Macbeth Quotes

"I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself / And falls on th'other" - Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII

Context: Soliloquy debating Duncan's murder. Meaning: Admits only motivation is excessive ambition, fears downfall. Analysis: Explicitly states hamartia (ambition); metaphor ('spur', 'vaulting') shows lack of justification & recklessness; foreshadows doom; soliloquy reveals inner conflict; shows destructive power of ambition over reason. Keywords: Hamartia, Ambition, Soliloquy, Metaphor, Foreshadowing, Tragic Hero, Internal Conflict.

"When you durst do it, then you were a man" - Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII

Context: Challenging Macbeth's hesitation about killing Duncan. Meaning: Claims murdering Duncan would prove his masculinity. Analysis: Manipulation/Coercion by attacking Jacobean masculinity; subverts gender roles (female dominance); psychological pressure; demonstrates Lady Macbeth's initial power through manipulation. Keywords: Masculinity, Manipulation, Gender Roles, Subversion, Ambition, Coercion, Psychological Pressure.

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more: it is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing." - Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

Context: Soliloquy after Lady Macbeth's death, facing defeat. Meaning: Concludes life is fleeting, meaningless, purposeless. Analysis: Nihilism (shocking to Jacobeans); metaphors (shadow, player, tale) emphasize futility; anagnorisis (realisation of ambition's failure); evokes pathos despite tyranny; summarises ultimate consequence of ambition. Keywords: Nihilism, Despair, Metaphor, Soliloquy, Anagnorisis, Pathos, Consequences, Meaninglessness.

"Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires" - Macbeth, Act I, Scene IV

Context: Aside after Duncan names Malcolm heir. Meaning: Asks stars (heaven/goodness) to conceal his evil thoughts of murder. Analysis: Aside reveals hidden intent; symbolism ('light' vs 'black'); personification/apostrophe (commanding nature, hubris); shows awareness of wrongdoing; links Ambition, Appearance vs Reality, Supernatural. Paired with Lady Macbeth's 'Come, thick night'. Keywords: Aside, Symbolism, Personification, Ambition, Guilt, Appearance vs Reality, Divine Order, Hubris.

"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 / To cry 'Hold, hold!'" - Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene V

Context: Soliloquy after reading Macbeth's letter. Meaning: Invokes darkness (Hell) to conceal murder from conscience and divine intervention. Analysis: Invocation/Imperative verbs show alignment with evil; imagery of darkness; actively summons evil; acknowledges wrongness but suppresses it; echoes Macbeth's desire for darkness. Keywords: Soliloquy, Invocation, Supernatural, Imperative Verbs, Imagery, Darkness, Guilt, Hubris, Ambition.

"this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen" - Malcolm, Act V, Scene IX

Context: Malcolm's final speech after Macbeth's death. Meaning: Condemns Macbeth as brutal killer ('butcher') and Lady Macbeth as demonic ('fiend-like'). Analysis: Characterisation reduces Macbeth (dehumanising effect of tyranny); metaphor links Lady Macbeth to evil; signifies restoration of order; loss of identity (no names); final moral verdict on consequences of usurpation. Keywords: Characterisation, Metaphor, Dehumanisation, Tyranny, Justice, Order vs Chaos, Divine Right, Consequences.

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair" - The Witches, Act I, Scene I

Context: Witches' chant in opening scene. Meaning: Appearances are deceptive; good and evil inverted. Analysis: Paradox/Antithesis sets theme of Appearance vs Reality; Chiasmus (inverted structure); supernatural atmosphere (chant, rhyme, rhythm); foreshadows moral confusion and chaos. Keywords: Paradox, Antithesis, Chiasmus, Supernatural, Appearance vs Reality, Trochaic Tetrameter, Rhyming Couplet, Foreshadowing, Chaos, Motif.

"Is this a dagger which I see before me… / A dagger of the mind, a false creation / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?" - Macbeth, Act II, Scene I

Context: Soliloquy before murdering Duncan, sees hallucinatory dagger. Meaning: Questions if dagger is real or product of guilt/feverish mind. Analysis: Visual hallucination shows psychological unraveling; dagger symbolises murder/guilt; ambiguity (supernatural vs psychological); catalyst for regicide; blurs reality and perception. Keywords: Hallucination, Symbolism, Guilt, Madness, Supernatural, Appearance vs Reality, Regicide, Psychological Decline, Ambiguity.

"Thou canst not say I did it: never shake / Thy gory locks at me." - Macbeth [to Banquo's ghost], Act III, Scene IV

Context: Sees Banquo's ghost at banquet (no one else does). Meaning: Defensively denies responsibility to the ghost, revealing guilt publicly. Analysis: Visual hallucination (guilt); public exposure of instability; dramatic irony (audience knows he did do it); graphic imagery ('gory locks'); shows increasing mental breakdown. Keywords: Hallucination, Ghost, Guilt, Madness, Dramatic Irony, Public Exposure, Imagery, Psychological Decline, Supernatural.

"By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes." - Second Witch, Act IV, Scene I

Context: Witches sense Macbeth's approach. Meaning: Supernatural instinct tells them someone evil ('wicked') is arriving. Analysis: Characterises Macbeth as fully corrupted ('wicked'); reinforces Witches' supernatural power; unsettling speech pattern (rhyme/rhythm); shows Macbeth now actively seeks evil counsel. Keywords: Supernatural, Characterisation, Corruption, Wickedness, Rhyming Couplet, Trochaic Tetrameter, Foreshadowing, Superstition.

"Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty!" - Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene V

Context: Soliloquy fearing Macbeth is too kind; resolves to be ruthless. Meaning: Calls spirits to remove feminine traits (compassion) and fill her with evil. Analysis: Invocation of evil spirits; shocking rejection of Jacobean gender roles ('unsex me'); equates femininity with weakness, masculinity with cruelty; hubris (thinks she can control spirits); foreshadows psychological collapse. Keywords: Invocation, Supernatural, Gender Roles, Femininity, Masculinity, Ambition, Hubris, Imperative Verbs, Soliloquy, Foreshadowing.

"look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't." - Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene V

Context: Advising Macbeth how to act when Duncan arrives. Meaning: Appear harmless outside, hide treacherous intent beneath. Analysis: Explicit theme of Appearance vs Reality; juxtaposition/imagery (flower vs serpent); Biblical allusion (serpent = Devil/temptation); shows her manipulation and cunning; imperative 'look' shows control. Keywords: Appearance vs Reality, Deception, Duplicity, Juxtaposition, Imagery, Simile, Metaphor, Biblical Allusion, Manipulation, Temptation.

"Out, damned spot! out, I say!" - Lady Macbeth, Act V, Scene I

Context: Sleepwalking, trying to wash imaginary blood (guilt). Meaning: Hallucinating blood, desperately trying to cleanse her conscience. Analysis: Hallucination (guilt manifest); breakdown shown in prose, fragmented speech, repetition; stark irony vs earlier "A little water…"; imperative 'out' is now a desperate plea; evokes pathos. Paired with Macbeth's "Out, out…". Keywords: Guilt, Madness, Hallucination, Symbolism, Irony, Prose, Repetition, Psychological Breakdown, Pathos.

"Out, out, brief candle!" - Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

Context: Reacting to news of Lady Macbeth's death in soliloquy. Meaning: Plea for life ('brief candle') to end; reflects despair, fragility/brevity of life. Analysis: Metaphor (life as candle); expresses profound despair/nihilism; echoes Lady Macbeth's "Out…" but focus shifts from guilt to existential despair; marks culmination into meaninglessness. Keywords: Metaphor, Despair, Nihilism, Soliloquy, Existentialism, Brevity of Life, Echo, Consequences.

"A little water clears us of this deed" - Lady Macbeth, Act II, Scene II

Context: To Macbeth immediately after Duncan's murder. Meaning: Pragmatically suggests washing hands removes physical and metaphorical guilt. Analysis: Dismissive underestimation of regicide's impact; hubris (believing crime easily erased); focus on superficial cleansing (Appearance vs Reality); contrasts Macbeth's immediate horror; dramatic irony (proven false later). Keywords: Guilt, Hubris, Pragmatism, Underestimation, Appearance vs Reality, Dramatic Irony, Contrast, Regicide.

"Here's the smell of the blood still: all the / perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." - Lady Macbeth, Act V, Scene I

Context: Sleepwalking scene, revealing guilt. Meaning: Imagines pervasive smell of blood (guilt) that no perfume can mask. Analysis: Olfactory imagery emphasizes inescapable guilt; hyperbole ('all the perfumes') shows enormity of stain; contradicts earlier confidence ("A little water…"); symbolism (blood=guilt, perfumes=masking, hand=responsibility/vulnerability); pathos. Keywords: Guilt, Consequences, Olfactory Imagery, Sensory Imagery, Hyperbole, Symbolism, Contrast, Pathos, Psychological Breakdown.

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair" - The Witches, Act I, Scene I

Context: Witches' opening chant. Meaning: Good and evil are inverted; appearances are deceiving. Analysis: Paradox/Antithesis sets theme of Appearance vs Reality; Chiasmus; supernatural atmosphere (chant, rhyme, rhythm); foreshadows moral confusion and chaos. Paired with Macbeth's echo. Keywords: Paradox, Supernatural, Appearance vs Reality, Chaos, Foreshadowing.

"So foul and fair a day I have not seen." - Macbeth, Act I, Scene III

Context: Macbeth's first line, after battle in storm. Meaning: Comments on contradictory day (foul weather, fair victory). Analysis: Unwitting echo of Witches, suggesting immediate link/fate; dramatic irony; foreshadows moral ambiguity (fair goal, foul means); links unnatural weather to moral disruption (Corruption of Nature). Keywords: Echo, Dramatic Irony, Foreshadowing, Supernatural, Fate vs Free Will, Corruption of Nature, Paradox.

"Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep'" - Macbeth, Act II, Scene II

Context: Telling Lady Macbeth experience after murdering Duncan. Meaning: Heard voice saying he destroyed his own peace/sleep by killing Duncan. Analysis: Auditory hallucination (guilt/trauma); personification/symbolism ('sleep' = peace, innocence); Corruption of Nature (violating sleep/kingship); suggests divine punishment/loss of peace; foreshadows insomnia/restlessness. Keywords: Hallucination, Guilt, Personification, Symbolism, Corruption of Nature, Divine Punishment, Consequences, Regicide, Foreshadowing, Psychological Trauma.