| Sets the tone of the play, calls for the reverse of the concepts of good and evil | Fair is foul and foul is fair; hover through the fog and filthy air |
| Describes Macbeth using glorious terms and gives us the character of Macbeth at the beginning of the play | For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name |
| Macbeth is respected and well-liked, direct contrast with how people regard him at the end of the play | O valiant cousin, worthy gentlemen! |
| Macbeth is brave, loyal and respected and trusting Macbeth is Duncan’s big mistake | Go pronounce his present death and with his former title greet Macbeth |
| Irony because Duncan will be betrayed much more successfully by this new Thane of Cawdor | What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won |
| Echoes the witches and is indicative of his dormant people | So foul and fair a day I have not seen |
| This starts Macbeth on his downward spiral and feeds into his secret ambitions | All hail Macbeth! That shall be King hereafter |
| Seals Banquo’s fate and shows Macbeth’s reign will be short-livied | Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none |
| Macbeth is initially loyal and does not trust the witches | To be king stands not within the prospect of belief |
| Macbeth is shocked that the prophecy is true, use of clothing imagery | The Thane of Cawdor lives; why do you dress me in borrowed robes? |
| Macbeth is not yet determined to kill Duncan | If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me |
| Highlights the theme of treachery and foreshadows Macbeth’s dignified death | Nothing in this life became him like the leaving it |
| Duncan lacks good judgement, ironic as Macbeth enters immediately afterward and perpetuates the theme of A vs R | There’s no art to find the minds construction in the face |
| The first signs of treachery and his plans are beginning to form | The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o’er-leap |
| Clearly and definitively states that he wants to kill Duncan | Stars, hide your fires! Let light not see my black and deep desires |
| Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have a very affectionate and loving relationship and he regards Lady Macbeth as his equal | My dearest partner in greatness |
| Presents a different view of Macbeth from violent and bloody man we have seen thus far and it indicates Lady Macbeth’s heartlessness | Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’ th’milk of human kindness |
| Shows Lady Macbeth’s brutal ambition and that she intends to push Macbeth until he murders Duncan | That I may poor thy spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round |
| A formal request to evil spirits and desire to take on the characteristics of a man | Unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty |
| Lady Macbeth encourages the theme of appearance vs reality | Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t |
| Lady Macbeth is determined to carry this murder off, one way or another | Leave all the rest to me |
| Duncan is complementary and trusting. Lady Macbeth will dishonour her duty as a hostess with her behaviour | Fair and noble hostess we are your guests tonight |
| Macbeth wants the matter over with and he is still not entirely committed to the murder | He’s here in double trust: first as I am his kinsman and his subject |
| The only reason Macbeth can give for murdering Duncan | Vaulting ambition |
| Duncan has supposedly made up his mind and does not want to murder Duncan | We will proceed no further in this business |
| Lady Macbeth believes that if Macbeth really loved her he would do this for her | From this time such I account thy love |
| Lady Macbeth is cruel, evil and unnatural | Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, and dashed the brains out had I so sworn as you have done to this |
| Lady Macbeth insults Macbeths manhood to make him do what she wants | When you durst do it then you were a man |
| Macbeth is no longer concerned with doing the deed but with being caught | If we should fail? |
| Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind the murder of Duncan | We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail |
| Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to conceal his falseness | False face must hide what the false heart doth know |
| Macbeth is not the only one preoccupied by the prophecies of the weird sisters… | I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters, to you they have shown some truth |
| Macbeth lies to Banquo to conceal his guilty conscience | I think not of them |
| Macbeth is in a highly emotional state and wracked with guilt so he is hallucinating | Is this a dagger which I see before me? |
| Macbeth has reached the point of no return and this builds tension and evokes death imagery | I go and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell |
| Lady Macbeth is hypocritical and this foreshadows the weakness that will drive her mad | Had he not resembled my father as he slept I had done’t |
