Macbeth Flashcards
“Look like th’ ________ flower, but be the ________ under’t”
“Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t”
Lady Macbeth to Macbeth.
Juxtaposition.
They are about to host King Duncan, but Lady Macbeth says that she can read Macbeth’s face like a book, so she tells him to be deceitful and to look innocent but keep his ambition boiling below the surface.
Biblical imagery - link to the manipulating snake in the Garden of Eden.
“Is this __ ______ which i see before me, the handle toward my _____?”
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand?”
Rhetorical question, he’s not even sure what is real anymore.
Macbeth is hallucinating a dagger infront of him, just before killing Duncan.
Macbeth’s violent ambition is tempting him to murder Duncan.
His desire for more power is taking over.
“Will all great _______ _______ wash this _____ clean from my ______?”
“Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hands?”
“I have no ____ to ____ the sides of my intent, but only ______ ______”
“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition.”
Visual metaphor.
Macbeth as part of his soliloquy = his unfiltered thoughts.
He has no reason to kill Duncan, it is only his hamartia, his ambition that drives him.
“Vaulting” connotations of being out of control, can’t control his ambition = hamartia.
King Duncan just made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor.
“Too full of the ____ of _____ kindness.”
“Too full of the milk of human kindness.”
Lady Macbeth to Macbeth.
“Milk” has connotations of femininity, compassion and innocence.
She emasculates him, telling him he is too weak and not ruthless enough.
“O, full of _____ is my ____, _____ wife!”
“O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’
“Life’s but a _____ _____, a poor ____ that struts his hour upon the _____.”
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts his hour upon the stage.”
“______ hide your fires; let not ____ see my ____ and _____ desires.”
“Stars hide your fires, let not light see my dark and deep desires.”
“I am in blood, ______ in so far, that, should I _____ no more, returning were as ____ as go o’er.”
“I am in blood, steeped in so far, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.”
“Sleep ____ _____! Macbeth does ______ ____.”
“Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.”
“Come, you ______…. Unsex me here, and fill me, from ___ _____ to the _____, top-full of ____ _____.”
“Come you spirits…. Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty.”
Lady Macbeth calls on the spirits, inviting them to her, just as the witches call on their familiars - hint towards Lady Macbeth having a supernatural nature.
She feels that her ambition is trapped by her gender, she wants all her feminine qualities to be replaced by ruthlessness and violence.
“When thou ____ do it, then you were a ____.”
“When thou durst do it, then you were a man.”
“Out _____ _____!”
“Out damned spot!”
“My dearest ____ of _____.”
“My dearest partner of greatness.”
Macbeth to Lady Macbeth.
He sees them as equals, which is unusual in those days - reversing the typical gender roles.
There seems to be some level of trust between them at this point.
