Macbeth Quotes

Top Macbeth Quotes with analysis

Thunder and lightning - stage direction

Grabs attention, pathetic fallacy, helps to show witches character

When the battle's lost and won - witches

battle = vicious war, violent imagery. Lost and won = 2 sides to every story

fair is foul and foul is fair - witches

paradox created, suggests good things happen to bad people

hover through fog and filthy air - witches

hover = supernatural. Fog = confusion. Filthy = immoral

Brave Macbeth [...] smoked with bloody execution - Captain

brave = bold and daring. Bloody = ruthless and unstoppable

So fair and foul a day I have not seen - Macbeth

first line introduced us to supernatural connection. Open to the influence of the witches.

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more - Macbeth

Commanding, he feels dominant and brave. Imperfect = he knows they are sinful but still interested in what they say.

Could the devil speak true? [...] Instruments of darkness - Banquo,

Devil = pure evil and shouldn't be trusted, story of temptation. Instruments = being controlled and are part of something bigger

This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good - Macbeth

sibilance shows the sinisterness of witches, juxtaposition

horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs

Horrid image = regicide, shows inability to name the deed. Knock = forceful action, his heart wants it to happen

That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o'er leap, for in my way it lies.

Step = inconvenient. O'erleap = murder is an option. My = idea of putting himself first

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

Hide = commanding heaven, shows power. Black = evil. Deep = strongly feels this way, powerful.

My dearest partner of greatness - Macbeth

superlative to show he values her. Partner = equal in relationship balance

Too full o'the milk of human kindness - Lady Macbeth

idea of him being too kind and caring for others

Hie thee hither, that I may pour mine spirits into thine ear - Lady Macbeth

Hie thee hither = command, authority in relationship. Pour = deliberate action. Spirits = things of evil. Ear = represents Macbeth's vulnerability to Lady Macbeth's persuadion

unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe-top full of direst cruelty! - Lady Macbeth

unsex me = commanding spirits, become stronger. Direst = superlative, wants nothing but the worst

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

confidently welcoming evil. Dunnest = superlative, most darkest. Smoke = deception

Look like th'innocent flower but be the serpent under't - Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth commanding Macbeth, showing relationship balance. Flower = nature, pure, innocent. Serpent = evil, deceptive, story of Eden

we'd jump the life to come - Macbeth

jump = longshot, risky. Life to come = afterlife

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

bloody instructions = regicide, still unnamable. Return = idea of revenge coming for Macbeth, foreshadowing. Plague = can spread to others, slow painful death

so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels - Macbeth

clear = honest, pure. Virtues = Kingly qualities. Like angels = simile, emphasises injustice of the murder.

Only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th'other - Macbeth

Vaulting = very high risk, reckless. Falls = it will take him too far

We will proceed no further in this business - Macbeth

We = teamwork. Short, bold, conviction. Business = still can't name the deed.

Art thou afeared [,] coward [,] when you durst do it, then you were a man - Lady Macbeth

deceptive, she knows how he wants to be viewed.

I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from its boneless gums, and dash'd the brains out - Lady Macbeth

Smiling = innocence. Boneless = vulnerable, weak. Violent imagery, graphic

False face must hide what the false heart doth know - Lady Macbeth

repetition of false suggests deception

A dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat- oppressed brain

Dagger = troubled conscience. Heat-oppressed = constantly thinking, hoping for power, foreshadows mental deterioration.

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going - Macbeth

the dagger is leading him to where he was going to go anyway, encouraging the regicide.

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me - Macbeth

bell was pushed by Lady Macbeth, the last push for Macbeth to do the deed. Invites = feels he is being led, not in control.

Glamis hath murder'd sleep [...] Cawdor shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more - Macbeth

repetition shows panic and worry, he is overwhelmed by the toll this has taken on him

I'll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done - Macbeth

Defying Lady Macbeth's orders, he is horrified of what has happened

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No - Macbeth

even the sea god isn't powerful enough to cleanse him, shows his guilt

My hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white - Lady Macbeth

White = innocent, pure, seen as a weakness for Lady Macbeth

A little water clears us of this deed: how easy it is, then! - Lady Macbeth

she feels no remorse

O horror, horror, horror! [,] new gorgan - Macduff

Repetition shows his grief. Gorgan = terrifying monster, turns you to stone

his silver skin laced with his golden blood - Macbeth

the poetic response compared to Macduff suggests it could've been rehearsed and memorised

Let us meet and question this most bloody piece of work to know it further - Banquo

he isn't convinced by Macbeth's alibi, Banquo can't name the deed either.

