Macbeth quotes

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."

~ witches

- foreshadowing, setting the mood of the supernatural

"Let not light see my black and deep desires."

~ 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.

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

~ Lady Macbeth (referring to Macbeth)

- She fears that Macbeth is too kind to go through with killing Duncan.

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

~ 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.

"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

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

"But screw your courage to the sticking-place,

And we'll not fail."

~ Lady Macbeth

- before they kill Duncan, she is reassuring Macbeth that everything will work out if he fixes his courage firmly in place.

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

~ 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.

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

~ Macbeth

- looking at his hands after he has just killed Duncan. He wonders if all of the water in the ocean could wash the blood off his hands.

"Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand?"

~ Macbeth

- Hallucinating that he sees a dagger before he kills Duncan.

"Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,

As the weird women promised, and I fear

Thou play'dst most foully for't."

~ Banquo (referring to Macbeth)

- meaning: well now you have everything that you were promised by the witches. I just fear that you did something bad to get it.

"He's here in double trust. First, as I am his kinsman and his subject... then, as his host."

~ Macbeth (referring to King Duncan)

- Listing reasons why he shouldn't kill Duncan. Duncan trusts Macbeth for two reasons: he is his kinsman/subject, and his host.

"A little water clears us of this deed."

~ Lady Macbeth

- After killing Duncan, she tells Macbeth that all they have to do is wash their hands and they will be cleared of their sin.

O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman

Act 1, Scene 2 - Duncan - bloodshed is revelled in - brutality a virtue

So foul and fair a day I have not seen

Act 1, Scene 3 - Macbeth - opening line - paradox similar to witches - potential for supernaturalness

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

Act 1, Scene 3- Macbeth - Witches \= supernatural and transgressive of gender

Speak, I charge you!

Act 1, Scene 3 - Macbeth - imperative - witches fail to obey - lack of control? - argues against supernatural powers

Stars hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires

Act 1, Scene 4 - Macbeth (aside) -

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

Act 1, Scene 7 - Macbeth - fears moral consequences - humility - psychological state

Vaulting ambition

Act 1, Scene 7 - Gothic ambition - fatal flaw of tragic hero - only motive to kill - realises it is untrustworthy

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still

Act 2, Scene 1 - Macbeth dagger soliloquy - contradictions like the Witches

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

Act 2, Scene 2 - Lady Macbeth - indicates she has some conscience - not purely evil

I could not say 'Amen'

Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth - Amen means 'so be it' in Hebrew - cannot ask for anything given his sin - guilt

Macbeth shall sleep no more

Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth thinks he heard a voice cry 'sleep no more!' - accepts danger of sleep when he is to be king - insomnia - erratic and tyrannical behaviour

The devil himself could not pronounce a title more hateful to mine ear

Act 5, Scene 7 - Young Siward - religious imagery - hatred for Macbeth publicly known

Out damned spot: out I say

Act 5, Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth - sleepwalking scene - manifestation of Duncan's blood - guilt - madness - like madwoman in the attic in Jane Eyre and Lucy's inability to sleep in Dracula

Beware Macduff

Act 4, Scene 1 - First apparition - possible threat of Macduff

None of woman born shall harm Macbeth

Act 4, Scene 1 - Second apparition (Bloody child) - comforts Macbeth but has double meaning - Macduff born Caesarean - Macduff can kill him

Mother's womb untimely ripp'd

Act 5, Scene 8 - Macduff confirming threat

Something wicked this way comes

Act 4, Scene 1 - Second witch - their own creation - Macbeth now comes LOOKING FOR THEM - supernatural

When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Act 1, Scene 1 - First witch - Pathetic fallacy - connections to dark weather - dark imagery - supernatural - dark exposition - tragedy - conspiracy

secret, black, and midnight hags!

