Macbeth and Migrant Mother

During the 1930’s, the United States went into economic strife following the crashing of the stock market. Millions of people lost their jobs and found themselves on the streets with little to no money or resources to support themselves or their families. The families during this time often had to move around to find new homes and available work. Each family had their own unique labors that came from the crash and everyday was a struggle to get through. In addition the casualties of this depression were immense because of the lack of food and resources. In Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, this mother seen with two of her seven children are shown in great distress. However, the mother looks numb to this pain most likely feels responsible to be the source of strength for her family. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth a certain numbness to pain is evident in his “tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow” speech in act V. The casualties in this tragic play were both substantial and painful for Macbeth despite his role in them. This speech follows the death of Lady Macbeth and from his tone the death does not seem to take a toll on his overall goals. Learning of a death would be paralyzing for many people but after the amount to deaths that came from the conflicts in the play, death loses its significance. In both Macbeth and during the Great Depression, death lost some of its meaning and though painful, people became numb to it. In Lange’s photograph the pain in the woman’s eyes is piercing however it is not paralyzing to her just as the pain of Lady Macbeth’s death was not paralyzing to Macbeth.