AQA English Literature Quotes Bank - Macbeth

Act 1 Quotes

1.1 - Witches: “Fair is foul and foul is fair”

  • Witches await Macbeth

  • Everything is reversed, unatural and distorted

  • Oxymoron and Repition

  • Witchcraft

1.3 - Banquo: “The instruments of darkness tell us truths”

  • Witches talk to Banquo and Macbeth.

  • Banquo believes the witches’ prophecy, but fears what the effect might be.

  • Metaphor

  • Tragedy/fate; belief in the supernatural

1.3 - Banquo: “New honors come upon him, like our strange garments”

  • Banquo comments on the effect of the witches’ prophesy.

  • Macbeth appears transformed by the thought that he may be king.

  • Simile; motif of clothes

  • Belief in the supernatural

1.5 - Lady Macbeth: “Come, you sprits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”

  • Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy, wishing her husband was more decisive and less scrupulous.

  • She wants to be more like a man, to take charge herself.

  • Imagery, unusual and powerful verb (“unsex”)

  • Role of women, patriarchal society

1.5 - Lady Macbeth: “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell”

  • Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy, following the news that Duncan will visit. She is plotting his death.

  • She wants to become evil, cruel – to turn to the dark side.

  • Metaphor, imagery of light and dark

  • Fate, the concept of evil, role of women

1.7 - Lady Macbeth: “Was the hope drunk wherin you dress’d youself”

  • Lady Macbeth tries to talk her husband into killing King Duncan.

  • She is insulting Macbeth, insinuating that he is a coward who merely pretended to be courageous.

  • Metaphor

  • Patriarchal society, reversal of gender stereotypes

1.7 - Lady Macbeth: “I would, while it was smiling in my face… dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this”

  • Lady Macbeth tries to talk her husband into killing King Duncan.

  • She would rather have killed her own child than to backtrack on the plan to kill Duncan, as Macbeth is trying to do.

  • Hyperbole, violent verbs ( ‘dash’d’)

  • Reversal of gender stereotypes

1.7 - Macbeth: “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”

  • Macbeth is worrying about killing King Duncan.

  • If he has to kill Duncan, he wants to get it over with rapidly. He is having doubts.

  • Repetition

  • Regicide, Divine Right of Kings

1.7 - Macbeth: “Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other”

  • Macbeth is worrying about killing King Duncan.

  • He fears his aim to become ruler may lead him to make a tragic mistake.

  • Metaphor

  • Regicide, Divine Right

Act 2 Quotes

2.1 - Macbeth: “Is this a dagger that I see before me, the handle toward my hand?”

  • Macbeth is preparing to kill King Duncan and hallucinates.

  • He is imagining the murder weapon – possibly the sign of a guilty mind.

  • Imagery

  • Regicide

2.1 - Macbeth: “Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell”

  • A bell sounds as Macbeth goes off to kill Duncan.

  • He takes the bell as a portent of death; it is personified as his accomplice

  • Symbolism, personification, rhyming couplet

  • Religion, regicide

2.2 Macbeth: “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!’ ”

  • Macbeth returns to his wife after killing Duncan.

  • He is overcome with guilt.

  • Symbolism, imagery

  • Regicide, guilt, madness

Act 3 Quotes

3.1 - Banquo: “Thou play’dst most foully for’t”

  • Banquo is concerned about Macbeth.

  • He suspects Macbeth is guilty of murder.

  • Emotive language

  • Regicide, guilt

3.4 - Macbeth: “Hence, horrible shadow! unreal mockery, hence!”

  • At a grand feast to celebrate his coronation, Macbeth sees the blood-covered ghost of Banquo – the friend he has had killed.

  • He is appalled at the gory spectacle of the dead coming back to haunt him.

  • Imagery of death

  • Guilt, madness

Act 4 Quotes

4.1 - First Apparition: “Beware the thane of Fife”

  • The witches present a series of apparitions to Macbeth, foretelling his fate.

  • The spirit (“an armed head”) is warning him that Macduff is his most dangerous enemy.

  • Imperative verb (“beware”) Equivocate - half truth

  • Belief in the supernatural, portents, fate

4.1 - Second Apparition: “None of woman born shall harm Macbeth”

  • The witches present a series of apparitions to Macbeth, foretelling his fate.

  • The spirit (“a bloody child”) seems to imply that Macbeth cannot be defeated.

  • Prediction takes the form of a riddle (perhaps hinting that it is misleading).

  • Belief in the supernatural,

  • portents, fate

Act 5 Quotes

5.1 - Lady Macbeth: “Out, damned spot! Out, I say”

  • She is sleepwalking, imagining she is washing her hands.

  • She sees blood on her hands – a symbol of her guilt.

  • Repetition, exclamation

  • Madness, role of women, guilt over regicide

5.1 - Lady Macbeth: “What’s done cannot be undone”

  • She is sleepwalking, pondering on her own guilt over Duncan’s death.

  • King Duncan is dead and cannot be brought back to life.

  • Repetition? Has the air of an adage.

  • Fate, fatalism, guilt over regicide, madness

5.5 - Macbeth: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player…”

  • Macbeth learns that his wife has killed herself.

  • Life is unreal – like a stage performance that is not important.

  • Metaphor

  • Theatre of the time, fate

5.8 - Macduff: “Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped.”

  • Macbeth and Macduff fight. Macduff reveals that he was born by caesarean section, so he can defeat Macbeth according to the witches’ prophecy.

  • Imagery

  • Fate, prophesy, the supernatural