Quotes Flashcards
” Fair is foul, foul is fair”
Said by the witches: symbolises their philosophy of life
’ What can the devil speak true”
Said by Banquo: was his reaction to the prophecy of Macbeth becoming thane of Cawdor coming true
“Let not light see my black and deep desires “
Said by Macbeth: wrestling the thoughts of killing Duncan after being honoured by him
“Yet do I fear thy nature/ it is not too full Ó the milk of human kindness/to catch the nearest way”
Said by lady Macbeth: upon reading the letter from her husband she relates this to his kindness and empathy
Come, you spirits/ that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here/ and fill me from crown to toe top-full Of direst cruelty!
Lady Macbeth: after receiving news king Duncan is coming to stay at Inverness, she talks herself up ready to kill him/ shows lady macbeths ambition and how its corrupts her husband
But screw your courage to the sticking place/ And we’ll not fail
Lady Macbeth: challenges Macbeth to commit to the plan to murder Duncan / shows how she held power over him and could bend his will to uphold his maculinity
Is this a dagger I see before me/ the handle toward my hand?
Macbeth: he hallucinates a dagger just before he omits regicide on king Duncan/ shows how his ambition has corrupted his sense of good and evil
Will all great neptunes oceans wash this blood/ clean from my hand?
Macbeth: after killing Duncan Macbeth feels guilty and desperate to get rid of the evidence but feels as though there is not amount of water that could clear his guilt. Water and blood are symbols throughout the play which shows guilt and the ways of which it can be removed
Thou hast it now / king, Cawdor, glamis, all, as the weird women promised, and I fear thou play’dst most foully for for’t
Banquo: speaking to himself reflecting on macbeths rise to power and the prophecies
It will have blood: they say, blood will have blood
Banquo ghost: Macbeth feels that his crime is punishing him
I am in blood/ stepp’d in so far that, I should wade no more/returning were as tedious as go o’er
Macbeth: after telling his wife that he will visit the witches again/ Macbeth reflects that there is no turning back from the evil he has become/ he realises his ambition and lust for power have overthrown his sense of morality
None of woman born shall harm Macbeth
The witches: a deceptive prophecy which gives Macbeth false hope/ ‘all are born of woman’ so he believes he will rule until he is old
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!.. yet who would have thought the old man or have so much blood in him.
Lady Macbeth: as she sleepwalks, she speaks about memories of the night Duncan was murdered/ she lets slip about the corruption of her and her husband and their fate is sealed
Thou wouldst be great/ art not without ambition but without the illness should attend it
Lady Macbeth (act 1 scene 5): Tells how macbeths ambition is not enough and that he does not possess the ‘illness’ that which is wickedness, it is illness that Macbeth lacks as he prepares to kill duncan
I have no spur/ to prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’er leaps itself, and falls on the other
Macbeth (act 1 scene 7): describes Macbeths lack of motivation and shows how the only thing presently driving himself is his ambition
