General Quote's

• WAGNOWTBCFMH

  Quote: Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?
• WAGNOWTBCFMH

  Big Idea: S uses blood to symbolise guilt and water to symbolise purity. The metaphor of 'Neptune's ocean' suggests that no amount of water will ever remove the sacrilegious stain of regicide.
• WAGNOWTBCFMH

  Method: 'Neptune's ocean' - hyperbolic language exemplifies the depth of M's guilt as he feels not even a god can save him.

  'blood' - motif used throughout the play to symbolise guilt. Macbeth becomes increasingly desensitised to seeing it as he becomes more malevolent.

  'my hand' - symbolic of M being the architect of his downfall.
• WAGNOWTBCFMH

  Other Key Moments/ Quote: M A1S7 'this even-handed justice commends the ingredients of our poisn'd chalice to our own lips'

  LM A2S2 'Go get some water,/ And wash this filthy witness from your hand'

  M A5S5 'Out, out, brief candle'
• WAGNOWTBCFMH

  Context: Neptune is the Roman god of the sea
• IAIBSISFTSIWNM, RWATAGO

  Quote: I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er
• IAIBSISFTSIWNM, RWATAGO

  Big Idea: M chooses to commit more evil acts than face the consequences of what he has done. Relates to a central theme of Kingship. M is a weak king because he allows his actions to be governed by his fears and paranoia and chooses self-interest over the interest of Scotland.
• IAIBSISFTSIWNM, RWATAGO

  Methods: 'I am in blood' - imagery evokes the idea of M being surrounded by his guilt (blood). He has become isolated by it.

  'stepped'/'waved' - verbs symbolising M being weighed down by his guilt. Moving slowly towards evil.
• IAIBSISFTSIWNM, RWATAGO

  Other Key Moments/ Quotes: CAPTIN A1S2 'Brave Macbeth'

  M A1S7 'He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought/ Golden opinions from all sorts of people.'

  MALCOM A5S8 'dead butcher'
• IAIBSISFTSIWNM, RWATAGO

  Context: Links to one of the central messages of the play: unchecked ambition will lead to the destruction of life and state.
• BTPOMT SWTWC

  Quote: By the pricking of my thumbs. Something wicked this way comes
• BTPOMT SWTWC

  Big Idea: M has become transformed by his actions and is now subhuman, defined by his evil. Links to a key idea that evil is unnatural.
• BTPOMT SWTWC

  Methods: 'pricking of my thumbs' - the W sense M's evil before arrives

  'something' - objectifying M
• BTPOMT SWTWC

  Other Key Moments/ Quotes: CAPTIN A1S2 'Brave Macbeth'

  LM A1S7 'When you durst do it, then you were a man...you would/ Be so much more the man'

  M A4S1 'Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword'

  MALCOM A5S8 'dead butcher'
• BTPOMT SWTWC

  Context: King James I believed in the supernatural and their powers. Through his connection with the supernatural, M has become transformed into a fiend not a human.
• IHNS TPTSOMI, BO VA

  Quote: I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, But only Vaulting ambition'
• IHNS TPTSOMI, BO VA

  Big Idea: M recognises at this point in the play that unchecked ambition can make people rush and make mistakes. He is almost pre-empting the disaster to come
• IHNS TPTSOMI, BO VA

  Methods: 'spur' - a sharp object used to urge on a horse. The dangerous catalyst is his ambition not Duncan

  'vaulting' - The image it creates is of excess: the flaw us not the ambition itself, but its misdirection, its height and consequential fall
• IHNS TPTSOMI, BO VA

  Other Key Moments/ Quotes: DUNCAN A1S4 'I have begun to plant thee, and will about/ To make thee full of growing'

  LM A1S5 'I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness'

  ANGUS A5S2 'like a giant's robe/ Upon a dwarfish thief'
• IHNS TPTSOMI, BO VA

  Context: Belief in the Great Chain of Being kept order in the Jacobean society. M's ambition goes against the belief and is thus as dangerous as 'vaulting' into the air.
• ALWCUOFD

  Quote: A little water clears us of this deed
• ALWCUOFD

  Big Idea: LM is unaware of the deep stain of guilt. However, her decent into madness caused by her guilt reflects the idea that it is not easily washed away.
• ALWCUOFD

  Methods: 'little' - her prosaic language reflects her lack of guilt

  'clears us' - metaphoric links to the Christian belief that you can be cleansed of sin. The irony is that they will never be absolved.
• ALWCUOFD

  Other Key Moments/ Quotes: LM A1S5 'fill me from the crown to the top-full Of direst cruelty'

  M A3S2 'Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck'

  LM A5S1 'Out damned spot! Out, I say!'
• ALWCUOFD

  Context: Christians believed that holy water can absolve you of sin. Contrary to what LM believes, M won't be absolved because regicide wad the greatest sin.