| Fair is foul, and foul is fair | Witches (A.1, S.1 – Theme – INVERSION – DECEPTION – GOOD and EVIL. Things are not what they seem. The witches plan to intercept Macbeth and mess with him) |
| What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. | Duncan (A.1, S.2 – INVERSION – Duncan has taken Cawdor’s title and will give it to Macbeth) |
| So foul and fair a day I have not seen. | Macbeth (A.1, S.3 – INVERSION – THINGS ARE NOT AS THEY SEEM – Echoing the witches just before he meets them) |
| So withered and so wild in their attire, That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ Earth, And yet are on ‘t?—Live you? | Banquo (A.1, S.3 – SUPERNATURAL – Banquo wonders if the witches are human) |
| If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not | Banquo (A.1, S.3 – Theme – SUPERNATURAL – supernatural – Banquo is asking the witches about his future.) |
| Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. | Witches (A.1, S.3 – Banquo is told his children will be kings but not him) |
| What, can the devil speak true? | Banquo (A.1. S.3. Theme – SUPERNATURAL – GOOD and EVIL – TRICKERY/INVERSION – truth as an evil, like ‘foul is fair’ – Banquo’s reaction when it turns out that Macbeth has been named Thane of Cawdor, as the witches predicted) |
| oftentimes, to win us to our harm,The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s In deepest consequence. | Banquo (A.1 S.3. Theme SUPERNATURAL, GOOD and EVIL, TRICKERY/INVERSION – Banquo warns macbeth to be careful of trusting the witches, because they tell truths to win trust only to betray more profoundly later on) |
| Cannot be ill, cannot be good | Macbeth (A.1 S.3 – Theme GOOD and EVIL, FATE, INVERSION – Macbeth thinks there is both good and bad in the witches prophecies.) |
| that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs … Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings | Macbeth (A.1 S.3 – Macbeth is already thinking of killing Duncan but the idea is freaking him out) |
| If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir | Macbeth (A1.S.3 – Themes – AMBITION, FATE – if chance/fate wants him to be king, maybe he doesn’t need to do anything and it will just happen) |
| Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires | Macbeth (A.1.S.4 – Theme – AMBITION, EVIL DESIRES, DECEPTION, Symbol – LIGHT AND DARK – Duncan has just named Malcolm as his heir – Macbeth does not want Duncan to see what he is thinking.) |
| Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness | Lady Macbeth (A.1. S.5. Lady Macbeth, after receiving her husband’s letter about the witches’ prophecy, expresses her fear that he isn’t bad enough) |
| Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it | Lady Macbeth (A.1. S.5. Theme – AMBITION – Lady Macbeth thinks Macbeth is ambitious, but not ruthless enough) |
| Come you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty! | Lady Macbeth (A1, S5. REVERSAL OF NATURAL ORDER. Symbols – MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY – Lady M has heard the news about the witches prophecy and asks the spirits to suppress her feminine instincts so she can begin plotting the murder of Duncan.) |
| 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 | Lady Macbeth (A1 S5 Theme – GOOD and EVIL – Symbols: LIGHT AND DARK. Lady Macbeth asks for the night to hide her crime from God, and perhaps even herself) |
| Look like th’ innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t | Lady Macbeth ( A1 S5. Themes- DECEPTION, VISIBLE v HIDDEN, MANIPULATION AND INFLUENCE- Lady M tries to manipulate Macbeth and tells him to hide his intent to kill Duncan. Symbols – ANIMALS eg serpent=evil, NATURE) |
| He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject[…] then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. | Macbeth (A.1. S.7. Themes – LOYALTY, BETRAYAL – Macbeth in a soliloquy having doubts about killing Duncan.) |
| I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this | Lady Macbeth (A.1, S.7 – Lady Macbeth – Theme GENDER ROLES, DISTURBED NATURAL ORDER – She heaps scorn on Macbeth’s declaration that they will “proceed no further” with the plan to murder King Duncan. |
| But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll not fail | Lady Macbeth (A1, S7. – AMBITION, EVIL DESIRES —Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth to commit to the plan to murder King Duncan) |
| False face must hide what the false heart doth know | Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 7. Theme is DECEPTION. Macbeth should put on a ‘false face’ and pretend to look happy/normal to hide his ‘false heart’ which plans to betray his King. APPEARANCE v REALITY.) |
