Macbeth Key Quotes

"Fair is foul and foul is fair"

"Fair is foul and foul is fair"

Witches, Act 1 Scene 1. Looks are deceiving, not always as good as they seem.

"What bloody man is that?"

Duncan, Act 1 Scene 2. The wounded Captain, foreshadowing blood metaphor, foreshadowing Duncan's death from the blood metaphor.

"Oh valiant cousin, worthy gentleman"

Duncan, Act 1 Scene 2. About Macbeth, setting up as highly regarded for Tragic Model.

"Brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name"

Wounded Captain, Act 1 Scene 2. About Macbeth, setting up as highly regarded for tragic model.

"All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis" "All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor" "All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter."

Witches, Act 1 Scene 3. The prophecy, pivotal to plot and tragic model.

"Stay you imperfect speakers. Tell me more"

Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 3. Macbeth's ambition revealed by him wanting the witches to tell him more about the amazing prophecy.

"That he seems rapt withal"

Banquo, Act 1 Scene 3. Banquo notices Macbeth's ambition, and sees how it could be dangerous.

"Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success?"

Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 3. How could something be bad if it's promising me greatness?

"Into the air, and what seem'd corporal, Melted, as breath into the wind."

Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 3. Notices the witches disappear, Theme of Supernatural

"That not look like th' inhabitants o th' earth"

Banquo, Act 1 Scene 3. Banquo about the Witches, noting they could not possibly be human. Theme of Supernatural

"A step on which I must fall down, or else o'erleap to get th' throne"

Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 4. Macbeth on Malcom, noting that if he should be King, Malcom must be taken out as well.

"There is no art to find the mind's construction in the face, he was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust"

Duncan, Act 1 Scene 4. Duncan saying that you cannot truly know someone from what their face and mouth says, as their innermost thoughts are never revealed.

"I have begun to plant thee and will labour to make thee full of growing"

Duncan, Act 1 Scene 4. Duncan telling Macbeth that he has big plans for Macbeth, and will work hard to see them true.

"Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires"

Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 4. Stars act as a symbol for light and goodness, Macbeth's wish to extinguish them is symbolic of his dark and evil desires not wanting to be seen in the light. Theme of Evil

"Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe-top of direst cruelty"

Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5. She is inviting evil spirits to get rid of her feminine innocence and goodness. Theme of Evil and Theme of Supernatural.

" He is too full o' th' milk of human kindness"

Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5. Macbeth is still too good to kill the King. Character

"Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without the ambition that should attend it."

Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5. Macbeth is ambitious enough, just not evil enough.

"Look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under 't"

Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5. Telling Macbeth to look fair, be foul

"I dare do all that may become a man"

Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7. Macbeth follows his code of being a man, and feels killing his King would break said code.

"I have no spur to prick the sides only, vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself And falls on the other."

Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7. He has no reason to kill the King other than his driving ambition.

"This even-handed justice commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice to our own lips"

Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7. Macbeth considers what if there is divine payback for doinng this.

"How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: 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, Act 1 Scene 7. Lady Macbeth states she would kill her child if it meant not breaking a promise to Macbeth, showing disappointment that he would not kill the King even if it meant breaking a promise to her.

"False face must hide what the false heart doth know"

Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7. The traitorous face must not show what the traitorous heart feels.

"Thou marshall'st me the way I was going"

Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 1. Macbeth has made his mind up, even before seeing the ghostly dagger, this is his responsibility, not anyone else's a turning point in his character. Tragic Model.

"I see thee yet, in form as palpable"

Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 1. The dagger is not really there, though he can see this, this may be the Witches' final trick in case Macbeth was not already convinced. Theme of Supernatural

"Nature seems dead"

Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 1. Nature is a symbol of goodness. Nature being dead, is a sign of evil or the supernatural.

"and wicked dreams abuse the curtain'd sleep"

Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 1. Sleep is a symbol for safety and peace throughout Macbeth, when it is broken or disturbed, it is a sign of evil and danger.

