Macbeth Final quote identification + Characters

For each quote you need to be able to: 1. Identify the speaker 2. Translate the quote into your own words 3. Briefly summarize the context of the quote in the scene 4. explain the significance of the quote

Act 1 Scene 2 -

And with his former title greet Macbeth…

What hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won

1. Spoken by Duncan (king)

2. Translation - Find Macbeth, tell him that he’s the new Thane of Cawdor because the former thane was forced to leave and will be executed. What he lost, the noble Macbeth has gained.

3. Context/Summary - In the fight with Norway they became aware that the former Thane of Cawdor betrayed Scotland to help the enemy. Duncan discovers this and orders his execution as well as Macbeth to be the new Thane of Cawdor because of his brave fighting in the battle with Norway.

4. Significance - These lines show how Macbeth’s title has changed but also Duncan’s trust and reliance on him. This scene shows how Macbeth demonstrated his courage in battle which let him gain the favor of the crown.

Act 1 Scene 3

All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!

Who: Third witch

Translate: Praise and honor Macbeth who will soon be king

Context: The three witches tell Macbeth about their prophecy that Macbeth will soon become king.

Significance: This first prophecy foreshadows the plot of the play and drives Macbeth’s motivations. This news is what causes his ego to grow and it is what leads to his demise. It is significant that the symbol of evil forces in the narrative give Macbeth this prophecy.

Act 1 Scene 5 -

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 without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it.

Who: Lady macbeth

Translate: I fear your nature. You (Macbeth) are too kind to take easy of an easy, first opportunity. You desire more power, and don’t lack the ambition, but I wonder if you can be made ruthless enough to seize it.

Context/Summary: After Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth’s letter about becoming thane of cawdor and that the king is following them to their castle, she thinks that he is too cowardly to do what it takes to ascend to kinghood since he can now do it.

Significance: This shows Lady Macbeth’s reveal of her own ambition to gain power and it shows that Macbeth has a conscience that originally stops him from doing evil acts. This shows their sinister plot to take the crown and we see that Lady Macbeth is what motivates the plot.

Act 1 Scene 7 -

We will proceed no further in his business,

He hath honored me of late, and I have brought

Golden opinions from all sorts of people,

Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,

Not cast aside so soon.

Who: Macbeth

Translate: We can’t go through with the plot to murder the king because he is proud of me and has given me a fancy new role. People like me and I don’t want to cast aside this favor so quickly.

Context: Macbeth tells his wife that they should stop their plan of killing the king because he just got a new title and he got praised which makes him look good to all the important people. Macbeth wants to get comfortable in his role of being the thane of Cawdor before killing the king.

Significance: Macbeth questions his and his wife’s plan to ascend the social ladder by becoming king and queen immediately after his promotion. This moment shows that Macbeth has a consciousness that gets in the way of lady Macbeth’s plan, but his wife thinks that he is weak and too scared to take what he wants.

Act 2 Scene 1 -

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Who: Macbeth

Translate: Do I see a dagger in front of me, with the handle facing toward my hand? Come here, let me touch you. You don’t physically exist, and yet I still see you.

Context: Macbeth hallucinates a dagger before he plans to go and kill Duncan. He can’t tell if what he’s seeing is a real dagger or a fake one so he realizes that he’s having a vision.

Significance: Macbeth is overtaken by his guilt of his future action and he is very anxious. He only says this to himself which shows that he still has a conscience about his actions, even on the way to committing an evil act. This scene shows how Macbeth’s mental state is beginning to unravel.

Act 2 Scene 1

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.

Who: Macbeth

Translate: I am on my way and the murder will soon be committed. The bell bids me to follow its commands. I hope you don’t hear it Duncan because it is the alarm that summons you to heaven or to hell.

Context: Macbeth is on his way to killing Duncan in his chamber. He feels that the bell that he’s hearing (the signal from Lady Macbeth) is telling him to hurry and kill Duncan before he wakes.

Significance: Macbeth abandons his conscience and makes the last decision to killl Duncan. He realizes that he has no choice but to commit the murder or else he will eb caught attempting to kill him. He doesn’t want Duncan to know what is happening which makes his job easier.