| I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition | Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 7. theme – AMBITION – Macbeth is in two minds – he knows Duncan has been a good king, only ambition would see him kill him) |
| If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis, It shall make honour for you | Macbeth (A.2 S.1 – Theme – LOYALTY – Macbeth is telling Banquo that if he sticks with him then there will be something in it for him too.) |
| Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going | Macbeth (A.2 S.1 – Dagger soliloquy. Theme FATE/FREE WILL – the dagger is drawing him to a place – killing Duncan – that he was already going to) |
| There’s no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. | Macbeth (A.2 S.1 – Dagger soliloquy. Theme: SUPERNATURAL/GUILT – Macbeth knows there is no dagger and believes it is the ‘bloody business’ causing him to hallucinate) |
| these hangman’s hands. | Macbeth (A.2 S.2 ) Theme GUILT – Macbeth describes his hangman’s hands after murdering Duncan) |
| “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep, | Macbeth (A.2 S.2 ) Theme GUILT – Macbeth believes he will never sleep again after murdering Duncan |
| wash this filthy witness from your hand | Lady Macbeth (A.2 S.2 – Symbol – BLOOD – Theme – GUILT – Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to wash the blood from his hands as it will give them away |
| I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on ‘t again I dare not. | Macbeth (A.2 S.2 – Theme GUILT . Macbeth won’t go back to Duncan’s room to plant the daggers.) |
| Infirm of purpose! The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures. ‘Tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil. | Lady Macbeth (A.2 S.2 – she is critical of Macbeth for being afraid – the dead cant hurt you) |
| Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? | Macbeth (Act.2 S.2 – Theme GUILT, Symbol BLOOD – Macbeth thinks all the world’s oceans couldn’t clean his hand) |
| My hands are of your color, but I shame To wear a heart so white. | Lady Macbeth (A.2 S.2 – Symbol – BLOOD – She thinks Macbeth is being a coward. |
| A little water clears us of this deed | Lady Macbeth (A.2 S.2 – Symbol – BLOOD – Theme – GUILT – Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth they will be able to easily wash the blood from their hands – get through the horror and guilt at having murdered Duncan – but later she cannot – see : ‘out damn spot’ – A.5. S.1) |
| Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst | Macbeth (A.2 S.2 – Macbeth seems to be overwhelmed with regret at this moment.) |
| Thou hast it now—king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promised, and I fear Thou played’st most foully for’t | Banquo (Act 3, S.1. theme – AMBITION – banquo begins to feel macbeth might have killed to become king) |
| For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind | Macbeth (A.3.S.1 – Theme – GUILT, FATE. macbeth wonders if it is for Banquo’s descendants that he has destroyed his honour and peace of mind.) |
| And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature | Macbeth (A.2 S.3 – DISTURBANCE IN NATURE/NATURAL ORDER – Macbeth is describing Duncan’s body.) |
| Nought’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content: ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy | Lady Macbeth (A.3, S.2 – AMBITION, TREACHERY v LOYALTY – Lady Macbeth is not happy with how things have turned out. They put everything into killing Duncan but it has not lead to happiness. Better dead like him than living in misery.) |
| the strength of their illusion Shall draw him on to his confusion | Hecate [godess of magic – A3, S. 5 – UNNATURAL WORLD – WITCHES – DECEPTION – ILLUSION – Hecate meets with the witches plotting to create apparitions to trick Macbeth] |
| She has light by her continually. ‘Tis her command. | Gentlewoman – (A.5 S.1 – Symbol, LIGHT and DARK – contrast to earlier in the play Lady Macbeth wanted darkess to hide her crimes) |
| The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? | Lady Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 1. Theme GUILT can destroy a person. Lady Macbeth’s mental deterioration – sleepwalking, revealing crimes committed, guilt at murder of Macduff’s wife and children.) |
| She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. Heaven knows what she has known | Gentlewoman (A.5 S.1 – Lady Macbeth has been going mad and speaking of her crimes) |
| The heart is sorely charged | Doctor (A.5 S.1 – Lady Macbeth has a heavy heart and a lot on her mind) |
| Out, damn’d spot! out, I say | Lady Macbeth (A.5 S.1 – Theme – GUILT – Symbol – BLOOD – Lady Macbeth is losing her mind and thinks there is blood on her hands. Said in front of the Doctor and Gentlewoman) |
