Macbeth Key Quotes

Question	Answer
THEME OF FATE AND FREE WILL	The play sets the prophecies made by the witches against Macbeth's internal conflict, resulting in Macbeth's downfall - but which was the cause?
" ... brave Macbeth ... // Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel, // Which smoked with bloody execution" ACT 1 SCENE 2	The captain says that Macbeth should have died in battle, but instead ignored fate (or 'Fortune') and lived. This suggests that Macbeth is responsible for his own fate, and thus for his downfall later on. "bloody execution" connotes anger and power, implying Macbeth is a villain already.
"All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!" ACT 1 SCENE 3	Throughout the play, Macbeth consults the witches to tell him the future - are the witches simply playing on Macbeth's ambition, able to tell the future, or actually controlling fate?
"Look, how our partner's rapt" ACT 1 SCENE 3 (Banquo about Macbeth)	"rapt" comes from the Latin word "raptus", which means to be kidnapped or seized. If Macbeth is 'rapt', then he has been absorbed by something outside of his control - like his fate. This would suggest that Macbeth isn't responsible for his downfall.
"If chance will have me king, why, chance may // crown me " ACT 1 SCENE 3	Macbeth decides to let "chance" take its course rather than trying to change things, but, if chance is the same as fate then is there anything Macbeth can do to prevent his downfall?
"I dare do all that may become a man" ACT 1 SCENE 7 (Macbeth to Lady Macbeth)	After convincing from Lady Macbeth, Macbeth gives in and decides to kill Duncan. Could he be excused because of Lady Macbeth's manipulation, or is he to blame? Could it have been his fate to kill Duncan?
"Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation" ACT 2 SCENE 1 (Macbeth)	When Macbeth kills Duncan, is he choosing to do so, or is he being controlled by mysterious forces that plant "fatal vision"s in his mind? Regicide turns people mad - both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth go mad after Duncan is killed. Here, Macbeth is already beginning to lose his mind.
"Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood...//Shall come against him." ACT 4 SCENE 1 (the witches)	The witches' prophecies lead Macbeth to think he is safe, affecting his decisions. Is his fate death? Or did the witches manipulate him? "vanquished" = 'conquered' or 'triumphed over'; this suggests Macbeth is a villain.
THEME OF AMBITION	Ambition is what eventually defeats Macbeth - his thirst for power leads him to tyranny. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth for King James I, a Scottish king who feared people would overthrow him. To please his king, Shakespeare used Macbeth to warn against regicide.
"If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, // Speak, then, to me" ACT 1 SCENE 3 (Banquo)	Banquo says he doesn't care about getting a prophecy, however, he asks for one. This shows that ambition is present in everybody suggesting that Macbeth wasn't responsible for his downfall. The nature imagery ('seeds of time') links to the world's natural order - is it defying the natural order to see into the future?
"My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical" ACT 1 SCENE 3 (Macbeth)	Macbeth's first thought is murder - the witches never say how he'll become king. This suggests Macbeth is responsible for his downfall and chose to kill Duncan. It also suggests that he's not as much of a hero as he seemed.
"Stars, hide your fires; // Let not light see my black and deep desires" ACT 1 SCENE 4 (Macbeth)	Stars represent fate - Macbeth is deliberately defying fate with his desires and plans. Macbeth knows his desires are wrong - they're "dark" - which suggests his ambitions have been planted by the witches.
" Look like th' innocent flower, // But be the serpent under ’t." ACT 1 SCENE 5 (Lady Macbeth)	Lady Macbeth instructs Macbeth throughout the murder and eventually loses her mind to guilt. The nature imagery links to the world's natural order.
"Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness" ACT 1 SCENE 5 (Lady Macbeth)	Lady Macbeth's first thought is also murder, suggesting ambition is wrong. Lady Macbeth thinks Macbeth is too kind - "milk" is white, which is used to show cowardliness, implying it is cowardly to be kind.
" I have no spur // To prick the sides of my intent, but only // Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself // And falls on the other" ACT 1 SCENE 7 (Macbeth)	Macbeth knows there is no good reason to kill Duncan, except his own thirst for power. This suggests that Macbeth is not a tragic hero but a villain.
