MACBETH QUOTES

Ambition

“Art not without, but without the illness should attend it” - Lady Macbeth (about Mcb when planning Duncan’s murder)

“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent” - Macbeth (changing mind about Duncan murder)

“Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other” - Macbeth (changing mind about Duncan murder)

“There’s daggers in men’s smiles” - Donalbain (post-Duncan’s murder)

“The near in blood, the nearer bloody” - Donalbain (post-Duncan’s murder) status is desired so deeply that people will betray those closest to them for a chance at personal gain

“I am in blood stepp’d so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er” - Macbeth (post Banquo’s ghost)

“For mine own good all causes shall give way” - Macbeth (post Banquo’s ghost)

Kingship

“Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” - Lady McB 5:1 (divine right of kings)

“His title [hangs] loose about him, like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief” - Angus (before they go to Dunsinane) divine right of kings → Macbeth is undeserving of Kingship so he cannot fit into the role properly and doesn’t have his subjects’ respect

“The most pious Edward” - Lord (talking about Malcolm going to England) pious = religious, saintly → opposite of “something wicked” (Macbeth)

“Gracious England” - Malcolm (after pretending to be evil) Edward is the opposite of Macbeth and an example of a good king

“Miraculous work in this good King” - Malcolm (after pretending to be evil) Edward can perform miracles

“There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face” - Duncan (talking about the late Thane of Cawdor) Duncan is too trusting and naïve and this allows him to be manipulated

“Fruitless crown” “Barren Sceptre” - Macbeth (both while plotting to kill Banquo) Nature is working against Macbeth even though he is king due to divine right of kings

“Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love” - Angus (just before they march on Dunsinane) Macbeth’s power comes only from the fear he creates and he has no loyalty from his people, unlike Duncan

⬇ “So clear in his great office” - Macbeth (changing his mind about killing Duncan) → Contrasts Duncan who has been good to Macbeth and so has loyalty from his people

“Tyrant” - multiple → Macbeth is regularly called a tyrant after he accidentally reveals he’s a murder (“Thou canst not say I did it”)
“Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal” - Caithness (going to Dunsinane) weal = country’s happiness → Malcolm will fix what Macbeth has done as King when Malcolm is crowned (“Poor country”)

Fate and the Supernatural

“All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” - Witches (first meeting with Macbeth) the witches never lie to Macbeth and all of their prophecies come true, this suggests they do have supernatural powers however, they never prompt Macbeth to make the decisions he does, they just tell him what will happen

“Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more” - Macbeth (after first meeting witches) the witches hold power over Macbeth through their prophesying and what they offer him → inversely, Macbeth tries to have power over them but he fails when they disappear after he says “Speak, I charge you” - Macbeth

“The instruments of darkness tell us truths… to betray’s in deepest consequence” - Banquo (after meeting witches)

“This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good” - Macbeth (after meeting witches) lack of morality, act only for themselves

“Come you spirits… unsex me here” - Lady Macbeth (plotting Duncan’s murder) Lady Macbeth calls on “spirits” to help her become evil so it shows the supernatural as evil

“None of woman born shall harm Macbeth” - one of the witches’ apparitions (second time Macbeth meets witches) EQUIVOCATION → the witches are purposefully misleading to Macbeth to cause him to act how they want, make him think he’s safe when really he’s not

“Something wicked this way comes” - the witches (before Macbeth meets them a second time) Macbeth here is dehumanised to “Something wicked” - even by the supposed “instruments of darkness” - merely an object of wickedness, this highlights his monstrous, inhumane transformation and moral decline

“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” - Macbeth (post Lady Macbeth death, just before Birnam Wood said to be moving) Macbeth criticises whoever ‘wrote’ his life → this means he is referring to God here and he denounces Him and Macbeth feels that life is meaningless (after Lady Macbeth’s death?) NIHILISM, he realises his actions, ambitions and choices have in the end led to nothing and have been pointless and his legacy won’t last

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player” - Macbeth (post Lady Macbeth death, just before Birnam Wood said to be moving) Macbeth believes life to be TRANSIENT (impermanent, not lasting and fleeting) and FUTILE (POINTLESS) Macbeth feels that his FATE has been decided unfairly and wrongly - STILL DOESN’T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

“The usurper’s cursed head” - Macduff (after killing Macbeth) suggests Macbeth’s fate was predetermined and fixed - not fully Macbeth’s fault, but fate and the supernatural’s?

