quotes & analysis•ambition

Question 1

For brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name - Disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, which smoked with bloody execution, Like valour’s minion carved out his passage Till he faced the slave.

~Act 1, Scene 2

Answer 1

He is presented as a man of action who dares to step up when needed, and a man of kindness and love when away from the battlefield. He has a close relationship with Lady Macbeth shown by his sincere letter.

Question 2

My thought whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother’d in surmise.

~Act 1, Scene 3

Answer 2

When Macbeth plans to kill Duncan, his moral code is still evident it is just ‘vaulted’ by his ambition. You can see Macbeth is struggling with the evil he is about to commit.

Question 3

Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”.

~Act 2, Scene 1

Answer 3

Reflects Macbeth murdering Duncan in his sleep. The voices are his moral conscience, no longer able to be suppressed.

Question 4

Is this a dagger which I see before me. The handle toward my hand?

~Act 2, Scene 1

Answer 4

His conscience convinced him of actions he needs to take. Although they have no justification.

Question 5

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.

~Act 5, Scene 5

Answer 5

He realises the cost of his unchecked ambition. But it’s too late, there’s no reversing the consequences of Macbeth’s evil opportunism.