Macbeth

• "disdaining fortune... smoked with bloody execution"
• "vaulting ambition which overleaps itself and falls on th'other"
• "why do you dress me in borrow'd robes?"
• "stars, hide your fires, let no light see my black and dark desires."
• "o, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!"
• "be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck."
• "his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls"
• "valours minion"
• "so foul and fair a day I have not seen"
• "is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand? come, let me clutch thee"
• "disdaining fortune, smoked with bloody execution"


  smoked could connote to heat and hell, foreshadowing his evil. the phrase "disdaining fortune" shows a disregard for his fate, and his attempt to manipulate the natural order.
• "vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself and falls on th'other"


  verb vaulting describes Macbeths mammoth ego- his ambition is in his hamartia. the personification makes his ambition appear like a human-like force, controlling and plaguing his innocent mind.
• "why do you dress me in borrow'd robes?


  suggests he has been awarded a title that does not belong to him. it shows that throughout the play he moves through the hierarchal ranking, it is superficial and transient, much like clothes. significant he has been awarded this by the supernatural.
• "stars, hide your fires, let no light see my black and dark desires".


  paradoxes continue to plague his speech with "black' and "fire" juxtaposing one another. fire creates irreversible damage foreshadowing how his duplicitous facade will create irreversible damage.
• "o, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!"


  scorpions are poisonous, representing how Macbeths ambition has poisoned his mind- he is consequently plagued by guilt and remorse. as it is "full" it highlights how he has been completely engulfed with guilt and mercy. the metaphor of a creature festering in his mind shows that his tyrannical nature has been so omnipotent, he now resembles more of a savage creature than a moral human.
• "be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck"


  it is ironic that Macbeth now overpowers lady Macbeth through feminine epithets which belittle her, much as she previously did to him
• "so foul and fair a day I have not seen"


  echos the witches paradox- slowly becoming a mouthpiece for the witches' evil, he is a vessel for their misconduct
• "is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand? come, let me clutch thee"


  suggest he is ridding himself the responsbility over the murder he will commit. even before committing the treacherous act of regicide, he understands that it will plague his conscience so he poses that it has been put "towards" him- he has involuntarily been subject to this inner turmoil
• "valours minion"


  strongly abides to codes of honour, alternatively the noun minion could foreshadow his susceptibility to manipulation and how he will soon be a marionette to the witches