Macbeth quote analysis Flashcards
That will be ere the set of sun (witches a1s1)
witches are meeting Macbeth while it is still light and while he can still choose good over evil
There to meet with Macbeth
(witches a1s1)
ambiguous + paints Macbeth in a bad light because why is he meeting with the witches when it was sinful?
Fair is foul and foul is fair
(witches a1s1)
- appearance vs reality
- fricative alliteration emphasizes quote
- chiasmus, palindrome suggests that anything bad can become good and vise versa
- rhyming couplets sound like they are chanting a spell
Brave Macbeth
(Captain, about Macbeth a1s2)
- describes the ease with which Macbeth enacts state-sponsored killing
- Macbeth is killing traitors and protecting the king so fulfils the witches statement of ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ as Macbeth is previously good but then succumbs to evil
Unseamed him from the nave to th’chaps
(Captain, about Macbeth a1s2)
- Macbeth kills Macdonald brutally which shows he is cocky
- like ripping a seam on a piece of clothing
Yes, as sparrows, eagles, or the hare, the lion
(Captain, about Macbeth and Banquo a1s2)
- Macbeth and Duncan are not ‘dismayed’ by the Norwegians because they are the apex predators
- High in the great chain of being
Memorise another Golgotha
(Captain, about Macbeth and Banquo a1s2)
- ambiguous biblical allusion
- paints Banquo and Macbeth badly because they might not be on the good side as they are trying to recreate Golgotha where Romans tried to check if Jesus was dead by stabbing him
Bellona’s bridegroom
(Ross, about Macbeth a1s2)
- Macbeth has become married to the cause of war
With his former title greet Macbeth
(Duncan, about Macbeth a1s2)
- Duncan wants to kill the Thane of Cawdor for betraying him and give the title to Macbeth
- Duncan is too trusting + too quick to make decisions
What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won
(Duncan a1s2)
- Simple rhyme parallels Duncan’s simplicity
So foul and fair a day I have not seen (Macbeth a1s3)
- Macbeth echoes the witches’ words
- he is under the witches’ influence subconsciously without even seeing them
Live you, or are you aught
(Banquo, about witches a1s3)
- Macbeth and Banquo both express their curiosity towards the witches but they go separate ways
Choppy finger laying upon her skinny lips
(Banquo, about witches a1s3)
- witches are inhuman and separate creatures from the rest of society
All hail Macbeth
(First witch, about Macbeth a1s3)
- betrayal connotations in the Bible
- like Judas, the witches will betray Macbeth
He seems rapt withal
(Banquo, about Macbeth a1s3)
- Macbeth is spellbound and initially taken in by the witches while Banquo isn’t which sets up the foreground for Banquo who was created as a foil to Macbeth
Stay, you imperfect speakers
(Macbeth, to the witches a1s3)
- Macbeth is so enthralled by the witches he uses an imperative to try and get them to stay in vain
Have we eaten on the insane root?
(Banquo, to Macbeth a1s3)
- are we having hallucinations?
- query suggests that Banquo is a representation of the virtuous qualities of man as he recognizes the witches’ attempt to hurt Macbeth with their prophecies
Can the devil speak true?
(Banquo, to Macbeth a1s3)
- Banquo is comparing witches to devils
- similar to the beliefs about witchcraft in King James 1’s Daemonologie
Might yet enkindle you to the crown
(Banquo, to Macbeth a1s3)
- After Macbeth’s attempt to reward Banquo if he is loyal to him, Banquo replies by telling him to wait and see what happens
- moral way of thinking
The instruments of darkness
(Banquo, about witches a1s3)
- telling Macbeth the witches will betray him but his ambition is so great he ignores his best friend’s warnings
Cannot be ill, cannot be good
(Macbeth, about witches a1s3)
- conflicted thoughts about witches
- paradoxical language
Make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature
(Macbeth a1s3)
- graphic descriptions of physical effects of fear
- thought of murder terrifies him
- against nature + great chain of being because he knows his murderous thoughts are wrong
There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face
(Duncan a1s4)
- There’s no way to look at someone to tell what they’re thinking
- naive king
- ‘construction’ implies a conscious formation of a front that which foreshadows Lady Macbeth urging Macbeth to ‘look like the innocent flower’
I have begun to plant thee
(Duncan, about Macbeth a1s4)
- biblical allusion of God being a farmer in the Bible
- Duncan is close to God
- enhances belief of Divine Right Of Kings
There if i grow, the harvest is your own
(Banquo, to Duncan a1s4)
- that which comes from my success belongs to you
- Banquo is loyal
Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires
(Macbeth a1s4)
- evil v good
- dark v light
- Macbeth wants it to be dark so no one can hear his sinful thoughts
- stars = metaphor for fate and goodness
- deep connotes hell
- heavy plosive alliteration emphasize immoral thoughts
