Macbeth Quotes

"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 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

- 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 fear

Thou 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.

fair is foul and foul is fair

Act 1, Scene 1 - Witches - paradox - supernatural

O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman

Act 1, Scene 2 - Duncan - bloodshed is revelled in - brutality a virtue

So foul and fair a day I have not seen

Act 1, Scene 3 - Macbeth - opening line - paradox similar to witches - potential for supernaturalness

You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so

Act 1, Scene 3- Macbeth - Witches = supernatural and transgressive of gender

Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be none

Act 1, Scene 3 - Third Witch - prophecy - Banquo

Why do you dress me in borrow'd robes?

Act 1, Scene 3 - Macbeth to Ross - disbelief of prohpecy becoming true - theatrical imagery

The instruments of darkness tell us truths

Act 1, Scene 3 - Banquo - less trustworthy of witches - calm and sceptical

Speak, I charge you!

Act 1, Scene 3 - Macbeth - imperative - witches fail to obey - lack of control? - argues against supernatural powers

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

Act 1, Scene 4 - Macbeth (aside) -

Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here

Act 1, Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth - similar to witches - supernatural relations - transgression of gender - imperatives - urgency - desperation - recurrence of 'un': cannot undo actions

Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell

Act 1, Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth - light/dark imagery - Hellish imagery - guilt - shroud for dead bodies - concealment - conspiracy - relates to Macbeth's 'Stars hide your fires...' - femme fatale

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

Act 1, Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth - religious imagery - Adam and Eve - sin against God - regicide - deception - conspiracy -transgressive femme fatale

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague th'inventor

Act 1, Scene 7 - Macbeth - fears moral consequences - humility - psychological state

Vaulting ambition

Act 1, Scene 7 - Gothic ambition - fatal flaw of tragic hero - only motive to kill - realises it is untrustworthy

There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out

Act 2, Scene 1 - Banquo - Religious imagery - dark imagery

Is this a dagger which I see before me

Act 2, Scene 1 - Macbeth - visions - horror image - two interpretations: dagger of Macbeth's imagination OR conjured by the Witches to spur on Macbeth to kill Duncan - ambiguity of supernatural

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still

Act 2, Scene 1 - Macbeth dagger soliloquy - contradictions like the Witches

Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't

Act 2, Scene 2 - Lady Macbeth - indicates she has some conscience - not purely evil

I could not say 'Amen'

Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth - Amen means 'so be it' in Hebrew - cannot ask for anything given his sin - guilt

Macbeth shall sleep no more

Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth thinks he heard a voice cry 'sleep no more!' - accepts danger of sleep when he is to be king - insomnia - erratic and tyrannical behaviour

The devil himself could not pronounce a title more hateful to mine ear

Act 5, Scene 7 - Young Siward - religious imagery - hatred for Macbeth publicly known

This dead butcher and his fiend like queen

Act 5, Scene 8 - Malcolm - butcher: someone who kills with no remorse or regret or reason - fiend - evil and immoral, capable of enchanting victims into a false sense of security

Out damned spot: out I say

Act 5, Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth - sleepwalking scene - manifestation of Duncan's blood - guilt - madness - like madwoman in the attic in Jane Eyre and Lucy's inability to sleep in Dracula

Beware Macduff

Act 4, Scene 1 - First apparition - possible threat of Macduff

None of woman born shall harm Macbeth

Act 4, Scene 1 - Second apparition (Bloody child) - comforts Macbeth but has double meaning - Macduff born Caesarean - Macduff can kill him

Mother's womb untimely ripp'd

Act 5, Scene 8 - Macduff confirming threat

until Great Birnham wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him

Act 4, Scene 1 - Third apparition (crowned child) - branches cut down and used as camouflage used by the English led by Siward and Malcolm, Duncan's son

Something wicked this way comes

Act 4, Scene 1 - Second witch - their own creation - Macbeth now comes LOOKING FOR THEM - supernatural

When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Act 1, Scene 1 - First witch - Pathetic fallacy - connections to dark weather - dark imagery - supernatural - dark exposition - tragedy - conspiracy

secret, black, and midnight hags!

Act 4, Scene 1 - Macbeth - arrogant command to the Witches - contrasts Act 1, Scene 3 where he addresses them with shock and surprise

We have scotch'd the snake, not killed it

Act 3, Scene 2 - Macbeth - worried about threat (Banquo) - snake is the threat to his kinship - religious imagery - snake tempts

O, full of scorpions is my mind

Act 3, Scene 2 - Macbeth - the fact Banquo and Fleance still live is like the sting of a scorpion

When the battle's lost and won (1.1.4)

second witch to all witches

fair is foul, foul is fair- one winner and one loser

fair is foul, and foul is fair (1.1.12)

all witches to all witches

major theme- appearances vs. reality. something good is bad, something bad is good