Act 4, Scene 1 - Macbeth - arrogant command to the Witches - contrasts Act 1, Scene 3 where he addresses them with shock and surprise

O, full of scorpions is my mind

Act 3, Scene 2 - Macbeth - the fact Banquo and Fleance still live is like the sting of a scorpion

When the battle's lost and won (1.1.4)

second witch to all witches

fair is foul, foul is fair- one winner and one loser

For brave Macbeth...which he ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, till he unsealed him from the nave to th' chops, and fixed his head upon our battlements. (1.2.18-25)

Captain to Duncan and Malcolm

Macbeth killed the traitor Macdonwald

what he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. (1.2.78)

Duncan to Ross

Thane of Cawdor will die, Macbeth will replace him

fair is foul

I'll drain him dry as hay. sleep shall neither night nor day. hang upon his penthouse lid. he shall live a man forbid. weary sev'nnights, nine times nine, shall he dwindle, peak, and pine. (1.3.19-24)

first witch to other witches

the woman's husband is tortured

all hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! all hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth, that shall be king thereafter! (1.3.51-53)

all witches to Macbeth and Banquo

Macbeth knows he is Thane of Glamis, he doesnt know that he is going to be Thane of Cawdor but we do, king is foreshadowing

why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair? (1.3.54-55)

Banquo to Macbeth

Macbeth is freaking out about the titles the witches said

speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear your favors nor your hate. (1.3.63-64)

Banquo to witches

predict stuff for him, he doesnt beg for their favors or fear their hate

lesser than Macbeth and greater. not so happy, yet much happier. thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. (1.3.68-70)

witches to banquo

Banquo wont be king, he will be happier than Macbeth, Banquo's kids will be king and his line will carry on

the Thane of Cawdor lives, why do you dress me in borrowed robes? (1.3.114-115)

Macbeth to Ross, Angus, Banquo

he is unaware that the thane of cawdor has died/was a traitor. doesnt understand why he would just take his "robes" if they still belong to cawdor.

But 'tis strange. and oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness to tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray 's in deepest consequence. (1.3.134-138)

Banquo to Macbeth

idea that info is fair, but something foul in how it will play out/to good to be true

fair is foul, foul is fair

dark instruments\= witches, they be tellin the truth!

this supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good... I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do i yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair... Present fears are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder is yet but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered in surmise, and nothing is but what is not.

Macbeth to self

witches never say anyone will die, belief in supernatural powers, fair is foul- he wants to be king but doesnt want others to die

present fears are less than horrible imaginings. (1.3.150-151)

Macbeth to self

present fears are bad. imagines stuff that have to happen to become king. isnt thinking of crazy ass stuff like murder yet

if chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir. (1.3.157-159)

Macbeth to self

let chance take its course, not going to interfere/try anything

there, if I grow, the harvest is your own. (1.4.37-38)

Banquo to Duncan

if he has big accomplishments, it is because of Duncan

Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter the Prince of Cumberland; which honor must not unaccompanied invest him only (1.4.44-46)

Duncan to Macbeth and Banquo

Duncan's son Malcolm will be named prince, in the way of Macbeth

the Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (1.4.55-60)

Macbeth to self

macbeth doesnt want others to know of what he desires, fair and foul

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised. Yet I do fear thy nature; it is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not with ambition...(1.5.15-19)

Lady Macbeth to self

wants macbeth to be king but thinks he is too kind to act manly and do what it takes to be king. Macbeth wants to be a good man, doesnt want to cheat to get what he wants

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round (1.5.29-31)

Lady Macbeth to self

She is going to persuade macbeth to act

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal. (1.5.32-33)

Lady Macbeth to self

Fate and witchcraft want Macbeth to be king

The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements. (1.5.45-47)

Lady Macbeth to self

DUNCAN WILL DIE.

Come to my woman's breasts and take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers, wherever in your slightless substances you wait on nature's mischief. 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!" (1.5.47-61)

Lady Macbeth to self

she calls upon evil so that she can kill duncan without guilt or sadness/emotion

O' never shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters. To beguile the time, look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue. look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under't. He that's coming must be provided for; and you shall put this night's great business into my dispatch, which shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. (1.5.71-82)

Lady Macbeth to Macbeth

Duncan is not going to see tomorrow, he is going to be killed. Appear innocent and hide the evil, she is going to plan everything for the murder that will happen in the night

See, see our honored hostess! (1.6.13)