Macbeth Quote Review

For the following quotes, be able to identify the speaker and any of the following terms

Lit Terms –

  1. Dramatic Irony
  2. Hyperbole (exaggeration)
  3. Understatement (the opposite of hyperbole)
  4. Allusion (a reference to something known in myth, history, religion, literature, etc.)
  5. Internal Conflict
  6. External Conflict
  7. Personification
  8. Simile or Metaphor
  9. Euphemism (replacing a word with something more pleasant sounding

As always, think about identifying the tone of the quote, a motif established in the quote, and a theme that connects to the quote.

Quote / Notes
  1. Fair is foul, and foul is fair. / Hover through the fog and filthy air.
/ These lines set up a paradox that will be seen throughout the rest of the play (good is bad, bad is good). These lines also suggest moral ambiguity and an inability to clearly see what is right or wrong.
  1. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth has won.
/ Duncan establishes himself as a gift-giver and a kind figure. These lines also echo the witches lines (when the battle is lost and won).
  1. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
/ Macbeth’s opening lines show a connection between the title character and the witches. Do these lines foreshadow potential evil in Macbeth?
  1. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. / Not so happy, yet much happier. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none!
/ Equivocation. Banquo is given half-truths that are unclear. Since the witches prophecies are unclear, the way the characters interpret the lines (and their actions) says more about the characters’ real thoughts and feelings than it says about the witches.
  1. 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.
/ Banquo is a character who fears the witches. He is clearly not as ambitious as Macbeth.
  1. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.
/ Personification.
At this point, Macbeth is willing to take the throne if he doesn’t have to do anything bad to get it. Compare this scene to later scenes.
  1. There’s no art / to find the mind’s construction in the face. / He was a gentleman on whom I built / an absolute trust.
/ Motif – Appearance vs. Reality
Duncan is a trusting figure, but even he points out that there is no real way of seeing who a person really is (based on their appearance).
  1. Stars, hide your fires, / let not night see my black and deep desires.
/ Motif – Light vs. Dark
Macbeth is calling on a darkness to overcome light (truth, goodness, etc.). We see characters (specifically Macbeth and Lady Macbeth) calling for darkness throughout the play.
  1. Yet I do fear thy nature. / It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness / to catch the nearest way.
/ Symbol – Milk
Euphemism – “ catch the nearest way”
Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth is too nice to do what is necessary to obtain the crown.
  1. Come you spirits / that tend on mortal thought, unsex me here, / and fill me, from the crown to the toe, topfull / of direst cruelty.
/ Lady Macbeth wants to be removed of all guilt, remorse, etc.
We later see that this is impossible, since she is overcome by guilt and fear.
  1. Look like the innocent flower, / but be the serpent under it.
/ Simile.
Appearance vs. Reality (deceptive nature of appearance)
  1. This castle hath a pleasant seat, the air / nimbly and sweetly recommends itself / unto our gentle senses.
/ Dramatic Irony
  1. “If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well/It were done quickly” (1.7.1-2)
“After life’s fitful fever, he [Duncan] sleeps well” / Macbeth has to use the word “it” instead of death or murder. Macbeth is clearly uncomfortable with the idea of hurting Duncan (internal conflict)
  1. “…But in these cases/We still have judgment here, that we but teach/Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return/To plague th' inventor: this even-handed justice/Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice/To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:/First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,/Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,/Who should against his murderer shut the door,/Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan/Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been/So clear in his great office, that his virtues…”
/ Internal Conflict
Macbeth is listing reasons NOT to kill Duncan.
  1. 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 false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? / I see thee yet, in form as palpable / As this which now I draw.
/ Issues of Fate vs. Free Will arise in these lines. Is there really a dagger sent to Macbeth, or has his ambition taken over him and presented itself in the form of this knife?
  1. Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep, — the innocent sleep; Sleep, that knits up the ravell'dsleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast.
/ Symbol – Sleep
  1. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.”
/ Allusion – Neptune
Hyperbole – Macbeth is exaggerating in order to show just how guilty he feels.
  1. This is the very painting of your fear. / This is the air-drawn dagger which you said / led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts / (imposters to true fear) would well become / a woman’s story at a winter’s fire.
/ Gender issues.
  1. The time has been / that when the brains were out, the man would die, / and there an end!
/ Order vs. Disorder
Natural vs. Unnatural
Macbeth’s actions have thrown nature off balance. Another way to interpret this scene is that Macbeth is unable to handle the guilt that he feels and is now driven into a world of chaos and delusion.
  1. From this moment / the very firstlings of my heart shall be / the firstlings of my hand.
/ Macbeth needs to take action quickly. He worries that if he waits too long his conscience will not allow him to commit these deeds (which Macbeth knows to be immoral).
  1. “I conjure you by that which you profess/(Howe’er you come to know it), answer me.”
/ Role Reversal – Macbeth (the embodiment of evil) is now ordering the witches around. This marks a significant shift from the beginning of the text.
  1. Whither should I fly? / I have done no harm. But I remember now / I am in this earthly world, where to do harm / is often laudable, to do good sometime / accounted dangerous folly.
/ Lady Macduff recognizes the immoral nature of man. Her lines connect to “fair is foul and foul is fair.”
  1. Out, damned spot!
/ Spot = Blood = Guilt
  1. What's done cannot be undone.
/ Lady Macbeth hits upon a major idea in the text: despite the guilt that we feel, we cannot change the past.
  1. If thou beest slain and with no stroke of mine, / my wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
/ Macduff needs to be the person to kill Macbeth; otherwise, he will be unable to accept the loss of his family.
  1. “Oh gentle Lady tis not to hear for you what I can speak.”
/ Dramatic Irony – Lady Macbeth is the least gentle character in the play (arguably).
  1. “Lesser than Macbeth but greater; Not so happy but happier.”
/ Equivocation
  1. “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”
/ Appearance vs. Reality
  1. "My genius is rebuked, as it is said Mark Antony's was by Caesar"
/ Allusion
Macbeth is worried that Banquo (like Mark Antony did for Caesar) will bring him to justice and expose his wrongdoings.
  1. “Twas a Rough Night”
/ Understatement
Macbeth does not want to face the horrific acts that he has committed.
  1. "Approach the chamber and destroy your sight with a new Gorgon"
/ Allusion – Gorgon
Duncan’s death is so horrific that it could (figuratively speaking) turn a person to stone.
  1. “I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet…I will try my last”
/ Conflict
Macbeth refuses to give up and admit defeat to Malcolm.