Macbeth Quotes

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Quotes to utilize in the critical essay or to know for your final exam.
Ellen Wright
Flashcards by Ellen Wright, updated more than 1 year ago More Less
Daniel Cormack
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Ellen Wright
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Resource summary

Question Answer
Fair is foul, and foul is fair... (1.1) The three witches
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray us /In deepest consequence (1.3) Banquo (to Macbeth)
Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it (1.4) Speaker? Malcom (about Cawdor) Meaning/significance? Shows how a person can die with dignity/die well (by repenting), also it contrasts a good death to Macbeth's death (bad death) Both are traitors.
If chance will have me King, why / Chance may crown me, / Without my stir. (1.3) Speaker? Macbeth Meaning/significance? Macbeth is hoping he will not have to do anything to become king, that fate will take care of it theme: fate
That is a step on which / I must fall down or o'er leap Stars, hide your fires!/ Let not light see my black and deep desires. (1.4) Speaker? Macbeth (to himself) Meaning/significance? He is now commited to killing Duncan... it shows the growth of evil in Macbeth... shows with what side he is aligned... first step down a slipper slope
Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. (1.5) Speaker? Lady Macbeth (to herself) Meaning/significance? Lady Macbeth is worried about her husband's lack of ruthlessness.
Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full / Of direst cruelty! (1.5) Speaker? Lady Macbeth Meaning/significance? Shows Lady Macbeth siding with evil forces themes: supernatural, gender bending, evil
I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself And falls on the other - (1.7) Speaker? Macbeth meaning/significane? showing Macbeth's only motivation is his ambition theme: ambition
I do all that may become a man Who dares do more is none. (1.7) When you durst do it, then you were a man; (1.7) speaker(s)? Macbeth->lady macbeth meaning/significance? Lady Macbeth is convincing her to husband to "be a man"... shows macbeths hesitance/humaness theme: gender bending
False face must hide what false heart doth know (1.7) speaker? Macbeth meaning/significance? Macbeth shows his commitment to putting up an act of being innocent, choosing to hide things instead of confessing/repenting theme:appearance/reality
Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!/ Macbeth does murder sleep"—the innocent sleep, / Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care. (2.2) speaker? Macbeth meaning/significance? Shows Macbeth is feeling guilty (for killing Duncan) and also jumpy themes? sleep/dreams, clothes motif
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? (2.2) speaker? Macbeth meaning/signficance? showing his guilt, how he feels he will never be clean, evil will spread as a result (dominoes effect) themes? order/disorder, guilt, great chaine of being
A little water clears us of this deed, How easy is it then! (2.2) speaker? Lady Macbeth meaning/significance? saying it will be easy to shake this off/be clean/guilt-free, contrasts towards Macbeth who says the opposite themes? deception
... there's daggers in men's smiles. (2.3) speaker? Donlbaine (to malcom) Meaning/significance? Donlbaine saying you cannot trust anyone theme? appearance v. reality
Thou hast it now—King, Cawdor, Glamis, all As the Weird Women promised, and I fear Thou played'st most foully for't. (3.1) speaker? Banquo (about Macbeth) meaning/significance? Banquo suspects that Macbeth killed Duncan for the crown themes? ambition, unnatural evil
...To be thus is nothing, But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo Stick deep. (3.1) speaker? Macbeth meaning/significance? shows his growing ambition and paranoia, shows he is still worried about the prophecy of Banquo's decendents theme: ambition
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown / And put a barren scepter in my grip, / Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, / No son of mine succeeding. (3.1) speaker? Macbeth meaning/significance? worring that his kids will not get the crown, shows his growing ambition (he's not happy being king, but he also wants kids to be kings) theme: ambition
...Naught's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content. 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. (3.2) speaker? lady macbeth meaning/significance? she reveals regret/doubt, shows the hedonists paradox, shows her insecurity and fearfullness themes: guilt
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. (3.2) speaker? Macbeth meaning/significance? represents how one bad things leads to another (snowball/dominoe) effects of evil themes:evil
Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake Thy gory locks at me. (3.4) speaker? Macbeth (to banquo's ghost) meaning/significance? showing guilt theme: guilt
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood. / Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak. (3.4) speaker? Macbeth meaning/significance? showing how he is scared, forshadowing what will happen theme: guilt, idea of vengance/things put back into order
For mine own good All causes shall give way. I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er. (3.4) speaker? Macbeth meaning/significane? I don't care about anything but my own good anymore...I'm in to far, it's to late for me to go back (no turning back) theme: ambition
Be bloody, bold and resolute. Laugh to scorn/ The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth. (4.1) speaker? Bloody child (2nd apperation) (to macbeth) meaning/significance? encourages false sense of security theme: fate
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him. (4.1) speaker? 3rd apperation (crowned child w/ tree) meaning/significance? shows how evil fouls us, lures Macgeth into a false sense of security themes: fate, temptation
From this moment The firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. (4.1) speaker? macbeth meaning/significance? proves he feels secure (as a result of the two prophecies), shows he is growing more impulsive and ambitious themes: evil
Each new morn new widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds As if felt with Scotland, and yelled out Like syllable of dolor. (4.3) speaker? Macduff (to malcom) meaning/significance? describing the decaying state of Scotland theme: order/disorder
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne/ That speak him full of grace. (4.3) speaker? Malcom (about English King) meaning/significance? his praise and discription of the English king shows what a good king is like in contrast to Macbeth themes: divine right of kings, order/disorder, nature of leadership
Alas poor country, Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot Be called our mother, but our grave. (4.3) speaker? Ross (to Macduff and Malcom) meaning/significance? shows that because the great chaine of being was disrupted (by macbeth) the country is in bad shape theme: divine right of kinds, order/disorder, great chaine of being
All my pretty ones? Did you say 'all'? O hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop? (4.3) speaker? Macduff (when he learns his household was murdered) meaning/significance: shows his shock and grief, example of how Macbeth's cruetly is effecting other people
Out, damned spot, out I say! (5.1) speaker? Lady Macbeth (when she is sleep walking) meaning/signifcance? shows her guilt and how she is haunted by it themes: supernatural, unnatural
Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles. / Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. More needs she the divine than the physician. (5.1) Speaker? Doctor meaning/significance? Lady Macduff needs divine help theme: sickness, unnatural (evil)
And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have... (5.3) speaker? Macbeth meaning/significance? I'm sick at heart, shows he is reaping what he has sown, shows how he is realy missing the important things of life theme: evil, pride and ambition
She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow... Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a waking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. (5.5) speaker? Macbeth meaning/significance? (shows despaire after her death?) shows how his world view is very nihilistic (no heaven or hell, life is short and meaningless) theme: religion, evil, dying
Of all men else I have avoided thee. But get thee back. My soul is too much charged With blood of thine already. (5.8) Speaker? Macbeth (to malcom) meaning/significance? saying I don't want to kill you because I've already killed your family, shows a more human side, shows he feels guilty theme: guilt
...this, and what needful else That calls upon us, by grace of grace, We will perform in measure, time, and place. (5.8) Speaker? Malcom (end of play speech) meaning/significance? shows the restoration of order, shows that malcom and proper ruling family is aligned with good/holy powers themes: order/disorder, divine right of kings
This set created by... Hannah_Baker34 On Quizlet.com
Presented by... Ms. Wright--English Dept.
GOOD-BYE
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