that isn’t normally expected of them (in society). The boy in “Out, Out” was a “big boy Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart.” Lady Macbeth, by planning and encouraging the killings of multiple people in order to gain power was doing something that was (as the poem said for the boy) “a man’s work.” Another connection that I made between the two pieces is that in both, it seems as if the deaths of these characters is not taken as seriously as it should be and the people around them continue living their lives with other things prioritized. In Macbeth, after Lady Macbeth dies, the other characters are distracted by the threat of an attack from English soldiers and aren’t sad. Very similarly, the boy’s death in Out, Out is not taken seriously. This can be seen by the other character’s reactions to his death, “And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.” Robert Frost’s poem is symbolic of Lady Macbeth's situation in Act 5 for these reasons.