Macbeth Quotes

• "When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain" - The Witches (Act 1 Scene 1)
• "Fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and the filthy air" - The Witches (Act 1 Scene 1) (mirroring)
• "What he hath lost, noble macbeth hath won" - Duncan (Act 1 Scene 2) (antithesis)
• "Thou shalt get kings though thou be none" - The Witches (Act 1 Scene 2)
• "Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more" - Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 2) (Imperative)
• "instruments of darkness tell us truths...to betray's / In deepest consequence." - Banquo (Act 1 Scene 2) (Metaphor)
• "Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair" - Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 2) (Sensory Language)
• "signs of nobleness, like stars , shall shine / On all deservers" - Duncan (Act 1 Scene 3) (simile)
• "stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires." - Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 3) (metaphor)
• “my dearest partner of greatness” - Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 5)
• "too full o'th'milk of human kindness" - Lady Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 5) (Metaphor)
• "That I may pour my spirits in thine ear" - Lady Macbeth (Metaphor)
• "Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here." - Lady Macbeth (imperative)
• "Come, thick night" - Lady Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 7) (imperative)
• "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't." - Lady Macbeth (Metaphor)
• "Bloody instructions ... return / To plague the Inventor" - Macbeth (metaphor)
• "I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself" - Macbeth (personification)

  
  

  Macbeth uses a metaphor in which he cannot use his spurs to motivate his horse to explain his doubts in their plan. However, he does have ambition which he describes as being a horse that overestimates its ability to leap an obstacle. This describes Macbeth's unwillingness and acknowledgement that ambition is dangerous.
• "when you durst do it, / then you were a man" - Lady Macbeth
• "Is this a dagger which I see before me? / The handle toward my hand" - Macbeth (questions) (Macbeth's emotional exhaustion and foreshadowing Duncans murder)
• “hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell/ That summons thee to heaven or to hell” - Macbeth (rhyming couplet)
• "Macbeth shall sleep no more." - Macbeth (metaphor)
• "“Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?" - Macbeth (guilt) (hyperbole)
• "A little water clears us of this deed." - Lady Macbeth (guilt/blood)
• "there's daggers in men's smiles." - Donalbain (metaphor)
• "dark night strangles the travelling lamp" - Ross (The darkness could represent an absence of stars in the night sky or it could represent the chaos caused due to Macbeth disrupting the great chain of being. Shows how disruptive killing the King is)

  
  

  He says that the sky disagrees with the natural order of things. The dark skies are another symbol of disaster in human affairs and a violation of nature (personifies night as a murderer).
• "I fear / Thou played'st most foully for 't" - Banquo (Refers to witches) (Shows Banquo's suspicion of Macbeth)
• "Our fears in Banquo / stick deep" - Macbeth (This shows that Macbeth has doubts about whether Banquo can be trusted or not) ("stick deep" could be an allusion to a knife as if his paranoia of Banquo is like being stabbed with a knife, suggesting physical pain and emotional pain.) (Could be a sign of Macbeth's paranoia of everyone that later leads to his ultimate downfall)
• "Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown" - Macbeth ("fruitless" - worthless. They have placed a worthless crown on his head - although he has been awarded with the greatest position with all, he has no children to continue his legacy rendering the crown worthless in Macbeths eyes.)
• "these terrible dreams / That shake us nightly" - Macbeth (Shows how significantly these actions have had on LM and M showing that they have affected the order of being and therefore must pay the price of suffering)
• "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck." - Macbeth to LM (Contrasts to how he greeted her in the letter earlier in the play as his "dearest partner in greatness" showing that he no longer feels as loving towards his wife. This could also suggest that Macbeth no longer views LM as equal to him but now as inferior as he begins to act himself whist keeping LM blind)
• "Never shake / Thy gory locks at me!" - Macbeth (Imperative) (Macbeth attempts to take control of the situation over Banquo's ghost but he is unable to do so. In shouting at Banquo's ghost that has disrupted the dinner, Macbeth appears mentally unwell to the guests. Despite LM protecting the situation, Macbeth is so unstable that he will not listen to her showing that she no longer has control over him.) (He feels guilty although he also believes that as he didn't kill Banquo, he should not be haunted - perhaps showing mental instability as he no longer has any morals or can see clearly)
• "Blood will have blood" - Macbeth

  
  

  This shows us that he is willing too kill even more people to keep his position, and that he will do anything. The repetition of 'blood' also links in with the theme of guilt, and that he now feels so much guilt.
• "I am afraid to think what I have done; look on 't again I dare not" - Macbeth (The fact that Macbeth cannot bring himself to look at Duncan's body shows that he knows it was wrong and he is scared of facing up to the consequences of his actions. He is beginning to feel guilt which is shown through his language choice as he uses the word "afraid". The use of the phrase "look on 't again" implies that he wants to forget about the event and move forward from it however this is impossible due to the supernatural events happening around him.)
• "By the pricking of my thumbs / Something wicked this way comes." - The Witches (Rhyming couplets) (Macbeth is no longer heroic or brave but is instead seen by even the most wicked creatures as "wicked" and evil signifying that through Macbeth's drive for ambition and power, he has been enveloped in evil and has developed an aroma of evilness around him.)
• "Come, thick night..." - Lady Macbeth (Lady Macbeth is trying to convince herself that she does not need sleep because she needs to make sure that everything goes according to plan with Duncan's murder. She is willing to sacrifice anything including her own health to ensure that Macbeth becomes king. Her determination and desire for power show that she is just as ambitious as Macbeth and is equally responsible for their crimes.)
• "How now, you secret, black and and midnight hags?" - Macbeth (Semantic field of darkness) (The way Macbeth greets the Witches suggests that he views himself above them and sees them as inferior. This presents Macbeth's arrogance but also ignorance as he no longer realises that they are evil and misleading him, but instead begins to believe everything that they tell him.)
• "Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs!" - Macbeth (Metaphor, sensory language) (This quotation is referring to the scene when Macbeth is shown Banquo and his long line of successors.) (Macbeth may have said this due to his fear of Banquo being a greater success when compared to himself as Macbeth is unable to have children)
• "This tyrant...whose name blisters our tongues" - Malcolm (metaphor)
• "The blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me" - Macbeth (alliteration) ("blood-boltered" could be referring to Banquo's hair being covered in blood which is not only a horrible image that haunts Macbeth, it would have also been a horrible and ghostly image for the audience in the Jacobean period to see as well. Due to Banquo being presented as a valiant and brave character compared to Macbeth, seeing Banquo covered in blood may evoke hatred towards Macbeth)
• "your wife and babes / Savagely slaughtered" - Ross (sibilance/ enjambment) (This image of Macbeth slaughtering Macduff's family has connotations of butchery and intense violence suggesting that Macbeth's life resorts to killing and he cannot live without it. Additionally, Macbeth is now not only shown to have killed heroic men such as Banquo and Duncan but has now killed innocent and helpless, women and children presenting the depths that Macbeth will go to to ensure he stays in power.)