Macbeth: Quotes and Analysis

"I do fear thy nature is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way" - Lady Macbeth

-Macbeth is too kind to go after the crown

-She doesn't think he is capable

-Comment on milk = femininity

"Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valour of my tongue" - Lady Macbeth

-Lady Macbeth will try to persuade Macbeth to go after the crown

-She is manipulative

-Comment on spirits, that she believes, and continues supernatural theme

"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

-She wants to become less like a woman and more like a man

-She thinks she is capable/wants to be

-Hates that gender makes her less powerful. Defying gender stereotypes

-Comment on gender and masculinity here; spirits; manhood = cruelty

"Look like th' innocent flower but be the serpent under it" - Lady Macbeth

-Come across as innocent, then betray him secretly

-She is willing to be sly and deceitful

-Serpent suggestions; appearance vs reality theme

"Only look up clear; to alter favour ever is to fear, leave all the rest to me" - Lady Macbeth

-Act normal because if you don't it will be suspicious. Leave the rest to me

-She is clever and scheming. Able to take charge

- 'Leave...me' dynamic between two. Parallel when

'Be...chuck'

"Art not without ambition but without the illness should attend it." - Lady Macbeth

-Macbeth is ambitious but not mean enough to succeed

-She doesn't trust her husband & damns him for his nobility

-Theme of ambition; dynamic between Macbeths

"Fair is foul and foul is fair" - The Witches

-The witches warn the audience that things are not always what they appear to be

-Paradox

-Theme of supernatural/ appearance vs reality

-Connection to Macbeth's "So...seen"

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

-Lady Macbeth

-I would have killed the king myself if he didn't look so much like my dad

-First time LM seems more human, and feminine.

-Sleep = motif for innocence

"Be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck"-Macbeth

-Stay out of it/ Let me handle it. "Dearest chuck" speaking down to her

-Macbeth rejection of wife's help, showing new independence and no need for persuasion

-More typical dynamic as treats his wife like a typical woman

-LM now powerless as not controlling Macbeth; Roles changed

"Is this a dagger which I see before me, handle towards my hand?" - Macbeth

-Psychological effect on Macbeth, as he feels so guilty. He is hallucinating and questioning the actual presence of the knife

-Could also be a real dagger which ties in with theme of supernatural

-Representing Macbeth's inner debate on whether to kill king or not

-'Handle' encouraging his action

"O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear" - Macbeth

-His own head is torturing him; guilt is eating him up

a cry within of women- Stage direction

-Lady Macbeth dies offstage

-Such an important character at the beginning isn't even afforded a death on stage

-LM has no power at the end, so is not given a death scene

-Macbeth is tragic hero, so Shakespeare wants the emotional focus to be for his death

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

-Sounds like something the witches would say. Macbeth is using similar language, establishing his personal connection with them

-Like the witches, here is a hint that Macbeth could be an evil character too

"Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen" - Malcolm

-Summarises how all of Scotland viewed the Macbeths

-'Butcher' and 'fiend' represent their roles in tyranny i.e. butcher = Graphic word. brutal and mindless

fiend = reserved word. sinister and manipulative

-Satisfying summary to encapsulate their tyranny

"As his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself"-Macbeth

-He is welcoming the king into his home, and so should be protecting him instead of being the one putting him in danger.

-Here Macbeth is facing inner trouble as he feels he is not doing the honourable thing.

"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition" - Macbeth

-His own ambitions are his only motivation to kill

-His reasons to kill are suddenly unjustified to him

-He seems to decide against the murder, but this only lasts until his wife returns

-Comment on how vaulting connotes jumping in blindly

"When you durst do it, then you were a man" - Lady Macbeth

-When Macbeth dared to go ahead with the murder, that's when you were a real man.

-LM using masculinity to manipulate husband

-Theme of gender, masculinity, and cruelty

"He hath been in unusual pleasure, and sent forth great largess to your offices. This diamond he greets your wife withal, by the name of most kind hostess, and shut up in measureless content." - Banquo

-The king has been unusually happy and given many gifts to the house. This diamond is for your wife who has been very hospitable.

