Macbeth quotes Flashcards
“Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires”
Macbeth acknowledges that his ambition to be king is “black”, signifying evil.
“I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
vaulting ambition”
Macbeth’s ambition is often described using images of jumping or leaping (“vaulting” means jumping). It suggests that he is jumping his natural place in the Divine Order.
Who says “It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing”
At the end of the play, Macbeth realises that his ambition has ultimately led him nowhere.
“But screw your courage to the sticking place
And we’ll not fail”
Lady Macbeth is very confident here - she believes that all they need is courage and everything will work out for them.
“this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here”
Macbeth’s description of becoming king as the “be-all and the end-all” shows that he feels having power on earth is more important than going to heaven.
“Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”
Lady Macbeth suggests that carrying out ambition is something more suited to men than women
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage”
Shakespeare often uses ironic references to “players” (actors) in his plays, to suggest that our lives can be insignificant. - Macbeth
In Act Five, Macbeth says life is “but a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage”. What does he seem to have realised about ambition here?
People are nothing more than actors playing a part with no control over their fate. His ambition would have always lead him astray as it was fate.Macbeth speaks in this way after hearing Lady Macbeth is dead. He is resigned to his fate and is alone.
What character says this quotation?
“Here’s the smell of the blood still. All
the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. O, O, O!”
Lady Macbeth echoes Macbeth’s feelings from Act Two, that their hands will never be “clean” of Duncan’s blood.