| Macbeth cannot bring himself to mention the death or the murder and he seeks to detach himself from his actions | I have done the deed |
| Macbeth feels guilt and remorse, a tragic hero | This is a sorry sight |
| Lady Macbeth is the dominant partner and she is cold and ruthless | Consider it not so deeply |
| Macbeth is in a highly emotional state of mind and this can be read as divine punishment for his actions | Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep! |
| Macbeth is in a trance like state and is upset and cannot face the horror of the murder | I’ll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done |
| Lady Macbeth is practical and has immense self-control | The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures |
| Blood is a symbol of the guilt Macbeth feels for murdering Duncan | Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand |
| Dramatic irony as Lady Macbeth will be unable to erase her guilt later | A little water clears us of this deed |
| Macbeth shows complete regret and wishes he could undo the deed | Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst! |
| Macduff is truly loyal to Duncan, this shows how Macbeth should have behaved | O horror! Horror! Horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee |
| Irony because Lady Macbeth orchestrated the murder and Macbeth will later murder Macduff’s wife | O gentle lady! ‘Tis not for you to hear what I can speak |
| Lady Macbeth slips up, reveals her uncaring nature | What, in our house? |
| Bnaquo is genuinely repulsed by the death of Duncan and is shocked by it | Too cruel anywhere |
| Is Macbeth putting on a false face or does he feel genuine regret? | Had I but died an hour before this chance I had lived in a blessed time |
| Theme of appearance vs reality, the sons of Duncan see through Macbeth’s false grief | To show an unfelt sorrow is an office which the false man does easy |
| Malcolm and Donalbain are much less trusting than their father and will not repeat his mistakes | There’s daggers in mens smiles |
| The beginning of the anti-Macbeth faction | No, cousin, I’ll to Fife |
| Clothing imagery, Macduff has doubts from the start about Macbeth’s abilities as a king | Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! |
| Banquo is suspicious of Macbeth’s actions but he resists temptation while Macbeth succumbs to it | Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, as the weird women promised; and I fear thou play’dst most foully for’t |
| Macbeth is suspicious of Banquo, he feels insecure in his position as king and there is an aura of uneasiness about him | To be thus is nothing but to be safely thus, our fears in Banquo stick deep |
| Macbeth fears for his succession, his motives for remorse are the wrong ones | They hailed him father to a line of kings. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and put a barren sceptre in my grip |
| A cynical dismissal of Banquo’s life, Macbeth now murders without hesitation and he no longer needs convincing from Lady Macbeth | Banquo, thy soul’s flight, if it find heaven, must find it out tonight |
| The achievement of the title of Queen has not brought Lady Macbeth happiness or peace | Nought’s had, all’s spent, where our desires is got without content |
| Lady Macbeth’s chief anxiety is that Macbeth not give them away | What’s done is done |
| They have achieved nothing by killing Duncan | We have scorched the snake not killed it |
| Macbeth has no peace and is envious of Duncan in his death | Duncan is in his grave; after life’s fitful fever he sleeps well |
| Lady Macbeth is worried that Macbeth will betray his misery | Be bright and jovial among your guests tonight |
| Theme of appearance vs reality, they intend to put on false faces for the banquet | And make our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are |
| Crime is bolstered by more crime, this marks the end of the tragic hero’s good nature | Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill |
| Hints at Macbeths inevitable downfall, Banquo’s only thoughts are for hi son | O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge |
| Macbeth is badly shaken and his guilt is making him hallucinate, he begins to expose his guilt | Thou canst not say I did it: never shake thy gory locks at me |
| Macbeth is frightened and ashamed at the sight of Banquo’s ghost | Avaunt and quit my sight, let the earth hide thee |
| Lady Macbeth is desperate, the banquet breaks up in utter confusion and disorder | At once, good night: stand not upon the order of your going but go at once |
| Blood imagery, these deaths will have to lead to more deaths | It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood |
| Macduff is a threat to Macbeth’s security | Macduff denies his personage at our great bidding? |
| Macbeth shows his commitment to the dark side, it must have been the cookies…he is now actively seeking out evil | I will to the weird sisters: more shall they speak |
| There is no more turning back and no more redemption for Macbeth anymore | I am in blood stepped so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er |
