Macbeth Quotes Flashcards
Act 1 scene 3
“So foul and fair a day u have not seen”
- similar words to what the witches said at the beginning
* Macbeth related to evil
Act 1 scene 3
1st “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis”
2nd “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor”
3rd “All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter”
- summing up the story without making the audience realise
* earlier Duncan already said Macbeth would be Thane of Cawdor so audience trusts the witches
Act 1 scene 3
Banquo “good sir, why do you start and seem to fear”
- implying Macbeth is afraid of the witches
* he only speaks to the witches firmly with power and force
Act 1 scene 3
Ll 102 - 107
- dramatic irony
* Macbeth is modest ‘why do you dress me in borrowed robes?’
Act 1 scene 4
“Let not light see my black and deep desires”
- thinking about treason and murder
- obsession with murder
- pretend and deceive like the serpent lady M says to be
Act 1 scene 7
“If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”
- contemplating murder
- arguing with himself
- finding more negatives than positives to the plan
Act 1 scene 7
“We will proceed no further in this business”
- made his decision
- he is Duncan’s kinsman
- Duncan is a good man
- he is Duncan’s host
Act 1 scene 7
“False face must hide what the false heart doth know”
- same principal as the serpent and flower
* Lady M manipulated Macbeth and got into his head
Act 2 scene 1
Banquo “I dreamed last night of the three weïrd sisters”
Macbeth “I think not of them”
- Banquo might of had evil thoughts
- dramatic irony
- all Macbeth thinks about - evil
- decietful - applying the serpent and flower idea
Act 2 scene 1
“Is this a dagger I see before me”
- state of mind based of evil
- dark hallucinations
- macbeths thinking about his fate
- trickery and witchery
Act 2 scene 2
Ll 16 - 24
- lady m and Macbeth on edge with each other
- conversation is short and snappy
- Macbeth unnerved ‘there’s one did laugh in’s sleep and one cried murder’
- lady m is agitated with M ‘go get some water and wash this filthy witness…’
Act 2 scene 3
“This is the door”
- afraid of the door
- still a weak man
- frightened of the body
Act 2 scene 3
“That I did kill them”
- so involved with serpent and flower act that doesn’t realise what he says leads to suspicion
- lady M faints to distract the suspicions
Act 3 scene 1
Ll 19 - 41
- wants to find out where banquo will be
* still being decietful
Act 3 scene 1
Macbeths soliloquy Ll 49 - 73
“our fears in Banquo stick deep…”
- Macbeth is threatened
- feels challenged
- wants his children to be kings
Act 3 scene 4
“But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined”
- Hard sounds that lock us in
- macbeth is oppressed in the brain
- claustrophobic to the murder - in to deep
Act 3 scene 4
“It will have blood they say: blood will have blood”
“I am in blood”
- obsessed with blood
- overwhelmed
- in too deep
- lying in a river of blood
Act 4 scene 1
“How now you secret black and midnight hags”
- storms in and isn’t afraid
- but first encounter he feared them
- doesn’t show any fear “answer me” he is very demanding
- he shows his authority as he is king
Act 4 scene 1
“Had I three ears I’d hear the”
- mocks the second apparition
- bully
- second apparition calls Macbeth three times
- tries to joke with the witches
Act 4 scene 1
“Whate’er thou art for thy good caution thanks”
- grateful to first apparition
- no fear
- gratitude
Act 4 scene 1
“Then live Macduff what need I fear of thee?”
- not showing his worries on the outside
- hard strong man
- clear of what he has to do
- at beginning was indecisive about the task
Act 4 scene 1
“But yet I’ll make assurance double sure…”
• tries to hide the possibility of Macduff killing him
Act 4 scene 1
“What is this”
- third apparition as child with crown holding branches
- worried about what this shows
- mistakenly shows his fear
Act 4 scene 1
“Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down!”
- nightmares return
- his fears will never vanquish
- no matter how hard he tries to hide them
Act 4 scene 1
“The very firstlings of my heart shall be // the firstlings of my hand”
- when he was thinking about killing Duncan thought about benefits and costs
- now doesn’t think about it
- obsessed with murder
- not bothered about the consequences
- Macbeth is very cynical
“Canst thou not minister to a mind diseases, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow”
- this in some ways refers to both Lady M and M
* M is mentally ill
