KEY Macbeth Quotes

Question 1

Said by Witches meaning appearances are often deceptive

Answer 1

“Fair is foul and foul is fair:”

Question 2

Macbeth’s first line in Act 1, Scene 3

Answer 2

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen”

Question 3

Ross to King Duncan in Act 1, Scene 2 Before Macbeth is made Thane Of Cawdor

Answer 3

“most disloyal traitor, The thane of Cawdor”

Question 4

Asks us to question Macbeth’s nature in Act 1, Scene 2

Answer 4

‘Unseam’d him from the nave to’th’chops, and fixed his head upon the battlements’

Question 5

Captain describes Macbeth to Duncan (The king) in Act 1, Scene 2

Answer 5

‘brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name’ / “O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman”

Question 6

Banquo’s prophecy in Act 1, Scene 3

Answer 6

“Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be none”

Question 7

Banquo, about witches using metaphor, suggesting that darkness works through them in Act 1, Scene 3

Answer 7

“The instruments of darkness”

Question 8

Banquo to witches in Act 1, Scene 3 relates to the theme of gender, similarly to ‘unsex me here’ Act 1, Scene 5 by Lady Macbeth Also arguably a source of humor as all actors in jacobean times were men

Answer 8

“You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so”

Question 9

Banquo to Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 3, assonance of ‘fear’ / ‘fair’

Answer 9

“Why do you start, and seem to fear things that do sound so fair?”

Question 10

Macbeth — Abandonment of God, suggestion that evil has taken over the castle that Macbeth’s actions have led God away from him (setting — very little light, dark gloomy castle, light representing clearness/God)

Answer 10

‘One cried ‘God bless us!’ and ‘Amen’ the other; ‘ ‘I had most need of blessing, and ‘Amen’ stuck in my throat’

Question 11

Links to “Fair is foul” Lady Macbeth to Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 5 antithesis (opposite), biblical allusion to Garden of Eden, sin and temptation

Answer 11

“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”

Question 12

Lady Macbeth to Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 5 Relates to gender roles, shows Lady Macbeth to portray Macbeth as effeminate (Man having charactistics of a women)

Answer 12

“I fear thy nature;/ is too full o’th’milk of human kindness/to catch the nearest way”

Question 13

Duncan, entering Inverness (situational irony, shows his good nature, comic element in the tragedy as he comments on the ‘pleasant’ atmosphere of the dark castle where he is about to meet his doom) in Act 1, Scene 6

Answer 13

‘This castle hath a pleasant seat’

Question 14

in Act 1, Scene 7 Macbeth soliloquy exploring his motivations for murder — his fatal flaw (Hamartia) is ‘ambition’, personification

Answer 14

‘Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself’

Question 15

in Act 2, Scene 1 Macbeth’s soliloquy, supernatural vision (or alternatively madness), violence — foreshadowing Duncan’s death, madness, manipulation by witches, rhetorical question — asking no one — is he being tricked by the witches, or is his own mind descending into madness?

Answer 15

‘Is this a dagger which I see before me

Question 16

Lady Macbeth, covering guards in blood Act 2, Scene 2

Answer 16

‘I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal’

Question 17

In Act 2, Scene 3 (Donaldbain to Malcolm)

Answer 17

“There’s daggers in men’s smiles”

Question 18

In Act 3, Scene 1 said by Macbeth (Macbeth Soliloquy) ‘Fruitless’, implies no legacy that will carry on, earth is ‘barren’, emptiness, lack of ability to grow, suggests worthlessness — link to Banquo ‘shalt get kings though thou be none’, semantic field of royalty juxtaposed with a semantic field of death/ inability to grow — the character in a soliloquy is onstage by themselves, and they voice their thoughts and feelings aloud to the audience, but the other characters can’t hear — this allows the audience insight into the situation, and it creates dramatic irony — we have an extra depth of understanding into the psychology of Macbeth’s character, but the other characters don’t know his thoughts and feelings

Answer 18

“Fruitless crown……barren scepter”

Question 19

In Act 3, Scene 1 Banquo doubts Macbeth in a soliloquy — true feelings

Answer 19

‘I fear thou playd’st most foully for’t’

Question 20

In Act 3, Scene 4 (Macbeth to himself, madness)

Answer 20

“Strange things I have in head that will to hand”

Question 21

In Act 4, Scene 1 (Macbeth soliloquy regarding Macduff’s family, brutal, cold murderous thoughts)

Answer 21

“Give to the edge of the sword his wife his babes”

Question 22

Lady Macbeth in Act 5, Scene 1

Answer 22

“Who’d have thought the old man to have so much blood in him”

Question 23

Lady Macbeth in Act 5, Scene 1

Answer 23

“Out, damned spot”

Question 24

In Act 5, Scene 5 Macbeth to himself, just before his death and just after hearing that Lady Macbeth has committed suicide by jumping to her death possibly link to earlier quotation of ‘fear’ / ‘fair’, a cold reaction to LM’s death given how close the couple were at the beginning of the play and how much he respected and listened (wrongfully) to her)

Answer 24

“I have almost forgot the taste of fears”

Question 25

In Act 3, Scene 4 Macbeth is in a manic state after seeing the ghost of Banquo and is showing himself to be weak to the rest of the people, Lady Macbeth challenges his masculinity in order to get him back in check. Doesn’t work since he is so shaken. Dramatic irony, the audience knows something that the characters do not, we can see the ghost but everyone but Macbeth doesn’t.

Answer 25

“(Aside to Macbeth) Are you a man?”

Question 26

In Act 1, Scene 7 Hubris/tragic downfall — suggesting men should not try to gain more power and become more than themselves)

Answer 26

“I dare do all that may become a man; /Who dares do more, is none”

Question 27

Macbeth in Act 3, Scene 4

Answer 27

‘I am in blood/Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,’

Question 28

In Act 3, Scene 4 frightening, shocking to Macbeth but perhaps satisfying to audience who see he’s getting his comeuppance — foreshadowing (proleptic irony), suggesting part of Banquo will continue the throne/lineage, Macbeth’s evil reign is only temporary and good will triumph over evil in the end

Answer 28

“[ The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH’s place ]”

Question 29

In Act 5, Scene 5 Macbeth before death — shows his full tragic fall, descent into nihilism, absolute abandonment of hopes, dreams, spirituality, happiness, power

Answer 29

‘Life is but a walking shadow… a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’