My dearest partner of greatness
(Lady Macbeth, to Macbeth a1s5)
- unusual for women to be seen as equals
- contradicts expectations of women in Shakespeare’s time
- contrasts Lady Macbeth as she is more concerned with titles rather than endearing language
Too fill o’th’milk of human kindness
(Lady Macbeth, to Macbeth a1s5)
- feminine metaphor usually connotes kindness but she subverts this to signify her husband’s cowardice and uses it to taunt him
Chastise with the valour of my tongue
(Lady Macbeth, to Macbeth a1s5)
- Weaponises her tongue as her strength lies in her words
- infantilising imagery
- she will corrupt his goodness
- tongue acts as a synecdoche for her powers of persuasion
Golden round
(Lady Macbeth a1s5)
- Macbeths are materialistic while Duncan sees the monarchy as permanent
- ornamental trappings of power - the Macbeths are only interested in the crown for its appearance
Make thick my blood
(Lady Macbeth, to the murd’ring ministers a1s5)
- wants her blood to be thin to ‘stop up the passage to remorse’ and to feel no guilt
Take my milk for gall
(Lady Macbeth a1s5)
- opposite of a nurturing female as she wants to have her feminine qualities overturned by masculinity and bitterness so she feels no remorse
Pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell
(Lady Macbeth a1s5)
- echoes Macbeth’s stars… quote
- shows that Lady Macbeth is the spur to prick the sides of Macbeth’s vaulting ambition
Honoured hostess
(Duncan, to Lady Macbeth a1s6)
- Lady Macbeth acts as a noble hostess while simultaneously plotting his demise
Look like th’innocent flower but be the serpent under’t
(Lady Macbeth a1s5)
- biblical allusion referring to the serpent that lured Adam and Eve to sin and shows Lady Macbeth as having the original sin that Macbeth picks up later in the play
If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly
(Macbeth a1s7)
- reference to when, in the Bible, Jesus said to Judas ‘if you’re going to kill me, do it now’
Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself
(Macbeth a1s7)
- his ambition is so great it overpowers itself and is out of control which parallels how out of control he is in the hands of Lady Macbeth
We will proceed no further in this business
(Macbeth, to Lady Macbeth a1s7)
- Macbeth knows the difference between immoral and moral behaviour
- However, Lady Macbeth takes advantage of his love for her and manipulates him into changing his mindset
Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act of valour, as thou art in desire?
(Lady Macbeth to Macbeth a1s7)
- emotional blackmail
- plays on Macbeth’s pride as he originally was ‘Valour’s minion’
Like the poor cat i’th’adage?
(Lady Macbeth to Macbeth a1s7)
- goading, emasculating and dehumanising her husband by comparing him to a cat who wants to fish without getting its paws wet
When you durst do it, then you were a man
(Lady Macbeth, to Macbeth a1s7)
- emasculates and goads Macbeth with a contemptuous tone
- disrupts iambic pentameter rhythm
- shows desperation to kill Duncan
- scornful tone
Who dares do more is none
(Macbeth, to Lady Macbeth a1s7)
- Being a man is doing your duty, not committing regicide
- not evil from the beginning which suggests he is in charge of his fate he just gets easily manipulated
Bring forth men-children only
(Macbeth, to Lady Macbeth a1s7)
- wants Lady Macbeth to only have male children as a result of her being so mentally strong - a trait that was deemed masculine and only applied to men
False face must hide what the false heart doth know
(Macbeth, to Lady Macbeth a1s7)
- has to be duplicitous to sustain his reputation
- Macbeth internalised his wife’s words and has become enthralled by them
- similar to when Eve led Adam astray and persuaded him to eat the forbidden apple
I think not of them
(Macbeth, about the witches a2s1)
- beginning down the evil path as he is starting to be deceitful and lie for the first time
Allegiance clear
(Banquo, to Macbeth a2s1)
- as long as he remains loyal to the king he will be able to talk about honour with Macbeth
- Banquo is emphasized as a foil to Macbeth because he resists Macbeth’s political maneuvering, contrasting to how Macbeth couldn’t resist Lady Macbeth’s emotional blackmail
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
(Macbeth a2s1)
- figment of his imagination that fuels his ambition so much that he has started hallucinating
- ‘mind’ suggests that Macbeth is preoccupied with the psychological effects of his imminent decision
Thou marshall’st me the way I was going
(Macbeth, to the dagger a2s1)
- dagger leading him in the direction he was already going which suggests Macbeth is in charge of his own fate as it wasn’t the dagger who led him to Duncan’s room, it was his own will
Thou sure and firm-set earth, hear not my steps
(Macbeth a2s1)
- similar to stars.. quote and presents Macbeth as a character who wants his secrets to remain hidden
I could not say Amen when [the servants] said God bless us!