| The Macbeth’s are tormented by their guilt and cannot sleep | You lack the season of all nature’s, sleep |
| Macbeth has become a tyrant and the forces of good are gathering against the forces of evil | A swift blessing may soon return to this our suffering country under a had accursed |
| Macbeth is impolite to the witches and demands their obedience | How now, you secret, black and midnight hags! |
| Macbeth’s downfall will come at the hands of Macduff | Beware Macduff; beware the Thane of Fife |
| This warning leads Macbeth to believe that he his invincible | None of woman born shall harm Macbeth |
| Macbeth’s reign is so unnatural that nature itself shall come against him | Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnham wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him |
| Macbeth is overly confident and underestimates Macduff | Then live, Macduff; what need I fear of thee |
| Macbeth is a cruel, ruthless tyrant who has no qualms about slaughtering innocent women and children | Give to the edge of the sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in their line |
| Macduff’s wife feels that he has behaved in a cowardly manner by abandoning them | The poor wren, the most diminutive of birds, will fight – her young ones in her nest – against the owl |
| Macbeth is tyrannical and in his paranoia accuses people of treason who are innocent | Cruel are the times, when we are traitors and do not know ourselves |
| Lady Macduff echoes the witches and the death of this innocent turns us against Macbeth | I am in this earthly world, where to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometime accounted desperate folly |
| The general opinion of Macbeth has changed, he is now despised by his subjects | This tyrant, whose soul name blisters our tongues, was once thought honest |
| Macbeth is destroying Scotland and must be deposed | I think our country sinks beneath the yoke, it weeps, it bleeds and each new day a gash is added to her wounds |
| Macbeth is hated by his subjects | Not in the legions of horrid hell can come a devil more damned in evils |
| Duncan was a great king and Macbeth is evil for killing him | Thy royal father was a most sainted king |
| Macbeth kills for no reason, he is utterly ruthless | Wife, children, servants, all that could be found |
| Macduff is shocked, even he did not expect this level of depravity from Macbeth | What, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop? |
| Malcolm encourages Macduff to channel his anger into destroying Macbeth and taking his revenge | Dispute it like a man |
| Lady Macbeth’s crime was one of darkness and now she fears it because she cannot face what she has done | She has light by her continually, ’tis her command |
| The blood is on Lady Macbeth’s mind, not her hand, she can never wash it off | Out, damned spot! Out, I say! |
| Lady Macbeth’s echoes her husbands fears that she will never be clean again | All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand |
| Lady Macbeth is beyond mortal help | More needs she the divine than the physician |
| Macbeth’s men fear him but do not respect him | Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love |
| King Edward is a healer of his people while Macbeth is the disease that’s killing Scotland | Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal |
| Macbeth is confidant in the truth of the witches prophecy | What’s the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman? |
| Macbeth arouses our sympathy, shows the isolation of the tyrant | That which should accompany old age, as honour, love obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have |
| We see the return of the fierce soldier, Macbeth will die with dignity | I’ll fight, til from my bones my flesh be hacked. Give me my armour. |
| Nature itself is rising up against the unnatural Macbeth | Let every soldier hew him down a bough and bear’t before him |
| There is nothing left that can shock Macbeth and he is beyond redemption | I have supped full with horrors |
| Lack of emotion over his wife’s death, shows the deterioration of their marriage | She should have died hereafter |
| Macbeths is in the depths of despair and depression and feels apathetic towards life | Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more |
| Macduff is haunted by the murder of his family and wants personal vengeance against Macbeth | Tyrant, show thy face! If thou beest slain and with no stroke of mine, my wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still |
| Macbeth has some conscience and feels guilty for the suffering he has caused Macduff | My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already |
| Macbeth realises the witches are evil and have deceived him | That palter with us in a double sense |
| Everyone is delighted to be rid of Macbeth | Behold where stands the usurper’s cursed head. The time is free |
| Perception of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, contrast with the start of the play | Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen |
Macbeth Quotes
November 16, 2019