Key Quotations in Macbeth

Question 1

What quotation shows that the witches instantly create an ambiguous atmosphere?

Answer 1

“Fair is foul and foul is fair”

1.1

Question 2

What quotation shows Macbeth’s brutal killing of the rebel Macdonwald?

Answer 2

“He unseamed him from the nave to th’chops”

1.2

Question 3

What quotation shows Banquo’s shock when the witches prediction comes true?

Answer 3

“What! Can the devil speak true?”

1.3

Question 4

What quotation shows Macbeth struggles to hide his desire to kill the king?

Answer 4

“Let not light see my black and deep desires”

1.4

Question 5

What quotation shows Lady Macbeth’s worry that Macbeth is too weak to murder?

Answer 5

“It is too full of the milk of human kindness”

1.5

Question 6

What quotation shows Duncan’s ironic statement of how lovely Macbeth’s castle is?

Answer 6

“This castle hath a pleasant seat”

1.6

Question 7

What quotation shows Macbeth is recognising his ambition running away with him?

Answer 7

“Vaulting ambition / Which overleaps itself”

1.7

Question 8

What quotation shows that Macbeth sees a vision of a dagger?

Answer 8

“Is this a dagger which i see before me”

2.1

Question 9

What quotation shows Lady Macbeth believes they can wash away the evidence?

Answer 9

“A little water clears us of this deed”

2.2

Question 10

What quotation shows Macduff’s utter disgust upon finding Duncan’s corpse?

Answer 10

“Oh horror, horror, horror”

2.3

Question 11

What quotation shows Macduff goes home opposed to attending the Macbeth’s coronation?

Answer 11

“No cousin, i’ll to fife”

2.4

Question 12

What quotation shows Banquo begins to recognise Macbeth is scheming?

Answer 12

“I fear thou play’dst most foully for it”

3.1

Question 13

What quotation shows that Macbeth’s mental state is beginning to deteriorate?

Answer 13

“O full of scorpions is my mind”

3.2

Question 14

What quotation shows Banquo cries to Fleance to escape?

Answer 14

“Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!”

3.3

Question 15

What quotation shows that Macbeth orders Banquo’s ghost to disappear?

Answer 15

“Hence, horrible shadow”

3.4

Question 16

What quotation shows Hecate’s description of Macbeth?

Answer 16

“A wayward son, spiteful and wrathful”

3.5

Question 17

What quotation shows that Lennox laments the state of Scotland under the Macbeth’s reign?

Answer 17

“Our suffering country, under an accursed hand”

3.6

Question 18

What quotation shows the Witches description of Macbeth as he approaches?

Answer 18

“Something wicked this way comes”

4.1

Question 19

What quotation shows that Lady Macduff criticises her husband?

Answer 19

“Wisdom! To leave his wife, his babes?”

4.2

Question 20

What quotation shows Macduff’s utter grief when he discovers his family’s slaughter?

Answer 20

“What, all my pretty chickens?”

4.3

Question 21

What quotation shows that Lady Macbeth’s guilt cannot be washed away?

Answer 21

“Out, damned spot, out i say!”

5.1

Question 22

What quotation shows Angus’s description of Macbeth?

Answer 22

“Like a giant’s robe on a dwarfish thief”

5.2

Question 23

What quotation shows that Macbeth reminds himself that he is infallible?

Answer 23

“No man born of woman shall ever have power upon thee”

5.3

Question 24

What quotation shows Malcolm orders his soldiers to cut down tree for camouflage?

Answer 24

“Let every soldier hew him down a bough”

5.4

Question 25

What quotation shows Macbeth voices his despair about the hopelessness of life?

Answer 25

“Life’s but a walking shadow”

5.5

Question 26

What quotation shows Malcolm’s description of Macduff as he leads the army into war?

Answer 26

“Worthy Macduff”

5.6

Question 27

What quotation shows that Macbeth revels in the belief he cannot be killed?

Answer 27

“But swords i smile at, weapons laugh to scorn”

5.7

Question 28

What quotation shows that Macduff declares he was not born of women?

Answer 28

“Macduff was from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripped”

5.8

Question 29

What quotation shows the witches are supernatural?

Answer 29

“Double double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble”

Question 30

What quotation shows how ruthlessly Lady Macbeth pursues the crown?

Answer 30

“dashed the brains out”

Question 31

What quotation shows that Lady Macbeth is seen as evil?

Answer 31

“fiend like queen”

Question 32

What quotation shows that Macbeth respects LM?

Answer 32

“partner in greatness”

Question 33

What quotation shows that LM manipulates macbeth by underestimating him, showing that she relies on manipulation and persuasion to achieve her own goals?

Answer 33

“you were a man”

Question 34

What quotation, regarding LM’s death, shows that macbeth has becomes desensitised to all human feeling and is a metaphor for the fact that life ends too quickly?

Answer 34

“out,out brief candle”

Question 35

What quotation shows that Banquo was regarded as better than macbeth?

Answer 35

“lesser than macbeth and greater”

Question 36

What quotation shows that banquets ghost ironically foreshadows the futures as the ghost occupies macbeth seat as do his descendants occupy his throne?

Answer 36

“push us from our stools”

Question 37

What quotation shows that LM puts blame onto Macbeth and shows that she is more ambitious?

Answer 37

‘but screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail”

Question 38

What quotation shows that the witches create an ambitious atmosphere?

Answer 38

“hover through the fog and filthy air”

Question 39

What does “thunder” symbolise?

Answer 39

It’s a sign of imminent death and an east wind represents evil, as alluded to in the bible. Symbolises disruption

Question 40

What does “serpent” suggest?

Answer 40

suggests Temptation and loss of innocence through the biblical story of adam & eve.

Question 41

Whats the importance that it follows a cyclical structure?

Answer 41

macbeth becomes the enemy he wanted to kill

Question 42

What does “near in blood” suggest?

Answer 42

Blood is part of the imagery that pervades the play, creating a sense of menace. This symbolises macbeth evil