Macbeth Quotes

• 'stars hide your fires // let not light see my black and deep desires' Macbeth


  rhyming couplet used by Macbeth.
• 'lost and won' 'lesser than Macbeth and greater' Witches 


  Paradoxical phrases- witches are source of chaos and disorder
• 'fair is foul and foul is fair' witches 


  oxymoronic language reflects Macbeths confusion - things accepted as foul seem fair to Macbeth eg regicide
• 'I dreamed last night of the weird sisters' 


  Banquo is connected to the supernatural
• 'brave Macbeth' 'valour's minion' 'smoked with bloody execution' 'unseamed him from nave to chops' 


  Macbeth as a soldier
• 'so foul and fair a day I have not seen' 


  Macbeth echoes the witches
• 'this supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good' Macbeth
• 'secret, black and midnight hags' Macbeth
• 'o worthiest cousin' Duncan about Macbeth
• 'let not light see my black and deep desires' - Macbeth 


  he wants to become king

  turning his back on God

  theme of light and dark
• 'never shake thy gory locks at me' - Macbeth


  since he only ordered someone to kill Banquo, he did not do it and thinks the ghost should not be haunting him
• 'devilish Macbeth'
• 'the tyrant' (how Macbeth is described)
• 'fiend of Scotland'
• 'abhorred tyrant'
• 'too full o' the milk of human kindness' Lady Macbeth about Macbeth


  LM thinks his compassionate nature may blind his ambition
• 'vaulting ambition which o'er leaps itself'


  Macbeth's intense ambition is his only drive to commit regicide
• 'heat-oppressed brain'
• 'sleep no more. Macbeth does murder sleep' 'innocent sleep' 


  motif of sleep, Macbeth believes he will go mad
• 'will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand' Macbeth


  no amount of water could ever get rid of the guilt
• ' a fruitless crown' Macbeth


  crown gives power, but he is weak and vulnerable

  OR pointless as her will not have a heir
• 'o full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife' Macbeth


  guilty conscience is attacking and stinging him
• 'my dearest partner of greatness' LM


  equality between husband and wives was uncommon in the Jacobean period
• 'pour my spirits in thine ear' LM


  wishes to share inner most thoughts and desires with husband
• 'come you spirits' LM


  calls upon supernatural
• 'unsex me here' LM

  • wants to strip her femininity- doesn't want to be stereotypically feminine
• 'look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under't' 


  -appearance vs reality

  -link to adam + eve
• 'I have given suck' LM
• 'come to my woman's breasts and take my milk for gall' LM
• 'live a coward in thine own esteem'

  'when you durst do it, then you were a man' 


  tries to undermine Macbeth to get him to kill Duncan
• 'screw your courage to the sticking place, and we'll not fail' LM


  Macbeth needs to be ready his courage for his upcoming deed
• 'a little water clears us of the deed' LM


  underestimates the power of guilt
• 'out damned spot, out I say!' LM


  trying to get rid of blood- declining psychological condition
• 'will these hands ne'er be clean?' LM


  crime of regicide is so great they will have blood on their hands forever
• 'all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand' 


  motif of hands, guilt
• 'mine eyes are made fools o' the other senses' Macbeth


  Macbeth isn't sue whether the dagger he sees is real or not.

  Not clear to audience if the witches created hallucinations or he's imagining it

  Appearance vs reality
• 'play the humble host' 


  Macbeth knows he must not act suspiciously at the feast
• 'there are daggers in mens' smiles' 


  appearance vs reality

  Donalbain leaves SCO due to lacking trust in appearances- people hide true intentions
• 'masking the business from the common eye' appearance vs reality
• 'our honoured hostess' Duncan