“If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me without my stir” - Macbeth (after first meeting witches) Macbeth might not need to intervene to cause his fate, so it’s his fault for his actions as he didn’t have to kill Duncan

Power

“Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom” - Lady McB (when LMcb sees Mcb after the letter about the witches’ prophecy and they begin plotting against Duncan) ultimate power/tyranny

“Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love” - Angus (just before they march on Dunsinane) Macbeth’s power comes only from the fear he creates and he has no loyalty from his people, unlike Duncan → Contrasts Duncan who has been “So clear in his great office” - Macbeth and so has loyalty from his people

“Pour my spirits in thine ear” - Lady Macbeth (plotting to kill Duncan after Mcb’s letter to her) as a woman in the society in Macbeth, the only way Lady Macbeth can get power is through her husband and so she plans to manipulate him to do what she wants to gain power

“Valour’s minion” “Unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps” - Sergeant → Macbeth has power through his violence but this is later shown to not be enough for him to maintain power as he has no loyalty from his people

“Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more” - Macbeth (after first meeting witches) the witches hold power over Macbeth through their prophesying and what they offer him → inversely, Macbeth tries to have power over them but he fails when they disappear after he says “Speak, I charge you” - Macbeth

“Why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs” - Macbeth (first idea to kill Duncan) Macbeth is tempted by the idea of power and it causes him to ignore his morals and act against nature

Honour

“Brave Macbeth” and “"Valour’s minion” - both Sergeant (about Macbeth’s actions in battle) Macbeth is very honourable at the start due to his skills in battle

“Unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps” - Sergeant (about Macbeth’s actions in battle) Macbeth is very honourable at the start due to his skills in battle

“So clear in his great office” - Macbeth (trying to stop Duncan murder plot) Duncan is an honourable, good King and so Macbeth feels he needs to respect him

“He hath honour’d me… and I have bought golden opinions” - Macbeth (trying to stop Duncan murder plot) Macbeth values honour and being honoured

“Honour’d hostess” - Duncan (at banquet at Macbeths’) when pretending to be a good, moral hostess, Lady Macbeth is seen as honourable by Duncan → this shows her ability to deceive and hide behind honour as well as Duncan’s naivety and incapability “to find the mind’s construction in the face”

“I fear thou playd’st most foully for’t” - Banquo (pre-Banquo murder) Banquo sees Macbeth dishonourable nature and Banquo is a very honourable and moral character so he sees through his deception

“I will not yield, to kiss the ground beneath young Malcolm’s feet” - Macbeth (in final battle with Macduff)

“Dead butcher” - Malcolm (describing Macbeth after his death)

Guilt

“Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs” - Macbeth (plotting Duncan’s murder) even though he hasn’t even killed Duncan or got past just having the idea, he feels immense, shows his moral compass at the beginning is very much present

“My thought, whose murder is yet but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man” - Macbeth (plotting Duncan’s murder) even though he hasn’t even killed Duncan or got past just having the idea, he feels immense, shows his moral compass at the beginning is very much present

“Stop up the access and passage to remorse” - Lady Macbeth (plotting Duncan murder) doesn’t want to feel guilt

“A little water clears us of this deed” - Lady Macbeth (post-Duncan murder) doesn’t realise the consequences of her actions yet as she doesn’t feel guilt and differs massively to Macbeth’s “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?”