Act 2 Scene 2 -

Go get some water

and wash this filthy witness from your hand.

Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

They must lie there. Go, carry them and smear

The sleepy grooms with blood.

Who: Lady Macbeth

Translation: Go get some water to wash the blood from your hands (to Macbeth) after killing the king. Why did you bring the daggers that you used to kill him? They have to stay there. Go take them to the sleepy guards and smear them with blood.

Context: The Macbeths’ plan was to kill the king and use the drunk guards as scapegoats. Lady Macbeth tells her husband to wash off his hands and she thinks him to be not thinking clearly becase he has left evidence of the murder. She makes him put the dagger near the sleeping guards and cover them with Duncan’s blood to frame them for the murder.

Significance: This scene shows how organized and clear lady Macbeth is after committing the murder while Macbeth is frazzled and scared. It shows how she is not going to let Macbeth have anxiety and let them be caught. It shows that Macbeth is now unstable but Lady Macbeth stays calm.

Act 2 Scene 2 -

My hands are of your color, but I shame

To wear a heart so white

WHo: lady macbeth

translate: My hands also have blood on them but I am not as cowardly as you

Context: After killing Duncan lady Macbeth is trying to stop her husband from being so shocked and dazed by telling him that she is just as guilty. She has to be rational even though she is guilty.

Significance: Lady Macbeth shows that she is collected while her husband is stressed and confused. She is also calling out his masculinity, calling him weak and scared unlike how a man should act in the situation.

Act 3 Scene 1 -

Thou hast it now - King, Cawdor, Glamis, all

As the weird women promised, and I fear

thou played’s most foully for’t. Yet it was said

It should not stand in thy posterity,

But that myself should be the root and father

of many king

Who: Banquo

Translate: You have all these roles, just like the witches promised, but I’ve begun to believe that you did not gain these roles honestly. Don’t forget that the prophecy also said that my descendants will be kings.

Context: Banquo says to himself and the audience that he and others are starting to suspect that Macbeth has done something terrible and evil to gain power.

Significance: Banquo reveals that the court is against Macbeth now and people think that he did not acquire his power honestly, and me might not be able to keep his role as king. This is the first time we see Macbeth struggle with his fate.

Act 4 Scene 1 -

Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes

His mansion and his titles in a place

From whence himself does fly? He loves us not;

He wants the natural touch;

Who: Lady Macduff

Translate: Wisdom, to leave his wife and kids, his mansion and his role as thane in a place that he has left? He doesn't not love us and he doesn’t have the natural inclination to do so.

Context: Lady Macduff’s reaction to Ross’s news that there are assassins on their way to her husband’s mansion to kill his entire family. She is angry because he has disappeared to England to leave them to fend for themselves against assassins. She feels that her husband is a coward who is afraid to protect his family.

Significance: this shows that the court is aware of Macbeth’s villainy but not the rest of Scotland, even the people who are connected to the court. People are still suspecting of Macduff to be against their greater good.

Act 4 Scene 3 -

He has no children. All my pretty ones?

Did you say “all”? O hell-kite! All?

What, all my pretty chickens and their dam

At one fell swoop?

Who: Macduff

Translation: He doesn’t have children. All my beautiful children? Did you say that all of them were killed by Macbeth? What, all my beautiful children and their mother at once?

Context: Macduff does leave Scotland, not out of fear, but to tell Malcom to come back and save their country from Macbeth. However, when he is gone. he cannot stop his family from being murdered by the three killers who assassinate his entire family. He can’t get revenge on Macbeth by killing his children back, as he has none, and he is trying to process this news while speaking with Malcom and Ross.

Significance: Macduff is amazed that Macbeth could do anything that evil and is now convinced that he must kill Macbeth because he is fully evil and treacherous. He truly wants to give Malcom the crown back, now.

Act 5 Scene 1 -

Out, damned spot, out I say! One. Two.

Why then, ‘tis time to do ‘t. Hell is murky. Fie

My lord, fie, a soldier and afeard?

Who: Lady Macbeth

Translate: Get this damned spot out of my clothes. The clock is striking one, two. It is now time to kill Duncan. We are getting up to questionable business. What is there to be afraid of?

