Macbeth - Updated Key Quotes

Question 1

What are the key quotes for Macbeth in act 1 scene 1?

Answer 1

• “fair is foul and foul is fair”
• Duncan calls Macbeth “O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” being covered in blood at this point in the play was an honour
• “thane of Cawdor a traitor”

Question 2

In act one scene 3, how is it apparent the witches have already made an influence on Macbeth?

Answer 2

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen”

Question 3

How are the witches seen as unworldly in the play giving it a paranormal feel in act 1 scene 3?

Answer 3

“You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” shows they are not natural on earth and they can’t be explained

Question 4

In act 1 scene 3 how is Macbeth in tune with the foul and fair idea?

Answer 4

As Banquo asks him “why do you start and seen to fear things that do sound so fair?

Question 5

What is Banquo’s prophecy?

Answer 5

“Thou shalt get kings though thou be none”

Question 6

How is Macbeth uncomfortable as the thane of Cawdor in act 1 scene 3?

Answer 6

“Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?”

Question 7

Give 2 quotes in act 1 scene 3 about darkness and foreshadowing?

Answer 7

• “the instruments of darkness tell us truths

- “present fears are less than horrible imaginings”

Question 8

Give a quote from act 1 scene 4

Answer 8

“Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires”

Question 9

How is the fair and foul idea conveyed in act 1 scene 5?

Answer 9

“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”

Question 10

How is lady Macbeth questioning femininity and trying to imply she doesn’t conform to the regular idea of women at the time?”

Answer 10

• “Come you spirits and tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”
• “Stop up the access and passage to remorse…pall thee in the dunnest smoke of Hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes…”
• …”while it was smiling in my face, have plucked the nipple from its boneless gums, and dash’s they brains out” she’s trying to convince Macbeth to be more of a man and kill Duncan

Question 11

Give a quote from act 1 scene 5 that foreshadows Macbeth’s downfall

Answer 11

“Your face, my Thane, is as a book” as it shows Macbeth can easily be read as a person

Question 12

Give a quote from act 1 scene 5 that implied Duncan wont be alive the next day

Answer 12

“O never shall sun that morrow see”

Question 13

In act 1 scene 7 why does Macbeth doubt himself and believe he can’t murder Duncan?

Answer 13

• he is kinsman (they belong to the same family)
• he’s his host “who should against his murtherer shut the door not bear the knife myself”
• Duncan is a good man

Question 14

Act 1 scene 7

“False face…

Answer 14

…must hide what false heart doth know”

Question 15

Give some quotes for act 2 scene 1

Answer 15

• Banquo “in heaven their candles are all out” no light means no goodness is left in the air
• “is this a dagger for which I see before me…?”
• a bell rings “hear if not Duncan, for it is a knell, that summons thee to heaven, or to hell”

Question 16

Give quotes from act 2 scene 2

Answer 16

• “I could not say amen” - Macbeth can no longer get god’s blessing
• lady Macbeth says it will “make us mad” if they think about it
• “Macbeth shall sleep no more”
• LMB: “a little water cleans us of this deed

Question 17

Give some quotes for act 2 scene 3

Answer 17

• “Sacreligious murther” shows blasphemy and links to divine right of kings context
• “the night has been unruly” pathetic fallacy

Question 18

Give quotes for act 3 scene 1

Answer 18

• “banquo confides in audience- “I think thou play’dst most foully for it”
• “upon my head they placed a fruitless crown” Macbeth feels threatened by banquo

Question 19

Give some quotes on act 3 scene 2

Answer 19

• “We have scorched the snake not killed”- ‘snake’ being a metaphor for what threatens MB
• “o full of scorpions is my mind”
• things bad begun, make strong themselves by ill” thinks he can murder to get rid of fear he’s feeling but instead it’s guilt

Question 20

What scene does banquo die in?

Answer 20

Act 3 scene 3

Question 21

What are the quotes in act 3 scene 4?

Answer 21

• MB is “cabined, cribbed, confined”
• MB sees banquo in his seat “this is the very painting if your fear”
• LMB emasculates him and asks “are you a man” and there is a character change as he replies “a bold one…which might appall the devil”
• “i am in blood” mb has accepted his new trait

Question 22

What’s significant about act 3 scene 6?

Answer 22

It’s the first time Macbeth is seen as a “tyrant” so there’s a change in perception

Question 23

In act 4.1 what is apparition 1?

Answer 23

There is an armed head

“Beware Macduff” the witches are telling Macbeth to beware of Macduff

Question 24

In act 4.1 what is apparition 2?

Answer 24

There is a blood stained child

“Be bloody, bold and resolute” “none of women born shall harm Macbeth”

Question 25

In act 4.1, what is the third apparition?

Answer 25

There is a crowned child holding a tree

“Macbeth shall never vanquished be” “until great birnam…shall come against him”

Question 26

Give the quotes in act 4.3 that show how Macbeth has changed

Answer 26

• Macbeth is being perceived differently now “treacherous”, “black Macbeth”, “devilish Macbeth”
• “each day a new gash is added to her wounds” Scotland is being personified to show what mb has done to it

Question 27

Give quotes from act 4.3 that shows how Malcom is planning to overthrow mb

Answer 27

• Macduff convinces Malcom to “take upon him what is his” and “let grief convern to anger”
• there is foreshadowing of change in Scotland “a night is long that never finds a day”

Question 28

What are the key quotes of act 5.1?

Answer 28

• “out damned spot, out I say”
• “she has light by her continuously” symbolic of hope
• “all perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” her femininity has returned
• “will these hands ne’er be clean”
• “banquo’s buried, he cannot come out of his grave “

Question 29

In act 5.2 - act 5.4 where does Macbeth display some redeeming qualities?

Answer 29

• “I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked” shows bravery
• “cast the water of my land find her disease” shows compassion

Question 30

What’s the left motif in act 5.2 - act 5.4

Answer 30

Where every soldier from Malcom army will “hew him down a bough and bear’s before him” because it’ll look the trees of birnam wood are moving (links to apparitions in act 4.1)

Question 31

Give some quotes from act 5.5-5.7

Answer 31

• “I have almost forgot the taste of fears” witches deception made mb feel invincible
• “a walking shadow” MB criticises the nature of life
• when he’s told LMBs dead, he says “she should have died hereafter” juxtaposed with “out, out brief candle” which is metaphorical of LMB’s life

Question 32

Give the quotes in act 5.8

Answer 32

• “my voice is in my sword” Macduff is determined to kill
• “(his) soul is charged too much with blood of (Macduff’s) already” Macbeth urges Macduff to stay away
• “thou losest labour” mb beliefs Macduff is wasting his time showing his belief in the witches
• “Macduff was from his mother”s wound ultimately ripped”
• “I will try the least”/“i will try the last”

Question 33

Give some quotes from act 5.9

Answer 33

• “all time is free from Macbeth’s tyranny”
• mb described as “dead butcher”
• LMB described as “fiend like queen”