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” - Macbeth (post-Duncan murder) regicide creates massive guilt that can’t ever be forgotten/crime can’t be erased

"Tear to pieces that great bonds that keeps me pale” - Macbeth (pre-Banquo murder) he wants to stop feeling guilt

“What’s done is done” - Lady Macbeth (pre-Banquo murder) to “What’s done cannot be undone” - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking) Lady Macbeth goes from reassuring Macbeth that they’re ‘doing the right thing’/have made their decisions and will have to live with them → she regrets her actions and wishes she could change what she’s done

“Thou canst not say I did it” - Macbeth (Banquo’s ghost) even to who he thinks is the victim of his crimes, Macbeth still won’t admit his guilt

“What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking) Lady Macbeth’s guilt will never leave just as the supposed blood on her hands won’t

“Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking) regicide creates massive guilt that can’t ever be forgotten/crime can’t be erased

“Sinful Macduff, they were all struck for thee!” - Macduff (finding out about his family’s murder) even though he was not in anyway at fault for his family’s murder, Macduff is such a moral, good character that he blames himself for it, something Macbeth would never do

“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” - Macbeth (post Lady Macbeth death, just before Birnam Wood said to be moving) Macbeth criticises whoever ‘wrote’ his life → this means he is referring to God here and he denounces Him and Macbeth feels that life is meaningless (after Lady Macbeth’s death?) NIHILISM, he realises his actions, ambitions and choices have in the end led to nothing and have been pointless and his legacy won’t last

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player” - Macbeth (post Lady Macbeth death, just before Birnam Wood said to be moving) Macbeth believes life to be TRANSIENT (impermanent, not lasting and fleeting) and FUTILE (POINTLESS) Macbeth feels that his FATE has been decided unfairly and wrongly - STILL DOESN’T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

Gender

“Unsex me here and fill me… full of direst cruelty” - Lady Macbeth (pre-Duncan murder) has to lose her femininity/gender’s traits to be as cruel as she wants to be → wants to ‘be a man’/men’s power as she knows women don’t possess the same power as men do → links to women being below men in the Great Chain of Being → sees her femininity as a weakness

“When you durst do it, then you were a man” - Lady Macbeth (trying to stop Duncan murder plot) and “Are you a man?” - Lady Macbeth (Banquo’s ghost) → she emasculates Macbeth to get what she wants, manipulates him via gender roles

“Help me hence, ho!” - Lady Macbeth (pretends to faint after Duncan’s death) she purposely falls into societal expectations/stereotypes of women here to clear herself of any blame, acts like a weak, powerless woman

“I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none” - Macbeth (trying to stop Duncan murder plot) Macbeth still asserts himself as masculine (though Lady Macbeth does not) and says that though he may ‘prove’ his more masculinity if he murders Duncan, he would lose his humanity

“I must also feel it as a man” - Macduff (grief about his family’s murder) Macduff’s masculinity can co-exist with care for others and showing his emotions → something that may be perceived as a feminine quality → Macduff is very secure in his masculinity as opposed to Macbeth → Shakespeare thinks expressing emotions and ‘humanity’ makes Macduff more of a man which is when, why by the end Macbeth wants to “tear to pieces that great bonds that keeps me pale” (pre-Banquo murder) → meaning he wants to stop feeling guilt and becomes a “hell-hound” and a “rarer monster” - both Macduff (both Macduff + Macbeth fight)

“Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness” - Lady McB 1:5

Secrecy

“And make our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are” - Macbeth (pre-Banquo murder) vizards = masks/disguise

“There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face” - Duncan (about last Thane of Cawdor)

“False face must hide what false heart doth know” - Macbeth (pre-Duncan murder)

“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent it” - Lady Macbeth (planning Duncan’s murder)

“Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires” - Macbeth (planning Duncan’s murder)

“There’s daggers in men’s smiles” - Donalbain (post-Duncan’s murder)

“Sleek o’er your rugged smiles” - Lady Macbeth (telling Macbeth to appear calm and happy in front of his guests just before Banquo’s murder)

“And play the humble host” - Macbeth (banquet post-Banquo murder)