-Dramatic irony, heightening tension. Audience know the Macbeths' true motives, anticipating what will happen next.

-'Most kind hostess' ironic as Lady Macbeth is not that.

"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!'" - Macbeth

-Macbeth reports back to his wife that he heard a voice criticising him after he killed the king.

-Sleep = innocence, and so in the way he has murdered sleep he has murdered innocence, making him guilty

-Suggests that since Macbeth is suffering auditory hallucinations, he subconsciously thinks he deserves to always be guilty

"Look on't again I dare not." - Macbeth

-He can't go back to the murder scene, he can't stand to look at it again

-Cowardice, reaffirming the idea that while he is ambitious he doesn't have the strength to follow through on them

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" - Macbeth

-Will all the water in the ocean wash this blood from my hands?

-Blood = guilt, saying that nothing will get rid of his guilt

-Mirroring LM's 'perfumes of Arabia'

-Suggesting Macbeth is already suffering the psychological effects

"The night has been unruly" -Lennox

"'Twas a rough night" - Macbeth

-Weather symbolising both supernatural/witch involvement as well as Macbeth's troublesome night

"Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence the life o' th' building!" - Macduff

-A murderer has broken into God's temple and stolen the life out of it

-Comparison of Duncan to God/Of utmost holiness, highlighting the seriousness and disrespect of his death

-Contrast of a very honourable king vs Macbeth's dishonourable eventual tyranny

"O gentle lady, tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition, in a woman's ear, would murder as it fell." - Macduff

-Gentle LM, my news isn't fit for your ears. If I told you, it would kill you as soon as you heard it.

-Dramatic irony, as Lady Macbeth is the cruel one who caused the death, but is playing the innocent woman

-This is a typical male response to female involvement at the time, showing that LM can manipulate husband but is still powerless with other men.

"Had I died but an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant, there's nothing serious in mortality" - Macbeth

-If I had only died an hour before this event I could say I had lived a happy life. But from then on, there's nothing worth living for

-Here Macbeth has gone straight into his deceit, clearly comfortable in acting surprised and playing the victim

"And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature" - Macbeth

-Macbeth acknowledges how wrong the king's murder is

-This perhaps suggests that Macbeth himself believes this too, even though he is the one who caused this crime against nature

-Talking out of paranoia and nervousness, perhaps overcompensating

"Who could refrain, that had a heart to love, and in that heart courage to make's love known?" - Macbeth

-Macbeth justifies his killing of the servants i.e. for someone who truly loves the king, surely you would kill the people who killed him?

-Talking out of paranoia and nervousness, perhaps overcompensating. Making sure there is no doubt that Macbeth did the right thing

"In the great hand of God I stand, and thence against the undivulged pretense I fight of treasonous malice" - Banquo

-I'm putting myself in God's hands and with his help I plan to fight against the secret plot that caused this treasonous murder

-Foreshadowing Banquo suspecting Macbeth

"Let's not consort with them. To show unfelt sorrow is an office which the false man does easy" - Malcolm

-Let's not stay here with them. It's easy for a liar to pretend to feel sadness when he feels none

-He starts to suspect shady stuff. They are already starting to suspect Macbeth

"The near in blood, the nearer the bloody" - Donalbain

-Our closest relatives are the ones most likely to murder us

-Motif of blood as guilt continued, hinting that the killer is still in their midst

"Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man's act, threatens his bloody stage" - Ross

-You can see the skies, they look like they're upset with what mankind is doing, and threatening the Earth with storms

-The storms symbolise the connection between political, moral, and natural aspects

-The unnatural weather fits Macbeth's dark ascension

"And Duncan's horses - a thing most strange and uncertain - beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make war with mankind" - Ross

-Strangely, Duncan's horses, which are the best of their breed, suddenly turned wild and broke out their stalls. Refusing to be obedient anymore, it was as if they were at war with mankind

-Supernatural suggestions, reminding us of the witches

"Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all as the weird women promised, and I fear thou played'st most foully for't" - Banquo

-Macbeth has all the things that the witches promised him. But I wonder if you cheated to win these titles.

