The book's title "The Sound and the Fury" comes from a line from which play by William Shakespeare?

The book's title "The Sound and the Fury" comes from a line from the play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare. The title of William Faulkner’s 1929 novel "The Sound and the Fury" has its origin in a somewhat obscure soliloquy given by Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play.

In the play "Macbeth" in Act 5 (scene 5), after hearing that his wife has died, Macbeth takes stock of his own indifference to the event. Death—our return to dust—seems to him merely the last act of a very bad play. It is an idiot's tale full of bombast and melodrama ("sound and fury"), but without meaning ("signifying nothing"). Murdering King Duncan and seizing his throne in retrospect seem like scenes of a script Macbeth was never suited to play. The idea that "all the world's a stage" is now very depressing to Macbeth.

The prospects for Macbeth's soul are also very grim after he has immediately completed his disheartening and despondent soliloquy.