| ‘If chance may have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir,’ | Macbeth does not plan to try to become king; it is clear he already knows what he would have to do. ( act 1.3) |
| ‘Stars, hide your fires, let light not see my black and dark desires’ | Dark and light imagery- theme of deception(act 1.4) |
| ‘He’s here in double trust’ | Duncan trusts Macbeth for 2 reasons- as his subject and as his host(act 1.7) |
| ‘False face must hide what false heart doth know’ | links to the theme of deception(act 1.7) |
| ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me?’ | -opening of Macbeth’s soliloquy introduces his internal debate about whether or not to ‘accept’ the dagger and kill Duncan-his hallucination demonstrates the toll the murder is already having on him(act 2.1) |
| ‘Hear it not, Duncan for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or hell’ | -rhyming couplet emphasizes the finality of his decision-he is aware he could be condemning Duncan to hell;still proceeds-links to the murder of Banquo(act 2.1) |
| ‘But wherefore could not i pronounce amen’ | his inability to pray shows how he has condemned himself in God’s eyes by committing regicide and killing Gods representation on earth; upsetting the great chain of being(act 2.2) |
| ‘Macbeth does murder sleep’ | recurring motif of sleep appears several times, with the lack of sleep being a direct result of bloody deeds and subsequent guilt(act 2.2) |
| ‘Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this bloody clean from my hand?’ | His obsession with the blood demonstrates his instant guilt and descent into madness(act 2.2) |
| ‘Wake Duncan with thou knocking: I would thou couldst’ | he instantly regrets his actions(act 2.2) |
| ‘Fail not our feats’ | he is asking Banquo not to forget the feast- dramatic irony;-he expects him not to attend as he is having him killed-Banquo’s ghost will appear(act 3.1) |
| ‘To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus’ | demonstrates his deep-seated paranoia; he will do anything to protect the crown(act 3.1) |
| ‘Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and put a barren scepter in my hand’ | -killed Banquo to prevent his sons becoming king-‘crown’ and ‘scepter’ represent his coronation -‘fruitless’ and ‘barren’ ; him not having children (act 3.1) |
| ‘Banquo, thy soul’s flight, if it find heaven, must find it out tonight’ | -Links to Duncan’s murder; which one will go to hell or heaven-rhyming couplet; finality of his decision(act 3.1) |
| ‘We have scorched the snake, not killed it’ | might have killed Duncan, Banquo is still in his way(act 3.2) |
| ‘…make our faces vizards to our hearts’ | theme of deception(act 3.2) |
| ‘O, full of scorpions is my mind’ | animal imagery- descendant to madness(act 3.2) |
| ‘Things bad begun, make strong themselves by ill’ | he will need to do more dark deeds to secure his power(act 3.2) |
| ‘there the grown serpent lies; the worm that’s fled’ | snake- Banquo, but he will be under threat from Fleance soon(act 3.4) |
| ‘Thou canst say i did it; never shake thy gory locks at me!’ | His vision of Banquo’s bloody body demonstrates his descent into madness and his fear of being caught(act 3.4) |
| ‘Thou has no speculation in those eyes which thou dost glare with’ | He knows that Banquo is dead, but cannot escape the ghost and guilt/madness(act 3.4) |
| ‘From this moment the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand’ | he will act on instinct from now on, without fearing the consequences(act 4.2) |
| ‘the mind i sway by and the heart i bear shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear’ | refuses to indulge in self-doubt, determined to remain true to his cause till the en(act 5.3) |
| ‘go prick thy face and over-red thy fear…those linen cheeks of thine are counsellors to fear’ | use of red and white colour imagery links to L.Macbeth’s comments in a2.2(act 5.3) |
| ‘I have supped full with horrors’ | -metaphorically filled himself up with the dark deeds he committed-literally ‘supped’ Banquo’s ghost(act 5.4) |
| ‘Life’f but a walking shadow…it is a tale told bt an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing’ | approach to life has been transformed by his actions;nothing having meaning anymore(act 5.5) |
| ‘Blow wind, come wrack;at least we’ll die with harness on our back’ | he is a soldier to the end, couplet emphasizing the finality of his decision(act 5.5) |
| ‘swords i smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, brandish’d by man that’s of a woman born’ | uses a couplet to mirror the witches prophecies(act 5.7) |
| ‘my soul is too much charged/ with blood of thine already’ | he is warning Macduff, half gloating at the murder of Macduff’s family(act 5.8) |
| ‘i will not yield/to kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet’ | despite his imminent death, he refuses to be mocked or bow down to Malcolm- showing he remains proud(act 5.8) |
Macbeth key quotes
December 22, 2019