Quotes

“What, can the devil speak true?”

Banquo (suggests that he knows the supernatural are evil. Surprised that such evil can tell truths)

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen”

Macbeth (his speech mimics the witches incantation. His first lines on stage tell us that he is already plagued by the witches prophecies)

“Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:/The greatest is behind”

Macbeth (speaks to himself, what he places the most value on is still yet to come. The path is behind closed doors, things aren’t what they seem)

“Oftentimes, to win us to our harm,/ The instruments of darkness tell us truths”

Banquo (sees through the witches bullshit, sees them for what they are. Banquo is an allegory for truth and justice)

“Doth unfix my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs / Against the use of nature”

Macbeth (yapping to himself again. Foreshadowing, knows that something grave and against natural order must happen for him to become king)

“If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me / Without my stir”

Macbeth (if the prophecy is true, then he doesn’t have to do nish)

“Two truths are told / As happy prologues to the swelling act/ Of the imperial theme”

Macbeth (unsure of if the prophecy is for the best)

“Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires”

Macbeth (talking like the witches, wants to conceal his wrongdoing)

“But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, / Brandished by man that’s of a woman born” Act 5 Scene 7

Macbeth (his fear of being murdered dissipates. He is invincible…. Or so he thinks)

“My dearest love” Act 1 Scene 5

Macbeth (effeminate man. switch of traditional roles. The fact that he even talked to her about the witches is odd enough)

“Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor” Act 1 Scene 5

Lady Macbeth (she only ever celebrates his status… hmmm)

“We will speak further-“ Act 1 Scene 5

Macbeth (got interrupted. He doesn’t argue. Lady Macbeth manipulates him and gets her way)

“I fear thy nature,/ It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness/ To catch the nearest way” Act 1 Scene 5

Lady Macbeth (metaphor-he is good, but in her eyes, this is weakness.)

“Are you a man?” Act 3 Scene 4

Lady Macbeth (no comment)

“We have scorch’d the snake, not killed it”

Macbeth (paranoia about not fully doing the job with Duncan)

“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest” Act 3 Scene 2

Macbeth (doesn’t even discuss the plan to kill Banquo. He is trying to reclaim control, but very paranoid)

“Art thou but/A dagger of the mind, a false creation,/proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”

Macbeth (Hallucinations or visions from witches? We’ll never know.)

“ Murdered sleep”

Macbeth (guilt increases here. murder disturbed him)

“ To be thus is nothing,/But to be safely thus” Act 3 Scene 1

Macbeth (soliloquy)

“Eternal jewel”

Macbeth

“Something wicked” “Black” and “devilish” Act 4 Scene 3

The Witches (about Macbeth. Seals his fate of evil)

“Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane”

Macbeth (initially doubted the witches, now relies on them)