"'Gainst nature still! // Thriftless ambition," ACT 2 SCENE 4 (Ross)	Ross knows ambition is the reason behind Duncan's murder. He also knows that it goes against the world's natural order - regicide was considered unnatural due to the Divine Right of Kings.
"Let me find him, Fortune, // And more I beg not" ACT 5 SCENE 6 (Macduff)	Macduff is an example of ambition without corruption - he wants to avenge his family and king but doesn't want power for himself.
"It is a tale // Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, // Signifying nothing." ACT 5 SCENE 5 (Macbeth)	Macbeth ponders the meaning of life when Lady Macbeth dies and realises the futlity in his ambition - Malcolm will be king and he will be damned to hell. The love you give is equal to the love you take. Macbeth has become unhinged from power - he cannot care about the death of his wife, whom he loved.
THEME OF POWER	Power corrupts and turns people like Macbeth mad. In Shakespeare's time, there was the Divine Right of Kings, the belief that the king was appointed by God and thus regicide was going against God. There was also the natural order of power.
"Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair// And make my seated heart knock at my ribs // Against the use of nature?" ACT 1 SCENE 3 (Macbeth)	The thought of taking power is a "horrid" thought to Macbeth at first but Macbeth soon becomes willing to do whatever it takes to keep his power. The nature imagery reflects upon the world's natural order.
"The deep damnation of his taking-off...// pity, like a naked newborn babe...// Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, // That tears shall drown the wind." ACT 1 SCENE 7	Macbeth knows Duncan has been a good and 'meek' king. He cannot name murdering Duncan - he is still too afraid to seize power. The unnatural imagery of "tears shall drown the wind" = regicide is unnatural.
"A falcon ... // Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed." "Duncan’s horses ... // Turned wild in nature ... // Make war with mankind." ACT 2 SCENE 4	When Duncan is murdered, Macbeth undoes the world's natural order of power. Duncan's horses 'eat at each other' - this is unnatural and represents how Macbeth has changed nature by killing Duncan.
"dead butcher and his fiend-like queen" ACT 5 SCENE 8	Once Macbeth is killed he is called a dead butcher but Lady Macbeth remains a 'queen' - even in death she stills holds some power.
THEME OF MADNESS AND REALITY	Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are corrupted by power - Macbeth hallucinates daggers, and becomes a 'tyrant'; Lady Macbeth goes mad with guilt and mysteriously dies offstage. Does Macbeth see visions because he's being controlled or is he seeing imaginings of a freely choosing mind?
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair; // Hover through the fog and filthy air." ACT 1 SCENE 1	The witches are the only characters to speak in rhyme, representing their evil and supernatural power. As the play progresses, Macbeth begins to speak in rhyme too. The witches suggest that the good is actually bad - was Macbeth evil from the start?
"So foul and fair a day I have not seen." ACT 1 SCENE 3 (Macbeth)	When Macbeth is first introduced these are his first words - he already has a clear link to the evil witches. This suggests that he isn't as good as he seems - just as the witches said.
"Fair and noble hostess" ACT 1 SCENE 6 (Duncan)	Duncan calls Macbeth and Lady Macbeth "fair" before they kill him, proving the witches right when they said "fair is foul" as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are "foul" when they kill Duncan. The word 'fair' is patterned throughout the first act to show how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth aren't what they seem.
"Or art thou but // A dagger of the mind, a false creation" ACT 2 SCENE 1	When Macbeth goes to kill Duncan he has a 'fatal vision' of a floating dagger, showing how corrupting power = madness, even before regicide occurs. Macbeth says that 'False face must hide what the false heart doth // know.'.
"this my hand will rather // The multitudinous seas incarnadine, // Making the green one red." ACT 2 SCENE 2 (Macbeth)	Macbeth thinks that his hands will never be clean of Duncan's blood - he's right, as the guilt catches up with him and Lady Macbeth, causing them both to turn insane. The hyperbole shows the strength of Macbeth's immediate guilt.
"Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" "What, will these hands ne'er be clean?" ACT 5 SCENE 1 (Lady Macbeth)	Lady Macbeth too succumbs to madness, thinking of Macduff's wife and obsessing over an invisible spot of blood on her hands - it's ironic as she tells Macbeth 'A little water clears us of this deed.'
