Macbeth quotes

Question 1

Theme: ambition/ power

Macbeth talking about his wishes to become king.

Answer 1

‘Black and deep desires’

Question 2

Theme: ambition/ power

By the end of the play Macbeth is not afraid to die and has gained confidence.

Answer 2

‘I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d.’

Question 3

Theme: ambition/ power

Macbeth’s final words showing his false feelings of invincibility and sheer ambition not to give up.

Answer 3

‘Lay on, Macduff, and damn’d be him that first cries, ‘Hold enough!’

Question 4

Theme: ambition/ power

Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to stop being a coward about killing Duncan.

Answer 4

‘But screw your courage to the sticking place, and we’ll not fail.’

Question 5

Theme: ambition/ power

Banquo’s reaction when he hears Macbeth has been named Thane of Cawdor.

Answer 5

‘What, can the devil speak true?’

Question 6

Theme: deception

Macbeth knows he needs to be two-faced.

Answer 6

‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know.’

Question 7

Theme: deception

Alone, Banquo reflects on Macbeth’s rise to the throne.

Answer 7

‘Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, as the the weird women promised, and I fear thou play’dst most foully for’t.’

Question 8

Theme: guilt/ paranoia

Macbeth hallucinates and sees a dagger on his way to kill Duncan.

Answer 8

‘Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?’

Question 9

Theme: guilt/ paranoia

After Macbeth has killed Duncan, he becomes paranoid about what he has done.

Answer 9

‘How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?’

Question 10

Theme: guilt/ paranoia

After killing Duncan, Macbeth fears he will never sleep again from the guilt.

Answer 10

‘Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep!’

Question 11

Theme: guilt/ paranoia

After Banquo’s ghost has gone, Macbeth feels that his crime is pursuing him.

Answer 11

‘It will have blood they say: blood will have blood.’

Question 12

Theme: guilt/ paranoia

Lady Macbeth finds that getting what you want doesn’t bring peace.

Answer 12

‘Nought’s had, all’s spent, where our desire is got without content. ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy, than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.’

Question 13

Theme: guilt/ paranoia

Lady Macbeth hallucinates blood on her hands before her death.

Answer 13

‘Out damned spot! Out, I say!’

Question 14

Theme: religion

He cannot say this after the murder, showing he has a conscience.

Answer 14

‘Amen’

Question 15

Theme: good versus evil

Macbeth becomes more evil as the play progresses and even mimics the witches.

Answer 15

‘So fair and foul a day I have not seen.’

Question 16

Theme: good versus evil

Macbeth reflects on the fact that there is no way back from the evil he has started.

Answer 16

‘I am in blood, stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.’

Question 17

Theme: good versus evil

The witches’ philosophy on life, showing that nothing is ever what it seems.

Answer 17

‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair.’

Question 18

Theme: good versus evil

The witches predict Macbeth’s arrival before he arrives to see them the second time.

Answer 18

‘Something wicked this way comes.’

Question 19

Theme: good versus evil

The second apparition delivers this deceptive prophecy which makes Macbeth feel invincible.

Answer 19

‘None of woman born shall harm Macbeth.’

Question 20

Theme: supernatural

Macbeth summons help for Banquo’s death.

Answer 20

‘And with thy bloody and invisible hand cancel and tear to pieces that great bond which keeps me pale!’

Question 21

Theme: gender at the time

After receiving her husband’s letter about the witches’ prophecy, Lady Macbeth expresses her fear that he isn’t bad enough.

Answer 21

‘Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness, to catch the nearest way.’

Question 22

Theme: gender at the time

Lady Macbeth speaking to Macbeth.

Answer 22

‘Leave all the rest to me.’

Question 23

Theme: gender at the time

Upon hearing that King Duncan is to stay the night in her castle, Lady Macbeth builds herself up to kill him.

Answer 23

‘Come, you spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty.’