| fair is foul, and foul is fair (1.1) | speaker? The three witchesmeaning/significance? things aren’t always what they seemtheme: appearance/reality |
| And oftentimes, to win us to our harmthe instruments of darkness tell us truths,win us with honest trifles, to betray’sIn deepest consequence (1.3) | speaker? Banquo (to Macbeth)meaning/significance? A warning/fortelling of what will happen to Macbeth. that evil tries to tempt us with half truth and it will lead us to our doom |
| Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it (1.4) | speaker? Malcom (about Cawdor)Meaning/significance? showing how a person can die with dignity/die well (by repenting), also it contrasted a good death to Macbeth’s death (bad death) |
| If chance will have me King, why Chance may crown me, Without my stir. (1.3) | Speaker? MacbethMeaning/significance? Macbeth is hoping he will not have to do anything to become king, that fate will take care of ittheme: fate |
| That is a step on which I must fall down or o’er leapStars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires. (1.4) | speaker? Macbeth (to himself)Meaning/significance? he is now commited to killing Duncan…it shows the growth of evil in Macbeth… showing what side he is aligning with… first step down a slipper slope |
| Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o’ the milk of human kindnessTo catch the nearest way. (1.5) | speaker? Lady Macbeth (to herself)Meaning/significance? L. Macbeth is worried about her husband’s wishwashiness… shows gender bending (shes crueler)theme:gender bending |
| Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty! (1.5) | speaker? Lady MacbethMeaning/significance? shows L.Macbeth siding with evil forcesthemes: unnatural, gender bending |
| Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t. (I.5) | speaker? Lady Macbeth (to Macbeth)meaning/significance? L.Macbeth is telling her husband to lie and act innocentthemes: appearance/reality |
| I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itselfAnd falls on the other – (1.7) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/significane? showing Macbeth’s only motivation is his ambitiontheme: ambition |
| I do all that may become a manWho dares do more is none. (1.7)When you durst do it, then you were a man; (1.7) | speaker(s)? Macbeth->lady macbethmeaning/significance? Lady Macbeth is convincing her to husband to “be a man”… shows macbeths hesitance/humanesstheme: gender bending |
| False face must hide what false heart doth know (1.7) | speaker? macbethmeaning/significance? Macbeth shows his commitment to putting up an act of being innocent, choosing to hide things instead of confessing/repentingtheme:appearance/reality |
| Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more!Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care. (2.2) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/significance? Shows Macbeth is feeling guilty (for killing Duncan) and also jumpythemes? sleep/dreams, clothes motif |
| Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? (2.2) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/signficance? showing his guilt, how he feels he will never be clean, evil will spread as a result (dominoes effect)themes? order/disorder, guilt, great chaine of being |
| A little water clears us of this deed,How easy is it then! (2.2) | speaker? Lady Macbethmeaning/significance? saying it will be easy to shake this off/be clean/guilt-free, contrasts towards Macbeth who says the oppositethemes? deception |
| there’s daggers in men’s smiles. (2.3) | speaker? Donlbaine (to malcom)Meaning/significance? Donlbaine saying you cannot trust anyonetheme? appearance v. reality |
| Thou hast it now—King, Cawdor, Glamis, all As the Weird Women promised, and I fear Thou played’st most foully for’t. (3.1) | speaker? Banquo (about Macbeth)meaning/significance? Banquo suspects that Macbeth killed Duncan for the crownthemes? ambition, unnatural evil |
| …To be thus is nothing, But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo Stick deep. (3.1) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/significance? shows his growing ambition and paranoia, shows he is still worried about the prophecy of Banquo’s decendentstheme: ambition |
| Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown And put a barren scepter in my grip, Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, No son of mine succeeding. (3.1) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/significance? worring that his kids will not get the crown, shows his growing ambition (he’s not happy being king, but he also wants kids to be kings)theme: ambition |
| …Naught’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. (3.2) | speaker? lady macbethmeaning/significance? she reveals regret/doubt, shows the hedonists paradox, shows her insecurity and fearfullnessthemes: guilt |
| Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. (3.2) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/significance? represents how one bad things leads to another (snowball/dominoe) effects of evilthemes:evil |
| Thou canst not say I did it. Never shakeThy gory locks at me. (3.4) | speaker? Macbeth (to banquo’s ghost)meaning/significance? showing guilttheme: guilt |
| It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood. Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak. (3.4) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/significance? showing how he is scared, forshadowing what will happentheme: guilt, idea of vengance/things put back into order |
| For mine own good All causes shall give way. I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er. (3.4) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/significane? I don’t care about anything but my own good anymore…I’m in to far, it’s to late for me to go back (no turning back)theme: ambition |
| Be bloody, bold and resolute. Laugh to scornThe power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. (4.1) | speaker? Bloody child (2nd apperation) (to macbeth)meaning/significance? encourages false sense of securitytheme: fate |
| Macbeth shall never vanquished be untilGreat Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane HillShall come against him. (4.1) | speaker? 3rd apperation (crowned child w/ tree)meaning/significance? shows how evil fouls us, lures Macgeth into a false sense of securitythemes: fate, temptation |
| From this momentThe firstlings of my heart shall beThe firstlings of my hand. (4.1) | speaker? macbethmeaning/significance? proves he feels secure (as a result of the two prophecies), shows he is growing more impulsive and ambitiousthemes: evil |
| Each new morn new widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrowsStrike heaven on the face, that it resoundsAs if felt with Scotland, and yelled out Like syllable of dolor. (4.3) | speaker? Macduff (to malcom)meaning/significance? describing the decaying state of Scotlandtheme: order/disorder |
| He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy,And sundry blessings hang about his throneThat speak him full of grace. (4.3) | speaker? Malcom (about English King)meaning/significance? his praise and discription of the English king shows what a good king is like in contrast to Macbeththemes: divine right of kings, order/disorder, nature of leadership |
| Alas poor country,Almost afraid to know itself. It cannotBe called our mother, but our grave. (4.3) | speaker? Ross (to Macduff and Malcom)meaning/significance? shows that because the great chaine of being was disrupted (by macbeth) the country is in bad shapetheme: divine right of kinds, order/disorder, great chaine of being |
| All my pretty ones?Did you say ‘all’? O hell-kite! All?What, all my pretty chickens and their damAt one fell swoop? (4.3) | speaker? Macduff (when he learns his household was murdered)meaning/significance: shows his shock and grief, example of how Macbeth’s cruetly is effecting other people |
| Out, damned spot, out I say! (5.1) | speaker? Lady Macbeth (when she is sleep walking)meaning/signifcance? shows her guilt and how she is haunted by itthemes: supernatural, unnatural |
| Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. More needs she the divine than the physician. (5.1) | Speaker? Doctormeaning/significance? Lady Macduff needs divine helptheme: sickness, unnatural (evil) |
| And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have… (5.3) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/significance? I’m sick at heart, shows he is reaping what he has sown, shows how he is realy missing the important things of lifetheme: evil, pride and ambition |
| She should have died hereafter.There would have been a time for such a word.Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…Creeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life’s but a waking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. (5.5) | speaker? Macbethmeaning/significance? (shows despaire after her death?) shows how his world view is very nihilistic (no heaven or hell, life is short and meaningless)theme: religion, evil, dying |
| Of all men else I have avoided thee.But get thee back. My soul is too much chargedWith blood of thine already. (5.8) | Speaker? Macbeth (to malcom)meaning/significance? saying I don’t want to kill you because I’ve already killed your family, shows a more human side, shows he feels guiltytheme: guilt |
| …this, and what needful elseThat calls upon us, by grace of grace, We will perform in measure, time, and place. (5.8 | Speaker? Malcom (end of play speech)meaning/significance? shows the restoration of order, shows that malcom and proper ruling family is aligned with good/holy powersthemes: order/disorder, divine right of kings |
Key quotes from Macbeth
July 30, 2019