Macbeth

• Act 1

  'So foul and fair a day I have not seen'

  • His first words in the play - he is instantly introduced as malleable and susceptible to the witches malevolent schemes.
  • This is because he emulates the Witches' oxymoronic terms.
  • Presents Macbeth as a mouthpiece for their evil and a vessel for their misconduct.
• Act 2

  'Is this a dagger I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee'

  • The dagger symbolises not only the recurring motif of death, but Macbeth's heinous and barbaric nature, and him beginning to become a tyrant.
  • The rhetorical question, because it's in his soliloquy, paired with the hallucination signifies the beginning of his mental decline.
  • His conscience has been plagued with guilt, as he is unable to cope with the psychic consequences of regicide.
  • Therefore, this quote signifies the beginning of his mental deterioration.
• Act 5

  'Life's but a walking shadow' ... 'A tale told by an idiot'

  • Expresses Macbeth's nihilism, as he reflects on his brief life and compares life to a "walking shadow" - meaning that life is empty and has no substance.