Mabeth Key Quotes Flashcards
“For brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name.”
At the time of the play men were seen to be strong and brave. Here MacBeth proves he fits this role and shows them he is willing to do anything for his country. They are impressed and talking good about him . We would expect this because he fits the stereotype of men at the time.
“Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more”
He’s demanding more information about becoming king . He is stereotypically masculine demanding the women to tell them what to do
We would expect this because men were seen to be controlling and in charge over women at the time of the play audiences would expect a man to act like this
“Stars hide your fires Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
Macbeth wants to hide his desires and intentions from both others and himself. He wants the blanket of darkness to hide the fire of malice inside of him. Macbeth knows that murder is wrong but he wants to feel that he is a good person
“Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it.”
They are both very ambitious but lady Macbeth is willing to do anything and she is showing how powerful she is. It is interesting because she is more confident than her husband which shows us that she is more powerful in their relationship and this is unusual because women were not in power in the 1600s
“We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague th’ inventor.”
If you do bad things bad things will happen to you
Shakespeare is characterising Macbeth as a weak/worried man
We see Macbeth experiencing conflict before murdering the king about what the consequences may be which foreshadows later in the play when we see that the consequences of his actions lead to his own death.
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle towards my hand?”
The hallucination is used to show how he will kill the king with a dagger
is showing his shift in mindset from being loyal at the start to now killing the king
The dagger is what draws the ambition
The rhetorical question is used to show him questioning himself
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand”
Shakespeare has used the motif of blood to show us how guilty he is after and how hard it is to get rid of his guilt.
That he will not be able to live with the guilt
Neptune’s ocean’ has connotations of a massive quantity this emphasises just how much guilt he feels.
“The very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand”
As soon as I think something I will do it
He has lost control of himself
He has gone from being very guilty to thinking that whatever it takes he will get what he wants done
This relates to the theme of ambition as at the start he was unwilling to act upon his ambition and he did not want to face the consequences whereas now he has no control over his ambition and will do anything
We would expect him to be so demanding and controlling but we wouldn’t expect him to be so murderous
“Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, Who ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life –”
Butcher has connotations of disgusting because it is not a nice job to do as they work with meat and kill animals . Fiend is an evil person and they are extremely wicked and cruel. This connects to the characterisation of Macbeth and lady Macbeth as Macbeth kills people throughout the play which is disgusting and he is acting like a butcher. Lady Macbeth is a fiend like queen because she does evil things in order to gain her power she goes to extreme limits to get what she wants just like a fiend like queen.
Important theme (ambition)
1- “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more”
2- “We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague th’ inventor.”
3- “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand”
4- “The very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand”
5- “Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, / Who ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands / Took off her life –”
Memorable character
1- “For brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name.”
2- “We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague th’ inventor.”
3- “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand”
4- “The very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand”
5- “Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, Who ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life –”
Conflict
1- “We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague th’ inventor.”
2- “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle towards my hand?”
3- “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand”
4- “The very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand”
5- “Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, Who ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life –”
Scene/ turning point
1- “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more”
2- “Stars hide your fires Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
3- “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle towards my hand?”
4- “The very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand”
5- “Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, Who ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life –”
Introduction for critical essay
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare is an intelligently written dark tale of power list and paranoia set in Scotland in the Middle Ages. Shakespeare uses techniques such as foreshadowing, word choice smilies and metaphors (link to question given in exam)