Context: her guilt is finally catching up to her. She is hallucinating that she is back in the castle, convincing her husband to kill the king. She is also obsessing about the blood on her clothes that does not truly exist but it haunts her, reminding her of her actions.

Significance: This quote shows that Lady Macbeth is now losing her mind because of her evil actions and her guilt and anxiety. She is showing this guilt to her doctor and her gentlewoman who care for her. Her mental state is unravelling and she is very guilty. Her guilt eventually makes her commit suicide, leaving Macbeth alone.

Act 5 Scene 3

“Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman Shall e’er have power upon thee.”

Then fly, false thanes,

And mingle with the English epicures.

Who: Macbeth

translate: “be not afraid, Macbeth. No man born from a woman can ever overpower you.” Then leave, fake nobleman, and stay with the overfed English pigs.

Context: Macbeth quotes an apparition from the three witches that says he will never be killed by a man naturally born of a woman, so he doesn’t need to be afraid of any of the noblemen that he calls phony.

Significance: Macbeth is convinced that he is invincible so he mocks the army gathered before him to attack his castle at Dunsinane. These statements show how he is now extremely confident and cocky about holding his power and that this prediction assures his long life as a king.

Act 5 Scene 3 -

Tyrant, show thy face!

If thou beast slain, and with no stroke of mine,

My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.

Who: Macduff

Translate: Show your face, you tyrant! If someone kills you, the ghosts of my wife and children will forever haunt me.

Context: Macduff calls Macbeth for a duel and he’s letting him know that he wants to kill Macbeth himself to avenge the murders of his family.

Significance: Macduff shows his desire to avenge his family and save his country through killing Macbeth and he feels the responsibility for their deaths because he didn’t protect them due to his fear of Macbeth.

Who is Macbeth?

Originally the thane of Glamis, who became the thane of Cawdor after fighting the former thane of Cawdor and Norway off from their country. He is well loved by his king. He is told a prophecy by three witches that he will become the king of Scotland which sparks his desire for power. Initially anxious, his wife goads him to commit the murder and scare away the king’s sons so that they can become King and Queen through attacking his masculinity. He hallucinates a knife in front of him before he goes to kill the king, and throughout the play, he struggles with his morality, second-guessing his actions until he receives another prophecy telling him that no man naturally born of a woman can harm him. He eventually is defeated by his nemesis, Macduff, and replaced by Malcom. His guilt is represented by the dagger he imagines and Banquo’s ghost which haunts him at the dinner party he throws. His guilt drives him to madness and paranoia.

Who is Lady Macbeth?

The wife of Macbeth. She does not think that her husband has the guts to kill the king so she goads him by calling him weak and not man enough. She gets the guards outside Duncan’s chambers drunk and rings the bell to tell Macbeth when to kill him, and after the act, she is the one to tell him how to hide the murder weapon lest he get caught in his nerves. She later becomes obsessed with the murder, hallucinating herself back into that night and constantly washing the invisible blood off her hands. Her once close relationship with her husband became more and more distant, and her last mention was by her doctor and gentlewoman, saying that she is sleepwalking and not fully coherent about the murder. Eventually her guilt catches up to her and she kills herself.

Who is Banquo?

Banquo is another thane of Scotland who helps Macbeth fight off the former thane of Cawdor and Norway. They are close comrades, and him and Macbeth were traveling together when they first found the witches. They tell Banquo that he will not be king but his descendants will, but Banquo is composed enough to not act on his prophecy. After Macbeth becomes king, Banquo and the other members of the court start to question his legitimacy as a ruler and Macbeth has him killed when him and his son are out riding. He is stabbed twenty times but his son, Fleance, escapes. Macbeth hallucinates his ghost at the coronation banquet he threw the day of his murder which makes him yell at seemingly nothing and confuse the guests. Lady Macbeth covers for him and apologizes to say that his fit will pass soon.

Who are Ross and Lennox?

Two royal thanes of Scotland. They represent the people’s opinions on Macbeth as they are not as quick as Macduff to jump to conclusions about Macbeth’s status as king. Ross talks about the weird weather and animal behaviors that happen after Duncan dies. While Macduff leaves to Fife and England, Ross chooses to stay at the coronation events. After Banquo is murdered, Ross leaves to see Macduff in England after he stops to talk to Macduff’s wife. He is the one to tell Macduff that his entire family has been murdered. Lennox is a younger thane and his forces join up with Malcom’s army, and both thanes fight against Macbeth in the final battle.