-The beginning of Banquo's suspicion. The noble man he once knew has become corrupt.

"We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed in England and in Ireland, not confessing their cruel parricade, filling their hearers with strange invention." - Macbeth

-Apparently the king's sons, who murdered their father, have fled to England and Ireland. They haven't confessed, and are probably lying to the people they are with

-Macbeth is accusing Malcolm and Donalbain and spreading lies about them, in a desperate attempt to pass the blame from him, although some may be seeing through his lies

"Our fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared" - Macbeth

-I'm very afraid of Banquo, because he is so noble and willing to do the right thing

-Banquo is a threat because he is suspicious, and a good man

-Insecurity by Macbeth

"Rather than so, come fate into the list, and champion me to th' utterance" - Macbeth

-Instead of letting things take course, I will challenge fate and fight against it.

-Theme of destiny/fate/supernatural

-He is more confident in taking fate into his own hands

"Know that it was he, in the times past, which held you so under fortune" - Macbeth

"Do you find your patience so predominant in your nature that you can let this go?" - Macbeth

-You should know it was Banquo that made your life hell for so long, which you always thought was my fault/Are you so forgiving that you'll let him off the hook?

-Macbeth is keeping the murderers turned against Banquo, desperate to get them in with his plan

-He is becoming more similar to his wife in terms of his inclination to manipulate

"So he is mine; and in such bloody distance that every minute of his being thrusts against my near'st of life" - Macbeth

-He's my enemy too, and I hate him so much that every minute he's alive it eats away at my being.

-Macbeth is so irritated by Banquo's mere existance, suggesting paranoia and doubt in his ability to keep the throne

-Talk about Banquo's death representing the last link to Macbeth's noble self

-Pinnacle of Macbeth's madness, guilt, and worry

"Tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy" - Lady Macbeth

-It's better to be the person who gets murdered than to be the killer and be tormented with anxiety

-This is the initiation of Lady Macbeth's regret

-This is interesting as up until this point, she sees no problem with pursuing her ambitions

"In the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly" - Macbeth

-I spend my nights tossing and turning with these nightmares I've been having

-Guilt is affecting Macbeth more than before

-The fact that he can't sleep well perpetuates the motif of sleep as innocence

"And make our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are" - Macbeth

-We must be deceitful, and pretend to be of honest intentions

-We know how willing Macbeth is to be deceitful, and perhaps that he feels he is too far gone

-Appearance vs Reality

"There shall be done a deed of dreadful note" - Macbeth

-Soon, I will commit a bad deed

-We see him being cruel like his wife was at the start, and so is more masculine in the context of the time

-Cruelty, Gender, and Masculinity

"It will be be rain tonight" - Banquo

-Tonight it will rain

-Bad weather, motif for the supernatural

-He announces the bad weather just before his death

"There's blood upon thy face" - Macbeth to murderer

-You've got blood on your face

-Blood motif for guilt

"There the grown serpent lies. The worm that's fled hath nature that in time will venom breed; no teeth for th' present." - Macbeth

-Banquo lies dead, but his son escaped, and he will in time become poisonous and threatening. But for now he is no threat

-He is relieved that Banquo is dead, but acknowledges that at some point he will have to deal with Fleance

"Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus and hath been from his youth." - Lady Macbeth

-My husband is often like this [mad] and has been since he was a child

-Lady Macbeth passes off Macbeth's maddening guilt as nothing of note

-Reintroduces the codependency of their relationship, as Lady Macbeth once again takes charge for covering for their crimes

"Are you a man?" - Lady Macbeth

-Are you a real man or not?

