Macbeth quotes

Question 1

What quotes initially describe Macbeth?

Answer 1

‘For brave Macbeth/ well he deserves that name’ (Act 1)
‘Worthiest cousin’ (act 1)
‘It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness’ (Act 1)
‘Stars hide your fires, let lot light see my black and deep desires’ Act 1
‘so foul and fair a day i have not seen’ Act 1

Question 2

What quotes describe Macbeth after he murders Duncan?

Answer 2

‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean was this blood/ clean from my hand?’ Act 2
‘tyrant’ Act 3

Question 3

What quotes describe Macbeth at the end of the play?

Answer 3

‘I have almost forgot the taste of fears’ Act 5
‘abhorred tyrant’ Act 5
‘hell-hound’ Act 5
‘dead butcher’ Act 5

Question 4

What quotes initially describe Lady Macbeth?

Answer 4

‘unsex me here’ Act 1
‘My dearest love’ Act 1
‘fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full / Of the direst cruelty’ Act 1
‘Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t’ Act 1
‘That I may pour my spirits in thine ear’ Act 1

Question 5

What quotes later describe Lady Macbeth?

Answer 5

‘out damned spot!’ Act 5
‘Unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles’ Act 5
‘his fiend-like queen’ Act 5

Question 6

What quotes describe Banquo?

Answer 6

‘thou shalt get kings, though thou be none’ Act 1
‘I fear / thou play’dst most foully for’t’ Act 3
‘O treachery!’ Act 3/2?

Question 7

What quotes describe Macduff?

Answer 7

‘O horror! horror! horror!’ Act 2
‘All my pretty ones? / Did you say all? - O hell-kite! - All?’ Act 4
‘My voice is in my sword’ Act 5

Question 8

What quotes describe Duncan?

Answer 8

‘He was a gentleman with whom i built / Absolute trust’ Act 1
‘Thy royal father / Was a most sainted king’ Act 4

Question 9

What quotes describe Malcolm?

Answer 9

‘Macbeth / Is ripe for the shaking, and the Powers above / Put on their instruments’ Act 4
‘my poor country’s to command’ Act 3?

Question 10

What quotes describe the witches?

Answer 10

‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ Act 1
‘To doubt th’equivocation of the fiend, / that lies like the truth’ Act 5

Question 11

what are some quotes which describe power?

Answer 11

‘God save the King’ Act 1
‘the swelling act / Of the imperial theme’ Act 1
‘you know your degrees, sit down […] Ourself will mingle with society’ Act 3
‘fled the snares of watchful tyranny’ Act 4/5

Question 12

What are some key facts about 11th Century Scotland?

Answer 12

• A clear hierarchy where the king was on top
• A christian country where there were beliefs such as the great chain of being
• Women were inferior and had no power of her own

Question 13

What are some key facts about James I and renaissance England?

Answer 13

• James was a new and controversial king
• Macbeth contains things that the new king would enjoy
• It focuses on the consequences of going against the King (the gunpowder plot was a year before the first performance)
• women were still inferior
• Shakespeare referenced the Divine Right of Kings to please James

Question 14

How does Macbeth conform to a traditional literary tragedy?

Answer 14

• There are tragic events such as the killing of the king
• It centres around the downfall of Macbeth
• It ends on a positive note with the reminder of the bad things which have happened.