Macbeth - Act 1

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air." 1.1

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air." 1.1

- witches

- foreshadowing, setting the mood of the supernatural

- paradox

"for brave Macbeth, - well he deserves that name" 1.2

- Sergeant

- characterisation of Macbeth

"Bellona's Bridegroom" 1.2

- Ross

- characterisation of Macbeth as a strong warrior

- calling him the husband of the goddess of war

"What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won" 1.2

- Duncan to Ross

- Thane of Cawdor will die, Macbeth will replace him

- characterisation of Macbeth

"O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman" 1.2

- Duncan

- characterisation of Macbeth

"So foul and fair a day I have not seen" 1.3

- Macbeth

- paradox

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

- Banquo

- describing the witches

- supernatural and transgressive of gender

- characterisation - they are outside of the great chain of being (unnatural)

"Why do you dress me in borrow'd robes?" 1.3

- Macbeth to Ross

- disbelief of prohpecy becoming true

- motif: clothing

"The instruments of darkness tell us truths" 1.3

- Banquo

- less trustworthy of witches

- symbolism: light and dark

"I have begun to plant thee... To make thee full of growing"

- Duncan

- uses metaphor of planting

- he is a farmer/gardener working with, not against, the natural order

"Stars hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires." 1.4

- 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.

- symbolism: light and dark

"The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o’er leap for in my way it lies." 1.4

- Macbeth

- Talking about Malcolm

- Metaphor / aside

"Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o' the milk of human kindness"

- Lady Macbeth

- milk of human kindness refers to Macbeth’s nature

- Metaphor

"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't." 1.5

- 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.

- Metaphor - connotative language of serpent

"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!" 1.5

- Lady Macbeth

- calling on the spirits to take away her feminine, weakness and fill her with evil because she wants Duncan dead.

- supernatural

- Metaphor

"Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose"

- Lady Macbeth

- Lady Macbeth wants to be cease that natural occurrence of guilt which would inhibit her committing unnatural acts, so that she can be "fell," deadly.

- metaphor

"Take my milk for gall"

- Lady Macbeth

- While milk symbolises nourishment, purity, and nurturing, gall stands for bitterness and cruelty

- Lady Macbeth wishes for her nurturing qualities to be replaced by cruelty

- Hyperbole / Metaphor

"I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round"

- Lady Macbeth

- she will convince Macbeth to kill the king

- characterisation: her manipulative nature

- metaphor

"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

- Hellish imagery

- relates to Macbeth's 'Stars hide your fires...'

- symbolism: light and dark

"False face must hide what false heart doth know." 1.7

- 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.

- Alliteration

"That we but teach bloody instructions, which being taught, return to plague the inventor"

- Macbeth

- His inner conflict as he considers killing King Duncan

- cyclical nature of violent actions

- metaphor

"Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek…the deep damnation of his taking-off"

- Macbeth

- Religious imagery

- "Blessed are the meek" as one of the Beatitudes

"When you durst do it, then you were a man"

- Lady Macbeth to Macbeth

- challenging his masculinity in order to persuade him to commit regicide

"If good, why do I yield to that suggestion, Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs Against the use of nature?" 1.3

- Macbeth

- He has just heard the prophecy from the witches which has acted as a catalyst as he considers regicide

- he is unsure and fighting with his conscience

- soliloquy

- internal conflict

"I am settled"

- Macbeth

- By the end of Lady M's manipulation he has decided to kill Duncan. This rapid change of heart shows how susceptible he is to manipulation and how eager he is to prove himself and his bravery to others.