Quotes Flashcards
‘By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.’
This line is spoken by one of the Weird Sisters as Macbeth approaches them with Banquo, and suggests that the Witches have a kind of ‘sixth sense’ (the strange tingling they experience in their thumbs) about Macbeth being a bad egg.
‘I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition …’
Macbeth’s own description of his ‘vaulting ambition’ has become familiar to many a student of Shakespeare’s play: it neatly encapsulates the strong sense of ambition he feels, an ambition over which he does not have full control.
‘Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness’.
Spoken by Lady Macbeth to her husband, these lines reveal Lady Macbeth to be the more brutal and unfeeling of the pair, with no misgivings about murdering the king in order to achieve their aims.
‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand?’
Spoken by Macbeth shortly after he has murdered Duncan in his bed, and his hands are still covered in the late king’s blood, this question is followed by an admission that nothing can wash the stain of this crime from his hand:
‘Out, damned spot! out, I say!’
Like Macbeth’s earlier complaint that all of Neptune’s oceans could not wash his bloody hand clean, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking mutterings betray her guilt: the blood on her hands may be metaphorical (or hallucinatory), but the guilt she feels is the same. Her conscience has been well and truly pricked, and she will die (offstage) shortly after this.
So foul and fair a day I have not seen
Macbeth (dramatic irony: he unwittingly makes a remark similar to the witches statement; audience would recognize this)
Stars hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires
MACBETH, in the beginning, is ashamed of his evil thoughts and intentions. He recognizes that it’s wrong and should hide his intentions from the Heavens
Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
Lady Macbeth conjures up the witches to assist her in being less of a woman (nurturing, motherly), and “manly” enough to commit the murder herself
Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t
Lady Macbeth’s words reflect the theme of deception–trying to disguise evil by looking innocent. Also has religious imagery (the serpent = evil)
Is this a dagger which I see before me? I have thee not yet I see thee still.
Macbeth: he interprets that seeing a dagger as his destiny (fate).
“Methinks I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no More!”
MACBETH realizes that the evil of murdering someone while he was innocently sleeping; plus he knows that he his own guilty conscience will forever rob him of sleep.
Beware Macduff!
None of woman born shall harm Macbeth
Macbeth shall never be vanquished until Great Birnham wood to high Dunsinane Hill comes against him
First apparition - possible threat of Macduff
Second apparition (Bloody child) - This one comforts Macbeth, as every man is born of a woman
Third apparition (crowned child) - suggests that Macbeth is safe until the forest outside his castle moves (advances) on him
Beware Macduff!
None of woman born shall harm Macbeth
Macbeth shall never be vanquished until Great Birnham wood to high Dunsinane Hill comes against him
First apparition - possible threat of Macduff
Second apparition (Bloody child) - This one comforts Macbeth, as every man is born of a woman
Third apparition (crowned child) - suggests that Macbeth is safe until the forest outside his castle moves (advances)on him
“Secret, black, and midnight hags!”
Macbeth –this shows the change in him; he’s now arrogant and demanding when he addresses them; compared to first time with shock and surprise
Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not those in commission yet returned? There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.
Duncan says this, in reference to Cawdor being a traitor. The King punishes evil-doing and rewards loyalty, and clearly KNOWS the difference between them, though finds it difficult to detect those who are deceptive (traitors). Irony – MACBETH becomes a traitor under the same title.