"That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold; that which hath quenched them, hath given me fire"

Lady Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2. She has drunk alcohol as well as the guards so as not to seem suspicious, while it knocked them out, it made her angry and passionate.

"Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefor Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more"

Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2. Sleep = metaphor for safety once again, he has killed a sleeping man, the King no less, he feels extremely guilty about this and won't feel safe again, and will not sleep again.

"The sleeping and the dead are but pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood that fears the devil if he do bleed"

Lady Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2. She is calling Macbeth a child for fearing the blood he got on his hands, and is telling Macbeth that those who are asleep and dead are similar.

"Will all Great Neptune's Ocean was this blood clean from my hands?"

Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2. Macbeth feels he will never get the stain - both on his hands and on his reputation - out, no matter how much water he uses. Blood could be seen as a symbol for guilt here, and water as one of purity.

"Prophesying with accents terrible"

Lennox, Act 2 Scene 3. He tells Macbeth he heard voices telling him of the catastrophe in the Storm the night before

"The repetition in a woman's ear, would Murder as it fell"

Macduff, Act 2 Scene 3, Macduff feels he cannot tell Lady Macbeth about the murder of the night before for she would die of shock. Immensely Ironic given her involvement in the plot.

"His gash stabs look'd like a breach in nature"

Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 3, continuing the nature = goodness metaphor, Macbeth recognises he has killed, and by extension violated goodness and God. This reflects his guilty conscience.

"By th' clock 'tis day and yet the dark night strangles the travelling lamp"

Old Man, Act 2 Scene 4. While it is day, it looks like night. Not everything is as it should be, obvious "Fair is Foul, Foul is Fair" comparison to be made here.

"The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth"

Macduff, Act 2 Scene 4. Stating that the Witches' prophecy has come true, beginning of Macbeth's true downfall and a pivotal moment to the plot

"They hath hail'd him father to a line of Kings. Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown and put a barren sceptre in my gripe"

Macbeth Act 3 Scene 1. Macbeth expressing his contempt at the Witches for giving Banquo the legacy of a line of Kings but him only Kingship during his life, from here he will make moves to defy fate.

"Rather than sow, come Fate into the list, and champion me to th' utterance. Who's there?"

Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 1. Macbeth here challenges fate, believing he is impervious to it.

"Make our faces vizards to our hearts"

Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 2. This reflects Act 1 Scene 5 when Lady Macbeth said "False face hide what the false heart doth know", here we see Macbeth as the one who schemes and is enthusiastic, and Lady Macbeth as the less convinced one, reversal of the roles.

"Come Sealing Night"

Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 2. Reflects when Lady Macbeth said "Come Thick Night" asking the night to hide their dark desires and filthy acts, because Macbeth said this, to convince Lady Macbeth, we see the reversal of roles.

"O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife"

Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 2. Scorpions are poisonous creatures who also stab people, we can see this as Macbeth saying how many evil schemes are racing through his mind, and also as how bad he feels because a poisoner is not always immune to his own poison.

"Cancel and tear pieces that great bond, which keeps me pale. Light thickens"

Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 2. Mirrors Lady Macbeth's "come you spirits" speech, where he demands that all things that tie him to reality be destroyed, so he does not have to feel fear, once again showing a reversal in the power dynamic since that speech.

"O treachery! Fly good Fleance! Fly fly fly! Thou mayest revenge - o slave!

Banquo, Act 3 Scene 3. Banquo's dying words showing he still believes the prophecy, and that he will never attain Kingship, fulfilling yet another stage of the prophecy.

"But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound into saucy doubts and fears"

Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4. Macbeth no longer feels free and impervious to fate when he hears of Fleance's survival.

"Thou canst not say I did it: never shake thy gory locks at me"

Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4. Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost, who makes Macbeth act out in such a way, showing that he feels guilty about killing his best friend.

"Are you a man?"

Lady Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4. She shows disappointment at Macbeth's fear and disappointment into madness while she stays calm.

"To our dear friend Banquo"

Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4. He tries to draw suspicion away from himself by addressing and toasting Banquo.