Relationships and Family

“A little water clears us of this deed” - Lady Macbeth (to Macbeth post-Duncan murder) ‘us’ = united

“My dearest partner of greatness” → “Dearest chuck” - Macbeth (changes in how Macbeth refers to Lady Macbeth) shows that the Macbeths’ relationship is crumbling and Macbeth now acts for himself, no longer equal, ‘chuck’ seems demeaning/condescending, shifts in their relationship

“Too full o’ the milk of human kindness” + “When you durst do it, then you are a man” - Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth my emasculating him (a trait which others praise - “Brave Macbeth”)

“Leave all the rest to me” - Lady Macbeth (pre-Duncan murder) → “Be innocent of the knowledge” - Macbeth (pre-Banquo murder) change in relationship from Lady Macbeth being in control to Macbeth being in control

“Dead butcher and his fiend-like queen” - Malcom (about Lady Macbeth and Macbeth when Malcolm’s crowned at the end)

“I must also feel it as a man” - Macduff (grief about his family’s murder)

“Was my father a traitor?” - Macduff’s Son (about Macduff ‘abandoning’ his family) see family as people who should look after each other and so Macduff’s leaving is traitorous

Appearance v Reality

“Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it” - Lady Macbeth (planning Duncan’s murder) (Biblical links with Serpent)

“And play the humble host” - Macbeth (banquet post-Banquo murder)

“Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires” - Macbeth (after named Cawdor)

“There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face” - Duncan (about last Thane of Cawdor)

“Fair is foul and foul is fair” - Witches → equivocation links to deception of reality, ambiguity

“The instruments of darkness tell us truths…. to betray’s in deepest consequence” - Banquo (about Witches’ prophecy coming true when Macbeth becomes Cawdor)

Nature

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen” - Macbeth (before meeting witches) witches corrupt nature

“I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none” - Macbeth (trying to stop Duncan murder plot) Macbeth still asserts himself as masculine (though Lady Macbeth does not) and believes morality keeps him human → he has not yet reached his later form of beastlike qualities → acting in line with nature

“Fruitless crown” “Barren Sceptre” - Macbeth (both while plotting to kill Banquo) Nature is working against Macbeth even though he is king due to divine right of kings

“The earth was feverous and did shake” - Lennox (morning after Duncan’s death)

“[The horses] turn’d wild in nature” - Ross (morning after Duncan’s death)

“Macbeth shall sleep no more” - Macbeth (after murdering Duncan)

Macbeth seeing Banquo’s ghost is because nature is punishing him for his crimes and making him hallucinate.

“Unnatural deeds to breed unnatural troubles” - Lady Macbeth sleepwalking is her also being punished as she is stopped from doing something natural - sleeping

Blood

“Bloody execution” - Sergeant (describing Macbeth’s battles in war) blood here is honourable as it is result of Macbeth’s successes in war and marks his skill as a warrior and is admirable

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” - Macbeth (post-Duncan murder) links to guilt and regicide means there’s ‘more’ blood/more guilt → great Neptune’s ocean shows the severity and implies Macbeth will never escape his guilt

“My hands are of your colour but I shame to wear a heart so white” - Lady Macbeth (post-Duncan murder) despite her link to blood already, Lady Macbeth wishes to be more ‘bloody’/evil and wants to do further harm. contrasts her perception of the murder and guilt here with her husband as she wants to be further marked by the crime whereas Macbeth wants to rid himself of it

“His silver skin laced with his golden blood” - Macbeth (talking about Duncan’s murder) shows Duncan’s admirability as regicide and links to the Great Chain of Being as Duncan is chosen by God to be King and therefore has royalty etched into every part of himself → “Silver” and “Golden” have connotations of wealth and status

“The near in blood, the nearer bloody” - Donalbain (post-Duncan murder) even from those closest to them, they aren’t safe from harm → links to ambition

“It will have blood they say; blood will have blood” - Macbeth (post-Banquo’s ghost) revenge, Macbeth is predicting that his actions will have consequences → he doesn’t feel safe in his role as he’d hoped when he’d killed Banquo as “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus”