(Macbeth a2s2)
- he is distancing from God and will go to hell as he has become an outcast in God’s eyes
Had he not resembled my father as he slept
(Lady Macbeth, about Duncan a2s2)
- she still has some humanity left so she is not entirely immorally wicked
Filthy witness
(Lady Macbeth a2s2)
- she sees blood on hands as temporary evidence, contrasting to Macbeth who sees it as a mark of his eternal damnation
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?
(Macbeth a2s2)
- hyperbolic metaphor, biblical allusion, classical reference, rhetorical question
- exaggerated anguish and uncertainty regarding his fate
- comparison to Pontius Pilate washing his hands after killing Jesus
Here’s an equivocator
(Porter a2s3)
- reference to Father Garnet’s book about how Catholics could lie to get out of trouble
Some of all professions can go the primrose way to th’everlasting bonfire
(Porter a2s3)
- all people from different professions can go to hell
- audience might question their vices and think there is a possibility for their entrance to hell
The repetition in a woman’s ear, would murder as it fell
(Macduff, to Lady Macbeth a2s3)
- expectations for woman in Jacobean England are highlighted when Macduff says women are too weak to cope with the news of a murder (dramatic irony because she was involved in Duncan’s murder)
- at the time, he was considered chivalrous and considerate about women
In the great hand of God I stand
(Banquo a2s3)
- will fight against the murderer
- Banquo sees himself as being supported by God - an appropriate positioning for this benevolent character
- Macduff echoes this with his line ‘and so do I’ to show they are both moral (verbal parallels)
To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus
(Macbeth a3s1)
- Macbeth thinks being king is empty without securing the crown forever
A fruitless crown, a barren sceptre
(Macbeth a3s1)
- fruitless + barren provide a semantic field of infertility
- no line to the throne which makes his title and reputation more important to uphold as it will not carry on throughout Macbeth’s family
For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind
(Macbeth a3s1)
- his mind is polluted showing he still feels guilty and this guilt is haunting him
The seeds of Banquo’s kings
(Macbeth a3s1)
- fixated on the idea that Banquo has children and therefore heirs to throne while Macbeth doesn’t
- sees Banquo as a rival
Come fate into the list, and champion me into th’utterance
- jousting metaphor to emphasize his desire to challenge and control his own fate
- says he is able to control his own fate but has too many influences that mould his decision
Say to the king I would attend his leisure
(Lady Macbeth a3s2)
- distance growing between the Macbeths as she has to ask a servant to speak with her husband
Nought’s had, all’s spent where our desire is got without content
(Lady Macbeth a3s2)
- better to be dead than live with the guilt (echoes Macbeth)
- she says it alone - dishonest
- Macbeth expresses his emotions in front of her - honest
What’s done is done
(Lady Macbeth a3s2)
- permanence
- simple declarative statement suggests her cold pragmatism
- contrasts to when she later says ‘what’s done cannot be undone’ reflecting a much more remorseful tone
Better be with the dead
(Macbeth a3s2)
- might as well be dead to replace these tormented thoughts
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo
(Macbeth, to Lady Macbeth a3s2)
- so deep within the lies he has to lie to the person he loves the most by saying Banquo will not be at the banquet when in fact Macbeth ordered his murder
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife
(Macbeth, to Lady Macbeth a3s2)
- mind is so full of poison
- scorpions have venom in their tail behind them so his thoughts are ambushing him from behind
- remaining closeness between the Macbeths with ‘dear’
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck
(Macbeth, to Lady Macbeth a3s2)
- he is now in control of his actions
- and infantilising her with his condescending tone and diminutive pet name
- contrasts to earlier in the scene when she used a cajoling tone by saying ‘come on, gentle my lord’
cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
(Macbeth a3s4
- heavy plosive alliteration because he feels mentally distressed with his thoughts
This is the air-drawn dagger
(Lady Macbeth a3s4)
- tone of derision, contempt and belittling Macbeth for his supernatural occurrences
You look but on a stool
(Lady Macbeth a3s4)
- commonplace noun emphasizes the difference in perception between the Macbeths which symbolises their deteriorating relationship
Push us from our stools
(Macbeth, to Banquo’s ghost a3s4)
