Macbeth- Key Quotes Flashcards
“Fair is…”
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”
-The Witches (Act 1, Scene 1)
Shakespeare uses the phrase to show that what is considered good is in fact bad and what is considered bad is actually good.
“For brave Macbeth-well he…”
“For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution.”
-Ross (Act 1, Scene 2)
In summary, this quote states Macbeth as a true war hero who shows no mercy toward his foes.
“If chance will have me…”
“If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me. Without my stir,”
-Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 3)
The word ‘chance’ refers to fate or destiny. The phrase ‘without my stir’ refers to the fact that Macbeth hopes he won’t have to do anything to make himself king.
“Stars, hide your fires; let light not…”
“Stars, hide your fires; let light not see my black and deep desires.”
-Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 4)
Macbeth is clearly worried by the strength of his own ambition which he refers to as black and deep desires. He knows there will be obstacles in his way but is determined to get round them. He just hopes that nobody will see what he is up to which is why he wants the stars to stop shining.
“I have no spur to prick..”
“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other.”
-Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 7)
In this line, Macbeth is describing his lack of motivation, and the fact that the only thing driving him at present is ambition.
“Is this a dagger…”
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”
-Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 1)
Macbeth speaks this famous soliloquy when he is taken over by his guilt and growing insanity for killing Duncan. His imagination brings forth the picture of a dagger in front of him, which symbolizes the impending murder. Macbeth has made his decision to kill the King and take the crown as his own.
“Methought I heard a voice cry, …”
“Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’-the innocent sleep”.
-Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 2)
Macbeth is hinting that by murdering Duncan he has also murdered sleep, and can no longer sleep.
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean…”
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?”
-Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 2)
Blood, specifically Duncan’s blood, serves as the symbol of that guilt, and Macbeth’s sense that “all great Neptune’s ocean” cannot cleanse him—that there is enough blood on his hands to turn the entire sea red—will stay with him until his death.
“From this moment, the very firstling…”
“From this moment, the very firstling of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand.”
-Macbeth (Act 4, Scene 1)
He promises himself that “from this moment / The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand” (4.1.146-148). Immediately, he keeps that promise to himself, and announces that he shall seize the castle of Macduff.
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and…”
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
-Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5)
So when Macbeth cries ‘out, out, brief candle’ he is summing up everything he has ever done, assessing his life, judging it as futile, and just wanting it to end. Shakespeare has Macbeth describe life as a “walking shadow” in order to emphasize how meaningless it has become to him. It is a “poor player,” or actor, who lives through all the emotions one can experience on stage within an hour and then walks off (or dies).
“Hie thee hither, that I may pour my…”
“Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round.”
-Lady Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 5)
This means that Lady Macbeth hopes that she can persuade Macbeth into seeing her plan by talking to him and seducing him. She is now starting to see a queenly future and will stop at nothing to get it.
“Yet do I fear thy…”
“Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness.”
-Lady Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 5)
Lady Macbeth says her husband is ‘too full o’the milk of human-kindness’ (line 15). Shakespeare uses this metaphor to suggest that despite his reputation as a brave warrior, Macbeth also has a strong sense of compassion. Milk is mild, natural and, importantly, white.
“Come, you spirits that tend on…
“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…”
-Lady Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 5)
In her famous soliloquy, Lady Macbeth calls upon the supernatural to make her crueler in order to fulfill the plans she conjured to murder Duncan. “… Unsex me here…” (1.5. 48) refers to her plea to rid of her soft, feminine façade and obtain a more ruthless nature.
“Had he not resembled my…”
“Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t…”
-Lady Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 2)
his resolves the issue of why it is Macbeth that commits the murder and not his wife, who had previously intended to do the deed. Her calculated and murderous cool partially evaporates in these lines, and the audience will recognise that her previous speeches – in particular, her invocation to the spirits of darkness to ‘unsex’ her – were all attempts to force her nature into a brutal, unfeeling coarseness which is contradicted by her words here, as well as by her breakdown at the end of the play. It is dramatically effective that the very one who has strengthened Macbeth in his terrible deed is seen to be suddenly weakened. The suggestion that Duncan looks like Lady Macbeth’s father is intriguing: there was probably no great imaginative distance between patricide and regicide for a Jacobean audience.
“My hands are of your…”
“My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”
-Lady Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 2)
Lady Macbeth is essentially calling Macbeth a coward since she feels equally as responsible for Duncan’s murder, and would be ashamed to feel the guilt and anxiety that Macbeth feels.