“I am in blood stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er” - Macbeth (post-Banquo’s ghost) He has gone too far and acknowledges this but decides not to try to repent as he feels it is too much effort

“Bleed, bleed, poor country” - Macduff (thinks Malcolm is unfit to become King) the country is suffering

“Who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?” - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking) regicide is a more severe crime than simple murder so the Macbeth’s are paying doubly for it and are doubly as guilty

“What will these hands ne’er be clean?” - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking) can never rid herself of the crime and the guilt, contrasts to her earlier self who felt “shame to wear a heart so white” and wanted to be more at fault

“Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” - Lady Macbeth (sleepwalking) can never rid herself of the crime and the guilt, contrasts to her earlier self who felt “shame to wear a heart so white” and wanted to be more at fault

“My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already” - Macbeth (to Macduff in their final fight)

Light and Dark

“Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires” - Macbeth (plotting to kill Duncan) → stars are used for navigation and so as Macbeth is ignoring morality, he is asked to not be guided by morals → also, he wants to conceal his immorality and plans → light symbolises goodness and so Macbeth is turning to evil

“The instruments of darkness tell us truths… to betray’s in deepest consequence” - Banquo (after meeting witches) the witches are called “The instruments of darkness” to show their connection to evil. “Instruments” suggests they work for darkness and evil - possibly the devil - this links to Jacobean perceptions of witches (James I/VI had a fascination with witches that Shakespeare was most likely appealing to)

“She has light by her continually; ‘tis her command” - Gentlewoman (Lady Macbeth sleepwalking) Lady Macbeth’s guilt leads her to almost want to be exposed or maybe she is scared or evil and so tries to keep light (representing goodness) around her constantly → the candle is a desperate attempt to ward off the darkness surrounding her

“I’gin to be aweary of the sun” - Macbeth (after finding out about Lady Macbeth’s death) Macbeth has lost any care whether he lives or dies and wants to be done with life now however, despite his nihilism, he still tries to escape the light as he has been the whole play, possibly suggesting a lack of complete change over Macbeth

Sleep

“Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep” - Macbeth (post-Duncan murder)

“After life’s fitful fever [Duncan] sleeps well” - Macbeth (just before Banquo murder)

“Affliction of these terrible dreams” - Macbeth (suffering from nightmares post-Duncan murder but is still initiating Banquo murder)

“You lack the season of all natures, sleep.” - Lady Macbeth to Macbeth (without sleep Macbeth will go crazy - post Banquo ghost)

“Slumbery agitation” - Doctor (describing Lady Macbeth’s sleep walking)

Lack of sleep is punishment as nature (in this case sleep as sleep is natural) is corrupted and so people suffer from nightmares/sleepwalking/lack of sleep etc

Setting

“Alas, poor country!… It cannot be call’d our mother, but our grave” - Ross 4:3

“When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?” - Witch 1:1

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen” - MacB 1:3

key words for an essay!!

• Hamartia → tragic flaw = Macbeth’s “vaulting ambition”

• Hubris → excessive pride = Macbeth believing the witches’ prophecies make him ‘invicible’ - “I will not be afraid of death and bane till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane”

• Peripeteia → reversal of fortune = when Duncan’s murder doesn’t lead to Macbeth being secure in his position, but instead paranoia etc “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus”

• Nemesis → divine retribution = Macduff killing Macbeth “Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped” - Macduff

• Tragic Hero → a noble, high status person who experiences a tragic fall = Macbeth - “valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” to “dead butcher”

• Nihilism → the belief that life is meaningless

• Transient → impermanent, short lasting, passing - what Macbeth believes life is by the end

• Futile → meaningless, pointless

• Equivocation → being purposefully misleading

• Divine Right of Kings → Kings (/the monarchy) are chosen for the throne by God - James VI/I FIRMLY believed in this

• Great Chain of Being → God is above all else, then Kings, then men, then women (excluding a few tiers)