| who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? | Lady Macbeth (A.5 S.1 – Theme – GUILT – Symbol – BLOOD – Lady Macbeth is losing her mind and talking freely of the murder of Duncan in front of the Doctor and Gentlewoman) |
| Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand | Lady Macbeth (A5. S.1 – Symbol – BLOOD and GUILT. She thinks she can still smell blood on her hands as a consequence of her guilt over Duncans murder.) |
| Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles | Doctor (A.5 S.1 – Theme DISTURBANCE OF NATURE, something unnatural was done when Duncan was killed and it is now causing other disturbances) |
| Infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets | Doctor (A.5 S.1 – People with guilty deranged minds cant help but confess in their sleep) |
| More needs she the divine than the physician. | Doctor (A.5 S.1 – Theme DISTURBANCE OF NATURE, the doctor thinks Lady Macbeth needs God’s help, more than a doctor’s – it is a reference to her illness being caused by her sins) |
| what’s done cannot be undone | Lady Macbeth (A.5 S.1 – Theme – GUILT, FATE – once you’ve taken a certain path, there is no fixing things – and she she is now being destroyed by the guilt. She refers to A.3, S.2 – when she says to Macbeth “Things without all remedy Should be without regard. What’s done is done”. Back then she thought they could move on) |
| Now does he feel His secret murders sticking on his hands. […] Those he commands move only in command,Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title Hang loose bout him, like a giant’s robe Upon a dwarfish thief. | Angus (A.5. S.2 – Symbol – CLOTHING, Themes FATE, GUILT – Macbeth’s people now think he is not fit to be king – Clothing used to symbolise a right to one’s title – remember “why do you dress me in borrowed robes?” A.1, S.3, where he is first addressed by Ross as the Thane of Cawdor) |
| The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! Where got’st thou that goose look? …. Go, prick thy face and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-livered boy | Macbeth (A.5 S.2 – Just a fun quote – To a servant coming to tell him 10,000 soldiers are outside the castle – ‘May the devil turn you black, you white-faced fool! Why do you look like a frightened goose?…Go pinch your cheeks and bring some color back into your face, you cowardly boy.’ ) |
| Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuffWhich weighs upon the heart? | Macbeth (A.5 S.2 – Theme GUILT. Macbeth asks the doctor if he can soothe Lady Macbeths mind and free her from her worries) |
| My way of life. Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have, but, in their stead, Curses | Macbeth (A.5.S.3 – Theme – FATE – DANGEROUS AMBITION – Macbeth tells Seaton that his life is falling apart and all the good things he should have looked forward to in life are now replaced with a curse.) |
| I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been my senses would have cooled To hear a night-shriek […] I have supped full with horrors. Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts Cannot once start me | Macbeth (A.5 S.3 – I’ve almost forgotten what fear feels like. There was a time when I would have been terrified by a shriek in the night, But now I’ve had my fill of real horrors. Horrible things are so familiar that they can’t startle me.) |
| Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing. | Macbeth (A.5, S.5 – Theme – PESSIMISM/DESPAIR – ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. The days creep slowly along until the end of time. And every day that’s already happened has taken fools that much closer to their deaths. Out, out, brief candle. Life is nothing more than an illusion. It’s like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning.’) |
| begin To doubt th’ equivocation of the fiend That lies like truth. | Macbeth (A.5 S.5 – Theme – DECEPTION – As Birnam Wood begins to approach Dunsinane Macbeth starts to think that the witches have tricked him) |
| I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun | Macbeth (A.5 S.5 – As the armies close in on him, he says he is tired of life, but will die fighting) |
| But get thee back. My soul is too much charged With blood of thine already. | Macbeth (A.5 S.8 – GUILT – even this late Macbeth seems weighted with some guilt.) |
| I have no words. My voice is in my sword. Thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out! | Macduff (A.5 S.8 – I have nothing to say to you. My sword will talk for me. You are too evil for words!) |
| Behold where stands The usurper’s cursèd head | Macduff (A.5 S. 8 – The false king’s head is presented to Malcolm) |
Macbeth Quotes – Chesser’s set complete
August 18, 2019