Macbeth Quotes

• "vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself and falls on th'other"

  • killing Duncan satisfies his ambition
  • obeying ambition will lead to a disaster
  • makes him think illogically
  • overestimates abilities
  • ambition is self destructive
• "For brave Macbeth well he deserved that name"

  • The hero that Scotland needs
  • heroism
  • Righteous and honourable
  • contrasts with how tyrannical he is later in the play
• "smoked with bloody execution"

  • metaphor
  • violence is a destructive force
  • motifs linked to Macbeth's guilt
  • Can link to fighting on the side with God
• "like Valour's minion"

  • simile
  • epitome of courage and chivalry
  • loyal follower
  • can connote slave or unimportant worker
  • foreshadows brutal ambition
• "Disdaining fortune with his brandished steel"

  • alludes to later hubris
  • tries to dodge destiny
• unseaming him from the nave th' chaps"

  • tyrannical behaviour
  • ruthless
  • merciless
• "his head fixed upon the battlements"

  • ability to be evil all along
  • evil will always be punished
• "stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires"

  • symbol for the conflict of Macbeth's ambition
  • not prepared to face reality
  • refers to God or heaven
  • fears judgement and disappointment
  • doesn't have to witness his own corruption
• "out, out, brief candle life's but a walking shadow a poor player"

  • emphasise how life is a facade
  • connote to imitation and emptiness
  • Macbeth focuses on the wrong things in life
• "told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing"

  • nihilistic interpretation
  • his crisis is causing by the unedifying truth
  • accomplished nothing everlasting