| “Fair is foul, foul is fair” | Speaker- Three WitchesSignificance- Appearances can be deceiving. Bad can be good and god can be bad. Poetic Devices- repetition, paradox, aliteration |
| “But all’s too weak;/for brave Macbeth,/disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,/which smoked with bloody execution” | Speaker- CaptainSignificance- Macbeth was very brave, strong and heroic, he defeated the rebels. Macbeth laughs at fate.Poetic Devices- antithesis, metaphor, hyperbole, imagery |
| “Present fears/are less than horrible imaginings./My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,/shakes so my single state of man/that function is smothered in surmise,/and nothing is but what is not” | Speaker- Macbeth after hearing WitchesSignificance- What’s going on now is less scary than what could possibly happen in the future.Poetic Devices- foreshadowing, single state, paradox |
| “I have begun to plant thee and will labor/to make thee full of growing” | Speaker- King Duncan referring to MacbethSignificance- Makes Macbeth Thane of Cawdor–setting him up on a great career path. King Duncan doesn’t know about ambition planted in Macbeth by Witches.Poetic Devices- metaphor, foreshadowing, dramatic irony |
| “Stars, hide your fires;/let not light see my black and deep desires./The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be/which the eye fears, when it is done, to see” | Speaker- MacbethSignificance- Macbeth doesn’t want to think too much about it he just wants it to be done. (Referring to murder of Duncan)Poetic Devices- personification, antithesis, aliteration, repetition |
| “Come thick night,/and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,/that my keen knife see not the wound it makes,/nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,/cry, ‘hold, hold!'” | Speaker- Lady MacbethSignificance- She does not want anything to get in the way of her ambitious plan to become Queen. Macbeth is already afraid.Poetic Devices- personification, antithesis, imagery |
| “Bear welcome in your eye,/your hand, your tongue. Look like th’ innocent flower,/but be the serpent under ‘t” | Speaker- Lady MacbethSignificance- She wants Macbeth to appear fair and at nice. She wants evil to come and lacks fear.Poetic Devices- simile, antithesis |
| “What beast was ‘t then,/that made you break this enterprise to me?/When you durst do it, then you were a man;/and to be more than what you were you would/be so much more the man” | Speaker- Lady MacbethSignificance- When Macbeth was going to kill Duncan he was a real man, him going back on his word does not make him a man. Macbeth must go through with the plan.Poetic Devices- hyperbole, repetition |
| “False face must hide when the false heart doth know” | Speaker- Lady MacbethSignificance- Macbeth needs to hide his evil with goodness and loyalty. He must go against his true beliefs.Poetic Devices- repetition/aliteration, antithesis |
Act I Macbeth Quotes
September 12, 2019