Key Quotes for ACT 3 Flashcards
‘Our fears in ___ stick deep’
‘Banquo’
Macbeth shows his deep fears of the prophecies for Banquo and is scared Banquo may plot against him to seize the throne for his children
‘upon my head they placed a ___ crown’
‘fruitless’
Macbeth is saying that he has a a fruitless crown meaning he has no children to carry on the crown and that he is holding a barren scepter
he feels cheated by the witches, they seem to give him everything that will end up being Banquo’s
‘for a few ___’
‘words’
Lady Macbeth is only going to speak a few words to Macbeth showing that their relationship is deteriorating
‘We have ___ the snake, not kill’d it’
‘scotch’d’
by scorching the snake but not killing it, Macbeth means that they still have threats to face, even with Duncan out of the picture
he also references that they have put Duncan to rest in peace, while they must still suffer through challenges so long as they are alive
the snake can be interpreted as symbolic of Banquo and the witches’ prophecy for him
it shows that sin is addictive and won’t stop
‘these ___ dreams that shake us nightly’
‘terrible’
Macbeth took Duncan’s sleep away so his sleep was taken away as well
Macbeth’s having nightmares and this comes back again and again, and it’s a reminder of the curse he heard, that he repeated after the murder ‘Sleep no more, Glamis hath murdered sleep and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.’
‘thy bones are ___, thy blood is cold’
‘marrowless’
Macbeth’s proof that the ghost that is haunting him is not living is the fact that it does not have bones filled with marrow nor does it have warm blood (supernatural)
Macbeth’s conversation with the ghost ends with Macbeth challenging the ghost to come back in any other form
‘I am in ___ Stepp’d in so far that I should wade no more, Returning were as ___ as go o’er’
‘blood’ ‘tedious’
Shakespeare is saying here that Macbeth has involved himself in so many murders that it is as easy for him to carry on than to turn back
Macbeth compares his course of action with wading across a river of blood, creating a vivid image of his bloody reign
The word ‘tedious’ reveals the hardening of Macbeth’s heart
