MACBETH QUOTES

• "Fair is foul and foul is fair"

  Three Witches, Act 1, Scene 1


  The witches' paradoxical language warns of deception and upheaval, foreshadowing the corruption of natural order.
• "Macbeth does murder sleep!"

  Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2


  Macbeth's exclamation and the personification of sleep suggest both his guilt and his realisation that murdering the king has robbed him of peace and perhaps eternal rest.
•  "Out, damned spot: out, I say!"

  Lady Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1


  Lady Macbeth's desperate pleading and hallucinations symbolise her loss of power and mental instability due to her guilt.
• "Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent underneath it"

  Lady Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5

  Lady Macbeth instructs Macbeth to practise deception, using the biblical metaphor of a serpent, a symbol of treachery.
•  "Come you spirits ... Unsex me here"

  Lady Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5


  Lady Macbeth commands evil spirits to strip her of feminine traits, subverting gender roles through unnatural means.
• "The dead butcher and his fiend-like queen"

  Malcolm, Act 5, Scene 9

  Malcolm disparages Macbeth as a murderer and Lady Macbeth as demonic, showing their fall from grace.
• "Stars hide your fires; let not light see my dark and deep desires"

  Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 4


  Macbeth commands the natural world to hide his evil intentions from God, suggesting awareness of the blasphemous consequences.
•  "Life ... is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"

  Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 4


  Macbeth's pessimistic view reflects his realisation that all his ambitious actions were ultimately meaningless and will lead to his defeat.
•  "When you durst do it, then you were a man"

  Lady Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7

  Lady Macbeth attacks Macbeth's masculinity to manipulate him into committing murder, displaying her power through deception.
• "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, only vaulting ambition"

  Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7


  Macbeth openly acknowledges his tragic flaw of unbridled ambition as his sole motivation for planning to murder King Duncan.