-Is he powerful enough. She once again challenges his masculinity as a tool to manipulate him and bring him into line

-Cruelty and masculinity

"Prithee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo! How say you? Why, what I care? If thou canst nod, speak too." - Macbeth

-Please, look over there! Look! Look! See! What do you have to say? If you can nod, then speak too.

-This is the ultimate breakdown of Macbeth. He is having hallucinations of Banquo in the presence of important people, perhaps ruining his preferred image of a strong and noble king.

-Once again his hallucinations show his deteriorating mental state

"I am a man again." - Macbeth

-Now the ghost is gone, I can become a real man again

-He is trying to compose himself and regain power.

-Gender and Masculinity, reflecting Lady Macbeth's 'Are you a man?'.

-Suggests his masculinity is important to him. A value instilled in him by his wife, perhaps.

"It will have blood they say. Blood will have blood." - Macbeth

-There's an old saying: the dead will get their revenge

-Motif of blood = guilt continued

-Macbeth is worried that things will come back to get him

"I will tomorrow to the weird sisters. More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know, by the worst means, the worst" - Macbeth

-Tomorrow I will see the witches. They will tell me more, because I want to know the worst things that are still to happen.

-We know how reliant Macbeth is on the witches. He believes they have all control over destiny. The audience question how much the witches actually have to do with Macbeth's actions.

-Supernatural/fate

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

-I have walked so far into this river of blood that even if I stopped now, it would be as hard to go back to being good as it is to keep killing people.

-Macbeth is too far gone in his guilt, that he might as well just carry out his ambitions

-Blood = guilt

"You lack the season of all natures, sleep" - Lady Macbeth

-You haven't slept

-Sleep = innocence

"As by the strength of their illusion shall draw him on to his confusion" - Hecate

-When I make spells, it will make Macbeth be tricked into illusion.

-They are going to mess with Macbeth because they know how reliant he is on them.

"Damned fact! How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight in pious rage the two delinquents tear that were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?" - Lennox

-Such a heinous crime; how it saddened Macbeth! Wasn't it loyal of him to kill those two servants right away, while they were still drunk and asleep?

-Lennox speaks sarcastically, making clear the strangeness of Macbeth's actions. He obviously thinks him guilty

-We see how people generally are starting to realise Macbeth's likely guilt

"How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags? What is't you do?" - Macbeth

-What's going on here, you secret, evil, midnight hags? What are you doing?

-Macbeth is demeaning to the witches, asserting his own power.

-Perhaps because they are presented as women, or simply because he feels important anyway

"Answer me, to what I ask you." - Macbeth

-Tell me what I want to know

-Macbeth here is demanding and cocky

-The witches play into this, knowing that they plan to play with Macbeth

"Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff." - First Apparition

-Macbeth, be careful of Macduff

-The witches know that Macduff conspires against Macbeth

"None of woman born shall harm Macbeth" - Second Apparition

-Nobody born through natural labour will be the one to kill Macbeth

-Very cryptic, but lulls Macbeth into a false sense of security

"Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him" - Third Apparition

-Macbeth will never be defeated until Birnam Wood marches to fight you at Dunsinane Hill

-Predicting the war between Macbeth and Malcolm's army

-Cryptic, as how can a forest move?

"Deny me this, and an eternal curse fall on you!" - Macbeth

-If you refuse, then you deserve to be cursed for eternity

-This is ironic, as Macbeth thinks he can have the authority to damn the witches when he is the one being toyed with by them

"The very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand." - Macbeth

-From now on, as soon as I decide to do something I'm going to act immediately

-Macbeth becomes more decisive and more impulsive, vowing to stop thinking so much and to just do it

"Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword his wife, his babies, and all the unfortunate souls that trace him in his line" - Macbeth

-I'll attack Fife, kill Macduff's wife, children, and people who stand in my way

-Macbeth is now a complete tyrant

-Heartless as he kills out of desire rather than a necessary strategic move

"Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou basis sure, for goodness dare not check thee." - Macduff

-Suffer, sad country. Big tyrant, go ahead and do what you want, because the good people are afraid to stand up to you

-Macduff worries that Macbeth's tyranny will continue unless someone does something

"Not in the legions of horrid hell can come a devil more damned in evils to top Macbeth" - Macduff

-Even in hell you couldn't find a devil worse than Macbeth

-Both Macduff's and Scotland's opinion of Macbeth

"Boundless intemperance in nature is a tyranny. It hath been the untimely emptying of the happy throne and fall of many kings." - Macduff

-Endless greed and ambition in a man's nature is a type of tyranny. It has caused the downfall of many kings.

