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Macbeth Quotes

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  • Yet do I fear thy nature, it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way.
    Metaphor, Manipulates Macbeth by taunting his manhood/masculinity as being too weak or feminine.
  • What hands are here… they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?
    Symbolic nature of blood and ‘washing’ away of guilt. Allusion – reference to the idea that guilt and murder will never leave their psyche. They will never res
  • 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.
    Demonstrates remorse Illustrates breakdown of her desire to kill and ambition Reveals a conscience and doubt in Lady M’s mind. Not satisfied because they gain
  • Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a fal
    Disconnect from reality Wrestling with his own ambition and conscience Could display his guilt and despair Reveals his distrust of the witches/hallucinations,
  • Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood… Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers, …Come, thi
    Removing feminine parts to become strong (believes feminine traits are weak) Demonises women – manipulative and sacrilegious. Symbolic nature of blood
  • Thou has it no king, Cawdor, Glamis, all. As the weird women promised, and I fear Thou played’st most foully for ‘t. Yet it was said…but that myself should be the root and father Of many kings…. May they not be my oracles as well, And set m
    Demonstrates virtue and morality of Banquo Loyalty to the line of Kings Contrast with Macbeth’s temptations – he wasn’t tempted. Metaphor – ‘game’
  • 'O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’ (Scene 3 Scene 2).
    Demonstrates angst and paranoia about Banquo’s line of future kings Animal imagery – wild animals are savage and untameable and link with Macbeth’s character –
  • MACBETH: Upon my head they plac’d a fruitless crown, and put a barren sceptre in my gripe
    Consuming nature of Ambition Loss of reality Masculine gender roles. Metaphor to show Macbeth is unsatisfied with his crown and can't have children
  • This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? (Act 1, Scene 3)…if good, why do I yeld to that suggestion, Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make
    Consuming nature of Ambition Loss of reality Masculine gender roles. Suggests he had the thought of killing Duncan before talking Lady M. Aside
  • But ‘tis strange. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence
    Be careful of the supernatural. Don’t force the hand of destiny or listen to external influences. Contrast with macbeth - symbolic of wickedness.
  • Here’s the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand
    Madness driven by Guilt Loss of reality Demonstrates evidence of remorse and conscience Breakdown of relationship Imagery….hyperbole.
  • Act 5, Scene 5. "Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more…
    Consuming nature of Ambition Loss of reality – disconnection with wife. Nihilism/ Depression Masculine gender roles – he cannot feel emotion. Life means noth
  • 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.
    Metaphor – of the ‘spur’ Imagery of ambition ‘tumbling over one another’ – presents an image of his ambition being fumbling/clumsy. Personification of ambition
  • You must leave this… ….but in them Nature’s copy’s not eterne. (Act 3 Scene 2)
    Demonstrates that she wishes to leave things up to fate OR doesn’t want a direct hand in killing Banquo. Symbolic reference to 'not mortal' - 'not eterne'
  • The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires:
    Ambition that is in Macbeth’s heart Metaphor of the ‘step’ – Malcom lies in his way. Use of contrast of light and darkness - morality and immorality/ good vs e
  • ‘From this moment, the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand…(the murder of Macduff’s family)….this deed I’ll do before this purpose cool.
    Imagery that shows lack of conscience and bloodthirsty nature – doesn’t want to think rationally Demonstrates his belief in the prophecy controlling his life –