Who is Macduff?

The Thane of Fife, a the nemesis of Macbeth. He knocks at the door of Inverness after the murder which scares the Macbeths into rushing to wash their hands from the blood. Macduff goes to wake the king and finds his dead body. He also chooses to skip Macbeth’s coronation and to go to Fife, the England to join Malcom. He was born by C-section which makes him technically not naturally born of a woman, and this allows him to defeat Macbeth and free Scotland. His entire family is killed by Macbeth because Macbeth sees him and his descendants as a threat. This murder angers Macduff, and causes him to want to fight Macbeth for revenge.

Who are the three murderers?

The murderers who kill Banquo because Macbeth fears the prophecy that Banquo will father kings. He sets out the three murderers to kill Banquo and his son and they succeed with Banquo but Fleance escapes.

Who are the other murderers?

The killers of all of Macduff’s family and servants. Macbeth orders his family killed and his city laid siege to because he is mad at Macduff for leaving to England. Lady Macduff is warned by a messenger but she stays in Fife without any protection. The murderers arrive at the castle soon after and kill her and her son before they kill the rest of the household.

Who are the Macduffs?

Lady Macduff contrasts Lady Macbeth in her weakness and femininity who complains to Ross that her husband has abandoned her family. She is afraid for her safety but Ross keeps defending her husband’d departure. She talks to her young son who stays loyal to his father, and even though they are warned by a messenger, the murderers arrive too quickly.

What are the occults?

Hecate is the goddess of darkness. She is mad at the weird sisters because they excluded her from their evil plans and she tells them to make amends when Macbeth arrives the next morning. Her plan is to conjure evil spirits who will disguise themselves as apparitions about Macbeth’s future. The apparitions conjured by the weird sisters are an armored head (that represents Macbeth’s beheading), a bloody child (Macduff being born via C-section), and a crowned child holding a tree (the crown prince, bringing Birman Forest with his army) saying that he shouldn’t be scared until the forest marches against the castle, Dunsinane. The second and third apparitions were created intentionally to make Macbeth he was okay but he really wasn’t because of Hecate’s commands. The procession of kings is the line of 8 king’s from Banquo’s family that follows the apparitions. Banquo’s ghost points at them, mocking Macbeth. The eighth king holds a mirror which was supposed to reflect King James in the original performances.

Who are the English?

King Edward the Confessor - a contrast to Macbeth who heals the people of England from ailments that doctors couldn’t. This talent is described my Macduff to Malcom, and he has other gifts of prophecy. He has no lines in the play but is admired by Malcom and provides him with an army of ten thousand men to fight Macbeth.

Siward - An old soldier admired by Malcom, and Malcom’s uncle. A very good soldier who was already leading ten thousand “warlike men” to Scotland when Macbeth arrived in England. When he was told about his son’s death he only asked if the wounds were in the front or the back.

Young Siward - The young son of Siward who is the last to die at Macbeth’s hands. He is brave and stands up against Macbeth who kills him for it, and his death is considered noble because all his wounds entered from the front, which is an honorable soldier’s death.

Who is Duncan?

The former King of Scotland. A very kind and good king who is proud of Macbeth’s feats and names him thane of Cawdor. His heir to the throne is his son, Malcom, and the naming of Malcom as his heir pushes Macbeth’s anger and desire to take the throne.

Who are Duncan’s sons?

Malcom - the firstborn, the honorable prince of Cumberland. After his father is murdered, he flees to England. King Edward the confessor really likes him. When Macduff goes to England to ask him to come back, he says that he has weak traits and wouldn’t help Scotland because of his insatiable lust, but that was a lie. He leads the army to fight Macbeth, hiding behind branches from the forest so that Macbeth could not see how many soldiers there were. He became the king after Macbeth died.

Donalbain - the younger son, a loyal confidant, who flees to Ireland after his father is murdered.

Both brothers run away to different parts of the modern UK because they don’t want to be killed like their father was.