Macbeth Characters - Key quotes Flashcards
Quotes which show Macbeth’s Ambition + Analysis
Ambition
- “Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires” - The black and dep desires refer to his ambition, and he doesn’t want anybody to see it, so he hopes the stars go out
- “I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition” - shows that he has no reason to kill Duncan, but only his ambition wants him to.
Quotes which show Macbeth’s Loyalty and Betrayal + Analysis
- “As his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife” - The juxtaposition of the idea of protection vs violence shows how torn he is about betraying Duncan
- “False face must hide what the false heart doth know” - Repetition of “false” shows that the idea of concealment of his betrayal is on his mind
Quotes which show Macbeth’s Reality and Appearances + Analysis
- “Stars, hide your fires: Let not light see my black and deep desires” - Macbeth wishes to conceal his dark ambitions, highlighting the theme of deception
- “Is this a dagger which i see before me, The handle toward my hand?” - The vision of the dagger blurs the line between reality and hallucination, embodying Macbeth’s turmoil
Quotes which show Macbeth’s Good and Evil + Analysis
- “I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none” - Macbeth is distinguishing the line between being a man, and destroying morals
- “Yet I will try the last. Before my body i throw a warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, and damn;d be him that first cries. ‘Hold enough!’” - Macbeth’s final moments are filled with valor and bravery, but overshadowed by the evil he has commited
Quotes which show Lady Macbeth’s Supernatural ideas + Analysis
- “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topful of direst cruelty!” - Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to turn her into a guy which is fricking weird.
Quotes which show Macbeth’s Fate and Free Will + Analysis
1.” If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” - Macbeth is hoping fate will crown him as king
Quotes which show Macbeth’s Kingship + Analysis
1.”To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus.” - Chiasmus, which show Macbeth realising power is pointless without security
2.”that which should accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have.” - Macbeth realises that his hollow kingship as led to him lacking respect and love from others.
Quote showing LM’s Ambition + Analysis
“I fear thy nature; it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way.” - Lady Macbeth is showing her manipulation, and ambition for Macbeth to fulfill the witches prophecies, and fears Macbeth’s kindness is preventing him from taking the crown.
Quote showing LM’s Loyalty and Betrayal + Analysis
“When you durst do it, then you are a man” - LM questions Macbeth’s manhood in order to make him loyal to her and the plan, and betray King Duncan
Quote for LM with Reality and Appearances + Analysis
“Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t” - Relates to the Garden of Eden, the serpent is like the devil.
Quote showing LM’s Good and Evil + Analysis
“Yet i do fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness…Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” - LM is identifying Macbeth’s kindness as a weakness, and associates greatness with ‘illness’ - moral corruption showing her evil
Quote for Duncan showing his Loyalty and Betrayal + Analysis
“There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face: He was a gentleman on whom i built an absolute trust” - Duncan talks about how he struggles to identify people’s true intentions from appearance - his fatal flaw. Foreshadowing his own betrayal.
Quote for Duncan about Good and Evil + Analysis
“He was a gentleman on whom i built an absolute trust.” - It highlights Duncan’s inherent goodness, and makes Macbeth’s murder of him more heinous.
Quote for Duncan to do with Kingship + Analysis
“I have begun to plant thee, and will labour to make thee full of growing.” - Line showing that Duncan feels that King’s should nurture and support his loyal subjects.
Quote for Malcom to do with Loyalty and Betrayal
“Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wiped the black scruples” - This shows Malcom acknowledging Macduff’s loyalty to him and Scotland after testing him
