“Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” | ~ witches- foreshadowing, setting the mood of the supernatural |
“Let not light see my black and deep desires.” | ~ Macbeth- After Duncan announces that he will name his son Malcolm the next king, Macbeth hopes his disappointment doesn’t show. He must find a way to prevent Malcolm from becoming king. |
“Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full of the milk of human kindness.” | ~ Lady Macbeth (referring to Macbeth)- She fears that Macbeth is too kind to go through with killing Duncan. |
“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” | ~ Lady Macbeth (speaking to Macbeth)- This is just before King Duncan’s arrival at their castle. Macbeth’s wife wants him to act nice to Duncan’s face, and hide his evil intentions. |
“Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty!” | ~ Lady Macbeth- calling on the spirits to take away her feminine, weakness and fill her with evil because she wants Duncan dead. |
“But screw your courage to the sticking-place,And we’ll not fail.” | ~ Lady Macbeth- before they kill Duncan, she is reassuring Macbeth that everything will work out if he fixes his courage firmly in place. |
“False face must hide what false heart doth know.” | ~ Macbeth- He has decided he will go along with Lady Macbeth’s plan to kill Duncan. Telling himself that he must put on a false pleasant face to hide his false, evil heart. |
“Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done’t.” (referring to Duncan) | ~ Lady Macbeth- She would’ve killed Duncan herself but as he was sleeping he looked like her father. |
“What hands are here? Ha: they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” | ~ Macbeth- looking at his hands after he has just killed Duncan. He wonders if all of the water in the ocean could wash the blood off his hands. |
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,The handle toward my hand?” | ~ Macbeth- Hallucinating that he sees a dagger before he kills Duncan. |
“Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,As the weird women promised, and I fearThou play’dst most foully for’t.” | ~ Banquo (referring to Macbeth)- meaning: well now you have everything that you were promised by the witches. I just fear that you did something bad to get it. |
“He’s here in double trust. First, as I am his kinsman and his subject… then, as his host.” | ~ Macbeth (referring to King Duncan)- Listing reasons why he shouldn’t kill Duncan. Duncan trusts Macbeth for two reasons: he is his kinsman/subject, and his host. |
“A little water clears us of this deed.” | ~ Lady Macbeth- After killing Duncan, she tells Macbeth that all they have to do is wash their hands and they will be cleared of their sin. |
Macbeth Character Quotes
July 28, 2019