-Ambition will be Macbeth's downfall

-Themes of ambition

"Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" - Lady Macbeth

-Come out, damned spot! Out, I command!

-LM's descent into madness, as she has previously been unaffected by guilt e.g. 'a little water clears us of this deed', but now she is feeling guilty like her husband

-Motif of blood as guilt

"Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?" - Lady Macbeth

-But who would have thought the old man would have so much blood in him?

-Suggests she thought the king's murder would have been easier and painless, rather it is caused so much guilt and psychological torture

-Again, blood as guilt

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

-All the nicest perfumes from Arabia couldn't even make my little hand innocent

-This mirrors Macbeth's 'Neptune's ocean', suggesting she is now at the same stage of guilt her husband was at

-Lady Macbeth has lost her unmoving resolve and is breaking down

"I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body" - Gentlewoman

-Even if you made me queen I wouldn't want a heart like her's

-The gentlewoman observes Lady Macbeth's sleepwalk-breakdown, noting that she doesn't envy the queen's suffering

-The gentlewoman represents the public opinion

"Foul whisp'rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets" - Doctor

-Evil rumours are spreading. Unnatural acts will cause supernatural things to happen. People with guilty will talk their secrets to their pillows as they sleep

-Supernatural theme

-Historical context: sleepwalking and sleeptalking were considered supernatural events in Shakespearean times

"Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all." - Macbeth

-I don't care about you bringing me reports. Let all the thanes desert me if they want.

-Everyone has deserted Macbeth, showing the general consensus of Macbeth in Scotland

-Macbeth doesn't care about maintaining allegiances as much as he did at the start

"And that which should accompany old age, as honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have." - Macbeth

-The things that should go along with being my age, like honour, obedience, love, and loyal friends, are things I cannot have.

-Macbeth regrets and damns the way for which he rose to power. He would now rather have had an honourable life, instead of a deceitful life.

-He has realised the corruption of his own ambitions

"Come put mine armour on." - Macbeth

-Come, and help me put my armour on me

-Macbeth is starting to return to the warrior he once was. He is less cowardly

"She should have died hereafter" - Macbeth

-He wishes that she would have died later, after the battle / OR / He thinks she would have died at some point anyway

-Macbeth has a lack of concern for Lady Macbeth OR He wishes she had died at a more convenient time

"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" - Macbeth

-Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning

-Macbeth realises the meaninglessness of life, not as desperate to hold on to life at all costs. He would rather face the music now and do the right thing

"They have tied me to a stake, I cannot fly, but, bearlike, I must fight the course" - Macbeth

-They have tied me to a stake, and I can't run away. I have to stand and fight, like a bear

-In Shakespearean times, bears were tied up and attacked by dogs for entertainment

-A bear is noble, so Macbeth is returning to his old self

"My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already" - Macbeth

-I'm already guilty of killing your whole family.

-Here Macbeth shows sorrow for his crimes, partly apologising to Macduff

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

-Stars, hide your light so no-one can see the terrible desires within me

-The beginning of Macbeth's dishonest ambitions, that he is ashamed of

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly" - Macbeth

-If this business would be really finished when I did the deed, then it would be best to get it over with quickly

-Macbeth wants to reap the rewards of the deed but is not willing to deal with the consequences

"Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more" - Macbeth

-Wait, you've not told me everything. Tell me more

-Macbeth is commanding and exercising his powerful status

-He is curious and intrigued by the witches' prediction, wondering if it could actually be true

-His ambitions have been sparked