- he is afraid of Banquo usurping the throne and created Banquo’s ghost as his guilt is becoming personal and seeping into his unconscious mind
Stand not in the order of your going, but go at once
(Lady Macbeth a3s4)
- instead of standing up in order of nobility, just leave
- destruction of the great chain of being
It will have blood they say: blood will have blood
(Macbeth a3s4)
- biblical allusion suggesting consequences of sin
I am in blood stepped in so far that I should wade no more
(Macbeth a3s4)
- so far in the metaphorical pool of blood, he has to continue killing in order to reach the other side
Our suffering country under a hand accursed
(Lennox a3s6)
- Macbeth’s actions made the whole country suffer
- Macbeth is a tragic hero
Something wicked this way comes
(witches, about Macbeth a4s1)
- indefinite pronoun is dehumanising to show he lost his humanity
- shows how far he has fallen from grace and has become marginalised since the most immoral characters are referring to him with the adjective ‘wicked’
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues
(Malcolm a4s3)
- contrasts to brave Macbeth
- imagery of disease represents his downfall
Each new day a gash is added to her wounds
(Malcolm a4s3)
- personifies the country and sets a foreground and correct conditions for Macbeth to be a tragic hero and affect the whole country
My first false speaking was this upon myself
(Malcolm a4s3)
- never lied before which are qualities of a good king
And I must be from thence?
(Macduff a4s3)
- contrasts Lady Macbeth’s principles of emotions being considered feminine
But I must also feel it like a man
(Macduff a4s3)
- Shakespeare saying that emotions aren’t only feminine and people have to feel remorse otherwise they can end up like Macbeth
- confident, accusatory use of modals enables him to act as a firm riposte to Malcolm’s words
Slumbery agitation
(Gentlewoman, about Lady Macbeth a5s1)
- she is disturbed by her actions because she has disturbed her own sleep + peace due to guilt
She has light by her continually
(Gentlewoman, about Lady Macbeth a5s1)
- character arc displays her as trying to repent as she previously wanted the metaphorical blanket of darkness to cover her sins but now she wants light
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
(Lady Macbeth a5s1)
- spot on hands signifies the devil’s mark
- seeing blood as guilt
- her and Macbeth have switched conscious minds
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand
(Lady Macbeth a5s1)
- hyperbolic olfactory imagery makes her intense paranoia real and she is developing her senses to the smell of blood, not just the hallucination
- diminutive adjective ‘little’ suggest she sees herself as fragile and feminine again
Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles
(Doctor a5s1)
- Macbeth’s actions diseased Lady Macbeth as well
- tragic hero as he affected everyone, even the person he loved the most
What’s done cannot be undone
(Lady Macbeth a5s1)
- permanence + feeling despair + remorse
- contrasts to when she previously comforted Macbeth by reminding him that Duncan’s death cannot be reversed
Divine than the physician
(Doctor a5s1)
- representation of her insurmountable paranoia due to her requirement of holy interference rather than the common psychosis treatment
The heart I bear shall never sag with doubt
(Macbeth a5s3)
- half-rhyming couplet shows his certainty + accentuates his confidence
- overconfidence was humans’ flaw according to Hecate
I have lived long enough. My way of life is fallen into the yellow leaf
(Macbeth a5s3)
- caesura allows the contrast between ‘no one can kill me’ to ‘I have lived long enough’ to sink in
- resignation of life
- autumn is the death of life and the deadly season
- pathos
Let every soldier hew him down a bough
(Malcolm a5s4)
- using the branches as camouflage makes Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane possible
- denouement of the witches’ prediction
I have almost forgotten the taste of fears
(Macbeth a5s5)
- Macbeth is desensitized to evil and horror due to his actions
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
(Macbeth a5s5)
- slows the pace of the rational stream of conversation down to show he is weary
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing
(Macbeth a5s5)
- extended metaphor of life reflects his complete nihilism
- he has an epiphany on the meaning of life caused by his wife’s death
Make all our trumpets speak
(Macduff a5s6)
- Macbeth is a tragic hero as his death requires all the trumpets of the country to be sounded to announce his death to the country he plagued
- circular structure signifying killing a rebel like at the beginning when Macbeth killed Macdonald
They have tied me to a stake, I cannot fly
(Macbeth a5s7)
- anagnorisis - moment he realised he is doomed
