She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word.
Act V, Scene 5 · Macbeth
Context
Seyton has just informed Macbeth that Lady Macbeth is dead. This is Macbeth's immediate two-line response before he launches into the 'Tomorrow and tomorrow' soliloquy.
Analysis
The conditional 'should have' and 'would have been' create syntactic distance, as if Macbeth is discussing a logistical inconvenience rather than his wife's death. There's no grief, no shock—just a vague sense that her death is mistimed. The coldness of 'such a word' (reducing her death to mere 'word') reveals how thoroughly ambition has destroyed his capacity for human connection; even this news can't break through his emotional numbness.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Macbeth's tragedy isn't just his downfall but his transformation into someone incapable of love or loss—this quote shows the ultimate cost of his ambition isn't death but the death of feeling itself.