Macbeth (In-depth key quotes)

Question 1

“Stars hide your _____ ; let not light see my ____ and ____ desires” Act 1, Scene 4 - Macbeth

Answer 1

“Stars hide your fires ; let not light see my dark and deep desires”

• ‘stars’ and ‘fires’ create a semantic field of light which connotes religious imagery, Macbeth wants to hide his violent desires from God as he knows its wrong.
• ‘light’ and ‘dark’ juxtaposition - suggests that Macbeth is inwardly conflicted between a path of violent ambition and morality.
• ‘deep desires’ emphasises how Macbeth has become corrupt by overpowering ambition as it controls his thoughts and, soon, his actions.
• links with the societal belief at the time that kings were appointed by God. Yet Macbeth still wants to commit regicide by the overwhelming temptation of power through violence.

Question 2

“Is this a ______ which I see before me, The _______ toward my hand? Come, let me _____ thee.” Act 2, Scene 1 - Macbeth

Answer 2

“Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.”

• Macbeth begins to hallucinate a floating dagger. He is still indecisive as the ‘handle’ is ‘toward’ his hand. Is it a warning or is it guiding him to pick it up and use it to murder Duncan?. ‘The handle toward my hand?’ rhetorical question - shows confusion / anxiety. The dagger is being offered / given to him. ‘Come, let me clutch thee’ is commanding / beckoning the dagger towards his hand.
• ‘dagger’ signifies the bloody deed that Macbeth plans to undertake. ‘The handle toward my hand?’ Macbeth is questioning his sanity as he is unsure whether the ‘dagger’ is a hallucination or supernatural sign prompting him to commit regicide. Or it is clear that Macbeth is unsure of the existence of the dagger, yet by having a vision of the dagger it is clear that the violent ambition of Macbeth is clearly tempting Macbeth to commit the murder of Duncan.
• In these lines, however, Macbeth is aware that the floating knife he sees is not really there. The fact that he is troubled enough to hallucinate, yet still sane enough to understand that he is hallucinating, can be contrasted with his later mental state, when he fully believes he sees Banquo’s ghost, even though Lady Macbeth tells him no one is there.

Question 3

“_____ no more, Macbeth does ______ sleep” Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth

Answer 3

“Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep”

• This line demonstrates Macbeth’s immediate guilt following the murder of King Duncan. This may evoke a small amount of sympathy for Macbeth from the audience, however, the act of regicide was still seen as unforgivable in Jacobean society.
• The idea of Macbeth’s guilt and regret strays away from the concept of a two-dimensional villain. Macbeth’s depth as a character was unusual within antagonists at the time and would sparked interest among Shakespeare’ 1600s audience.
• Macbeth’s frantic language portrays his fear of the consequences of his actions.
• The common noun ‘sleep’ symbolises innocence with Macbeth’s lack of sleep emphasising his guilt and culpability.

Question 4

“Oh, full of _________ is my ____, dear wife!” Act 3, Scene 2 - Macbeth

Answer 4

“Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!”

• ‘scorpions’ are seen as malign creatures associated with treachery and poison, and if Macbeth believes they are in his head, this gives representation to his mentally unsettled and agitated state, or even approaching madness.
• metaphor shows how malicious Macbeth has become.
• the metaphor perfectly communicates the misery of Macbeth at this point of the play and underlines the sense of futility he is experiencing despite attaining the crown. Showing he is craving more violence.

Question 5

“______ will have _____” Act 3, Scene 4 - Macbeth

Answer 5

“Blood will have blood”

• loop of violence and death, each one creating the framework for the next.
• bloodshed through violence seeks more blood in revenge, creating a cycle of bloodshed ; he feels trapped in the inevitability of this violence.
• Banquo’s blood is crying out for revenge.
• repetition of ‘blood’ in a single line suggests an overflow of blood that drips rhythmically to the ground.

Question 6

“Yet do I fear thy ______; It is to full o’ th’ ____ of human kindness” Act 1, Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth

Answer 6

“Yet do I fear thy nature; It is to full o’ th’ milk of human kindness”

• Lady Macbeth is proposing that Macbeth is a ‘brave’ soldier. Macbeth is not a murderer by nature which shows that he does not have to confine to the ideas of a two-dimensional villain commonly presented at the time. The depth of Macbeth’s character and his fall to ambition would have greatly fascinated Shakespeare’s Jacobean audience.
• The verb ‘fear’ shows how Lady Macbeth sees Macbeth’s kind nature as a weakness.
• She takes a subtle dig at his masculinity through the common noun ‘milk’ which connotes the nurturing nature of a mother therefore a symbol of femininity suggesting purity and gentleness. Through Lady Macbeth’s attitudes towards Macbeth, Shakespeare is criticising the relation of masculinity to cruelty. This concept was very prevalent in Jacobean society and Shakespeare was claiming that there were deeper sides to men that wen unappreciated.
• saying Macbeth is ‘too full’ suggests that Lady Macbeth has more masculine qualities than Macbeth
• Lady Macbeth mocks Macbeth’s masculinity as a tool of manipulation to prompt him to commit regicide in order to be crowned king.
• Lady Macbeth is overjoyed that her husband will become king, but worried that Macbeth will prove to be too weak to murder Duncan himself. She urges him to hurry home so she can persuade him to do so, since fate seems to want him to become king.

Question 7

“Come, you _____ That tend on mortal thoughts, _____ me here, And fill me from the _____ to the ____ top-full Of _____ cruelty.” Act 1, Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth

Answer 7

“Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty.”

• Throughout Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy, the association of power with masculinity is a prevalent concept. Lady Macbeth’s desire for the spirits to ‘unsex’ her ,proposes her belief that ambition can only be fulfilled by a masculine role.
• She wants to defy what was believed to be the natural behaviour of a woman and calls upon the supernatural to provide her with the ‘direst cruelty’ that she needs to carry out these acts. Whilst Lady Macbeth appears willing to act upon her ambition, her call upon the supernatural suggests that she is not cruel by nature. This foreshadows her inability to cope with her guilt later on in the play.

Question 8

“Out ______ ______! Out I say!” Act 5, Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth

Answer 8

“Out damned spot! Out I say!”

• Her spot is emblematic of the scar the murder has created on her mind. Shows this guilt cannot shift from her mind. Madness was often perceived as a sign of being possessed by demons, it was believed that demons / witches had a ‘spot’ that identified them as evil.
• Lady Macbeth speaks these words at the end of the play, wandering around the castle in a delirium trying to wash out an invisible bloodstain, a symbol of her guilt of her violent past. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth appears more ruthless than her husband, but by the end of the play, she finally succumbs to the looming guilt for her crimes, and she is unable to cope with the reality of what she’s done.
• Through Lady Macbeth’s guilt and madness, Shakespeare is presenting the tragic consequences of misplaced ambition. Sleep acts as a symbol of innocence, suggesting that Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking is a result of her guilt. This is furthermore exemplified through the ‘blood’ on her hands. It was a Jacobean belief that kings were appointed by God. Her inability to cleanse herself of the deed provides religious connotations implying that regicide is an unforgivable sin. This contrasts Lady Macbeth’s earlier claim that ‘a little water clears us of this deed’. There is no escaping the consequences of her actions.
• Lady Macbeth’s fate acts as a warning to Shakespeare’s 1606 audience against overthrowing King James out of ambitious desires.