For brave Macbeth...which he ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, till he unsealed him from the nave to th' chops, and fixed his head upon our battlements. (1.2.18-25)

Captain to Duncan and Malcolm

Macbeth killed the traitor Macdonwald

but the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, with furnished arms and new supplies of men, began a fresh assault. (1.2.34-36)

Captain to Duncan

fair is foul - small victory but another enemy

As cannons overcharge with double cracks, so they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. (1.2.41-42)

Captain to Duncan

kept fighting, even stronger, not giving up

assisted by that most disloyal traitor, the Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict...the victory fell on us. (1.2.60-66)

Ross to Duncan

Thane of Cawdor is traitor to Duncan but they still win

what he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. (1.2.78)

Duncan to Ross

Thane of Cawdor will die, Macbeth will replace him

fair is foul

and, like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. (1.3.10-11)

first witch to all witches

going to torture sailor because woman didnt give her nuts, witches have power. torturing because they can

I'll drain him dry as hay. sleep shall neither night nor day. hang upon his penthouse lid. he shall live a man forbid. weary sev'nnights, nine times nine, shall he dwindle, peak, and pine. (1.3.19-24)

first witch to other witches

the woman's husband is tortured

so foul and fair a day i have not seen. (1.3.39)

Macbeth to Banquo

bad weather, won but many losses

you should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so. (1.3.47-49)

Banquo to witches

they dont look like women

all hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! all hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth, that shall be king thereafter! (1.3.51-53)

all witches to Macbeth and Banquo

Macbeth knows he is Thane of Glamis, he doesnt know that he is going to be Thane of Cawdor but we do, king is foreshadowing

why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair? (1.3.54-55)

Banquo to Macbeth

Macbeth is freaking out about the titles the witches said

speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear your favors nor your hate. (1.3.63-64)

Banquo to witches

predict stuff for him, he doesnt beg for their favors or fear their hate

lesser than Macbeth and greater. not so happy, yet much happier. thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. (1.3.68-70)

witches to banquo

Banquo wont be king, he will be happier than Macbeth, Banquo's kids will be king and his line will carry on

the Thane of Cawdor lives, why do you dress me in borrowed robes? (1.3.114-115)

Macbeth to Ross, Angus, Banquo

he is unaware that the thane of cawdor has died/was a traitor. doesnt understand why he would just take his "robes" if they still belong to cawdor.

But 'tis strange. and oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness to tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray 's in deepest consequence. (1.3.134-138)

Banquo to Macbeth

idea that info is fair, but something foul in how it will play out/to good to be true

fair is foul, foul is fair

dark instruments= witches, they be tellin the truth!

this supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good... I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do i yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair... Present fears are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder is yet but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered in surmise, and nothing is but what is not.

Macbeth to self

witches never say anyone will die, belief in supernatural powers, fair is foul- he wants to be king but doesnt want others to die

present fears are less than horrible imaginings. (1.3.150-151)

Macbeth to self

present fears are bad. imagines stuff that have to happen to become king. isnt thinking of crazy ass stuff like murder yet

if chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir. (1.3.157-159)

Macbeth to self

let chance take its course, not going to interfere/try anything

there, if I grow, the harvest is your own. (1.4.37-38)

Banquo to Duncan

if he has big accomplishments, it is because of Duncan

Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter the Prince of Cumberland; which honor must not unaccompanied invest him only (1.4.44-46)

Duncan to Macbeth and Banquo

Duncan's son Malcolm will be named prince, in the way of Macbeth

the Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (1.4.55-60)

Macbeth to self

macbeth doesnt want others to know of what he desires, fair and foul

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised. Yet I do fear thy nature; it is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not with ambition...(1.5.15-19)

Lady Macbeth to self

wants macbeth to be king but thinks he is too kind to act manly and do what it takes to be king. Macbeth wants to be a good man, doesnt want to cheat to get what he wants

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round (1.5.29-31)

Lady Macbeth to self

She is going to persuade macbeth to act

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal. (1.5.32-33)

Lady Macbeth to self

Fate and witchcraft want Macbeth to be king

The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements. (1.5.45-47)

Lady Macbeth to self

DUNCAN WILL DIE.

