Macbeth Quotes Act 5

Act 5, Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking)

Lady Macbeth pays a hard price for her dedication to evil forces. Like her husband, she is deprived of sleep and tries to clean the blood from her hands.

“Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One, two: why, then ‘tis time to do’t”

Act 5, Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking)

Lady Macbeth confessing to Duncan’s murder as she sleepwalks.

“Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?”

Act 5, Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking)

Lady Macbeth feels guilty for the death of the Macduffs despite the fact that she was unaware of Macbeth’s plans.

“The Thane of Fife had a wife- where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’that”

Act 5, Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking)

Nothing will help shake her guilt.

“…all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

Act 5, Scene 1 - The doctor to the gentlewoman.

The doctor and gentlewoman study Lady M. He notes that she needs a priest moreso than a doctor.

“Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles… more needs she the divine than the physician.”

Act 5, Scene 2 - Angus to other noblemen.

Macbeth’s isolation is highlighted further - no one in Scotland truly supports him. Clothing imagery runs throughout the play. Here Macbeth is described as a thief who stole the robe of a giant.

“Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love, now does he feel his title Hang loose about him like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief.”

Act 5, Scene 3 - Macbeth.

He feels confident due to the witches’ prophecies.

“The mind I sway by and the heart I bear Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.”

Act 5, Scene 3 - Macbeth.

Barbaric and brutal language - reminds us of the original warrior Macbeth we met in Act 1.

“I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked. Give me my armour!”

Act 5, Scene 3 - Macbeth.

Irony. Macbeth himself is the disease. He was the one who caused such ill health.

“If thou could’st, doctor, cast the water of my land, find her disease and purge it to a sound and pristine health…”

Act 5, Scene 3 - Macbeth.

Macbeth is still blinded by the apparitions and stupidly confident.

“I will not be afraid of death and bane Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.”

Act 5, Scene 5 - Macbeth.

Macbeth still holds false confidence.

“Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege of scorn”

Act 5, Scene 5 - Macbeth.

Macbeth admits himself that he has become desensitised to horror and gore.

“I have supped full with horrors, direness, familiar to any slaughterhouse thoughts cannot once start me.”

Act 5, Scene 3 - Macbeth (important soliloquy)

Initially he seems detached and unaffected by Lady Macbeth’s death but then he becomes philosophical about life and shares a pessimistic view of its meaning.

“She should have died hereafter… Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty place from day to day… Out, out brief candle, Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Act 5, Scene 5 - Macbeth.

At last, Macbeth begins to doubt the witches.

“…begin to doubt th’equivocation of the fiend.”

Act 5, Scene 7 - Macbeth.

Shakespeare uses an image of bear-baiting, which was a cruel sport enjoyed by many members of Shakespeare’s audience, to illustrate how Macbeth is alone and cornered.

“They have tied me to a stake, I cannot fly, but bear like I must fight this course…”

Act 5, Scene 7 - Young Siward.

Macbeth has been dehumanised. No longer addressed by his name.

“Abhorred tyrant”

Act 5, Scene 7 - Old Siward.

Even Macbeth’s own clan have deserted to the other side.

“The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight.”

Act 5, Scene 8 - Macbeth

Macbeth decides not to take his own life.

“Why should I play the Roman fool, and die on mine own sword?”

Act 5, Scene 8 - Macbeth to Macduff

Refuses to kill him. Does he feel guilt? Remorse? Shame?

“My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already.”

Act 5, Scene 8 - Macduff

A caesarean section is the way Shakespeare gets around prophecy number 2. Macduff is not seen as being “from woman born”. A major plot twist.

“…Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped.”

Act 5, Scene 8 - Macbeth

Macbeth is realising the double meaning of the evil that tricked him into a false sense of security.

“…and be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense”

Act 5, Scene 9 - Macduff

Macduff has killed Macbeth offstage.

“Behold, where stands Th’usurper’s cursed head. The time is free.”

Act 5, Scene 9 - Malcolm

Malcolm is taking over and summarises the end of his enemies.

“…this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen - who, as ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands took off her life.”