"Oh, full of scorpions is my mind" ACT 3 SCENE (Macbeth)	The guilt of killing Duncan makes Macbeth feel as though he has scorpions inside his mind. Animal imagery is used throughout for the character of Macbeth - 'as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion'; 'hell-kite'
THEME OF GENDER	Lady Macbeth is key in the presentation of gender - she appears to be a strong and powerful woman but eventually succumbs to guilt. Men are supposedly more powerful than women, and women are weaker because of their empathy.
"Hie thee hither, // That I may pour my spirits in thine ear // And chastise with the valoor of my tongue // All that impedes thee from the golden round" ACT 1 SCENE 5 (Lady Macbeth)	Lady Macbeth wants to pour her 'spirits' into Macbeth's ear so that she can convince him to kill Duncan. Although she is a woman, she is established as more powerful in the relationship - she persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan. The witches are related to 'spirits' - is Lady Macbeth linked to the supernatural?
"Hie thee hither, // That I may pour my spirits in thine ear // And chastise with the valoor of my tongue // All that impedes thee from the golden round" ACT 1 SCENE 5 (Lady Macbeth)	Since husbands were supposed to "rule" their wives in the same way that kings ruled countries, Lady Macbeth's plan is just another version of treason: taking power that doesn't belong to you. This speech establishes Lady Macbeth as the dominant partner which inverts typical 17th century gender roles.
"Come, you spirits // That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here," "Stop up the access and passage to remorse, // That no compunctious visitings of nature // Shake my fell purpose" ACT 1 SCENE 5 (Lady Macbeth)	Lady Macbeth wants to become a man so that she can murder Duncan without 'nature' stopping her. Lady Macbeth is the cause of Duncan's death - she plans it and forces Macbeth to carry it out. Could Macbeth be forgiven for Duncan's death if he was simply being controlled by another witch?
"When you durst do it, then you were a man" "to look so green and pale" ACT 1 SCENE 7 (Lady Macbeth about Macbeth)	'green and pale' sounds like 'green sickness', another word for anaemia that was thought to be a disease of young, virgin girls. Lady Macbeth relates Macbeth to a girl in order to get him to kill Duncan - women were seen as too pure and kind to kill.
"I would, while it was smiling in my face, ... // dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you // Have done to this." ACT 1 SCENE 7	Lady Macbeth says she'd kill her baby as she breastfed if she had promised to do so as Macbeth has promised to kill Duncan - just like she planned, she is convincing him to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth is not kind or soft as women were thought to be - is this why she's evil?
"O gentle lady, // 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak." ACT 2 SCENE 3	Lady Macbeth is called 'gentle' right after she and Macbeth kill Duncan (after she persuaded Macbeth to do so) which is ironic. Macduff is tied to the notion of female gentleness that he cannot fathom Lady Macbeth hearing about murder let alone plotting one.
THEME OF THE SUPERNATURAL	The king at the time, James 1, was afraid of the supernatural and thus Macbeth linked regicide to the supernatural to show how bad it is.
"When the hurly-burly's done, // When the battle's lost and won." ACT 1 SCENE 1	The witches plan to meet when a battle is lost and won, and meet Macbeth when he is returning from a war. Are they talking about the battle against the Thane of Cawdor, or Macbeth battling his corrupting ambition?
"take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, // Wherever in your sightless substances // You wait on nature's mischief." ACT 1 SCENE 5 (Lady Macbeth)	Is Lady Macbeth another witch or is this a metaphor for evil thoughts? Is she driven crazy by the 'spirits' or does she have a psychotic break from guilt? The 'spirits' could be linked to the witches - they wait on 'nature's mischief' = the witches are unnatural and shouldn't exist.
" ere to black Hecate's summons // The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums ... // there shall be done // A deed of dreadful note." ACT 3 SCENE 2 (Macbeth)	When Macbeth plots Banquo's murder he begins to talk like the witches - is he becoming supernatural or is he being controlled by the supernatural? 'Hecate' was the Greek Goddess of magic and the witches meet with her later, linking Macbeth to the supernatural further.

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	Created by Emily Ball over 7 years ago