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. Make thick my blood. Stop up th' access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts and take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers, wherever in your slightless substances you wait on nature's mischief. 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!" (1.5.47-61)

Lady Macbeth to self

she calls upon evil so that she can kill duncan without guilt or sadness/emotion

O' never shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters. To beguile the time, look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue. look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under't. He that's coming must be provided for; and you shall put this night's great business into my dispatch, which shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. (1.5.71-82)

Lady Macbeth to Macbeth

Duncan is not going to see tomorrow, he is going to be killed. Appear innocent and hide the evil, she is going to plan everything for the murder that will happen in the night

See, see our honored hostess! (1.6.13)

Fair and noble hostess, (1.6.30)

Duncan to Lady Macbeth

he is too trusting

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly. if th' assassination could trammel up the consequence and catch with his surcease success, that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all here, but here, upon this bank and shoal of time, we'd jump the life to come. But in these cases we still have judgement here, that we but teach bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague th' inventor. This even-handed justice commends th' ingredience of our poisoned chalice to our own lips. he's here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself...(1.7.1-16)

Macbeth to self

crimes have consequences, looking at reasons why he shouldn't kill duncan. he should be protecting duncan

which thou esteem'st the ornament of life and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would," like the poor cat i' th' adage? (1.7.46-49)

Lady Macbeth to Macbeth

she is questioning his manliness, will he become king or be a coward

I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares to do more is none. (1.7.51-52)

Macbeth to lady macbeth

he will do what a man is meant to do

doing more=not a man

when you durst do it, then you were a man (1.7.56)

Lady macbeth to macbeth

testing macbeth's manliness. she is such a bitch.

I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me. i would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed his brains out, had i so sworn as you have done to this. (1.7.62-67)

lady macbeth to macbeth

she would kill her baby if she said that she would. SHE IS ONE CRAZY BITCH.

when we have marked with blood those sleepy two of his own chamber and used their very daggers, that they have done 't? (1.7.86-88)

Macbeth to lady macbeth

frame the servants

I am settled and bend up each coporal agent to this terrible feat. away, and mock the time with fairest show. false face must hide what the false heart doth know. (1.7.92-96)

macbeth to lady macbeth

hide under a friendly face, hide evil heart

appearances vs reality

there's husbandry in heaven; their candles are all out. take thee that too. a heavy summons lies like lead upon me, and yet i would not sleep. merciful powers, restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature gives way to in repose. (2.1.6-11)

Banquo to Fleance

he is suspicious. something isnt right,

nature foreshadowing

if you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, it shall make honor for you. (2.1.34-35)

macbeth to banquo

macbeth is figuring out who is loyal to him

My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, i shall be counseled. (2.1.38-39)

Banquo to macbeth

he will be loyal as long as things are fine

is this a dagger which i see before me, the handle toward my hand? come, let me clutch thee...or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation proceeding from the heat-oppresséd brain? (2.1.44-51)

macbeth to self

imagining the dagger, freaking out about murder, guilt already in his heart, only killing for lady macbeth

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. (2.1.75-77)

macbeth to self

ready to do the deed. he prays it will go w/out notice, cant handle the pressure

that which hath made them drunk hath made me bold. what hath quenched them hath given me fire...it was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman (2.2.1-5)

lady macbeth to self

drugged guardsmen, fair is foul foul is fair- what made their lives suck is giving her power

the owl is death, death has occurred

One cried "god bless us" and "amen" the other...i could not say "amen" when they did say "god bless us"..."i had most need of blessing, and "amen" stuck in my throat. (2.2.37-44)

macbeth to lady macbeth

already feeling the guilt, so strong cant even ask for god's blessing

Methought i heard a voice cry "sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep" - the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, the death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher in life's feast. (2.2.47-52)

macbeth to lady macbeth

MENTAL BREAKDOWN OVER HERE. haunted by guilt, will never have peaceful nights, he will be sleepless

Still it cried "Sleep no more!" to all the house. "Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more." (2.2.54-57)

macbeth to lady macbeth

haunted by guilt, can never sleep again

Go get some water and wash this filthy witness from your hand. (2.2.60-61)

lady macbeth to macbeth

water will clear us of this deed

infirm of purpose! give me the daggers. the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures. 'tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil. if he do bleed i'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt. (2.2.68-73)

lady macbeth to macbeth

macbeth is stupid and cant do anything right, lady is going to frame the guardsmen

will all great neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? no, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red. (2.2.78-81)

macbeth to self

water will not wash it all away

my hands are of your color, but i shame to wear a heart so white. (2.2.83-84)

lady macbeth to macbeth

not bothered by the death, white=pure

a little water clears us of this deed. (2.2.86)

lady macbeth to macbeth

water will cleanse us, repeated

wake duncan with thy knocking. i would thou couldst. (2.2.94-95)

macbeth to lady macbeth

he would take it all back

here's a farmer that hanged himself on th' expectation of plenty... here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake yet could not equivocate to heaven...an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose...(2.3.4-14)

porter to self

farmer hoards crops, equivocator knows what to say to get what he wants, tailor steals from people he shouldnt be stealing from, all are greedy like macbeth.

foreshadowing

But this place is too cold for hell. (2.3.16)

porter to self

its worse than hell

the night has been unruly. where we lay, our chimneys were blown down...the obscure bird clamored the livelong night. some say the earth was feverous and did shake. (2.3.61-69)

Lennox to macbeth

nature is weird/strange. the obscure bird is the owl, referencing duncan's death