I fear thou played'st most fully for't - Banquo

Played'st = idea of tactics, chess. Foully = echoes witches earlier words.

Our fears in Banquo stick deep - Macbeth

Witches' words playing on his mind. Stick deep = impossible to forget, constant worry

fruitless crown [...] barren sceptre - Macbeth

Idea of no descendants, worry about it all being for nothing

Noughts had, all's spent, where our desire is got without content

All's spent = sacrificing. Without content = dissatisfied, was it all for nothing?

make our faces vizards to our hearts - Macbeth

now he is the one instructing her to be deceptive, beginning of power shift

O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! - Macbeth

O = sense of anger and frustration. Scorpion = small, evil-associated animals

Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck - Macbeth

telling her not to worry, still 'est'. Chuck = power shift

Come, seeling night [...] cancel and tear to pieces that great bond which keeps me pale - Macbeth

Now he is the one asking for evil assistance. Great bond = his human nature keeping him 'pale' and limited

I am cabbin'd cribb'd confin'd, bound in to saucy doubts and fears - Macbeth

sense of trapped, a king isn't trapped, shows power of Fleance, who escaped, when Macbeth can't

Thou canst not say I did it: never shake the gory locks at me! - Macbeth

he feels confronted, by his guilt, the blood on Banquo's face represents his guilt.

A bold one, that dare look on what which may appal the devil - Macbeth

he is no longer worried about other people thinking he is a man, comparing himself with the devil

I am in blood stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er - Macbeth

powerless to the trail of blood he has left, feels it has now gone out of his control

Call 'em, let me see 'em - Macbeth

instructing the witches, feels he is above the witches and on the level of the apparitions

deny me this and an eternal curse fall on you - Macbeth

he craves reassurance, irony cursing a witch thinks he's powerful

to crown my thoughts with acts - Macbeth

he's just going to throw everything at it, no matter what

each new morn [...] new sorrows strike heaven on the face - Macduff

personification of Scotland suffering. repeated new = constant suffering

all my pretty chickens [,] but I must also feel it as a man - Macduff

Pretty chickens = affection for family. Man = masculinity shouldn't be determined by grief

Out damned spot! - Lady Macbeth

imperative to show desperation, she is still affected by previous actions

all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand - Lady Macbeth

compared to earlier, she can't get rid of the guilt. Little = feels delicate and precious

This disease is beyond my practice [,] infected minds - doctor

this plague has spread and is now incurable

what's done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed - Lady Macbeth

trapped by guilt. Repetition of to bed = desperate to rest but can't

the yellow leaf - Macbeth

he feels his life is losing meaning, like a leaf in Autumn

Our castle's strength will laugh a siege to storm - Macbeth

he feels unstoppable, future tense shows confidence

I have almost forgot the taste of fears - Macbeth

he has become numb to the pain of death, nothing can hurt him anymore.

She should've died hereafter; There would've been time for such a word - Macbeth

1. if she died after the battle, they could've mourned it. 2) with her gone, he can't be restored to what he was even after the battle

tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day - Macbeth

repetition makes time feel endless, makes life feel pointless and just leads us to death

Out, out, brief candle - Lady Macbeth

Repetition of out = fragility of life. Candle = life can be put out so easily and when you die it fades to nothingness

I pull in resolution, and begin to doubt the equivocation of the fiend that lies like truth - Macbeth

He is slowly becoming less confident and doubting the witches

Blow wind! come wrack! At least we'll die with harness on our back - Macbeth

Blow = use of command to show his dominance. Harness = protection and dying like a soldier, like he'd use to dream of

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield to one of woman born - Macbeth

he still is clinging on to what the apparitions said, it is his last hope

Despair thy charm [...] Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped - Macduff

he has broken the last hope Macbeth had, taking away all of his confidence, no longer a brave soldier but a scared king

this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen - Malcolm

Macbeth's only legacy is that of a ruthless, bloody tyrant and his devilish, malevolent wife.