Flashcards
Macbeth quotes
Cards in this deck (38)
- 1"For brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name - Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel Which smok'd with bloody execution"Character: Captain
Act 1 Scene 2
Theme
Link
Significance - 2"And fix'd his head upon our battlements"Character: Captain
Act 1 Scene 2
Link - Lady Macbeth ("The raven himself is hoarse / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / Under my battlements") - 3"So foul and fair a day I have not seen."Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 3
Links - the Witches ("Fair is foul and foul is fair")
Oxymoron - 4"You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so."Character: Banquo
Act 1 Scene 3
Significance - the Witches are stripped of their femininity, to the horror of a 16th Century audience - 5"If you can look into the seeds of time And say which grain will grow and which will not"Character: Banquo
Act 1 Scene 3
Significance - Macbeth becomes driven whereas Banquo lets it happen
Referenced throughout - 6First Witch: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Second Witch: Not so happy, yet much happier. Third Witch: Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.Character: The Witches
Act 1 Scene 3
Speak with juxtapositions - 7"Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more."Character: Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 3
Significance: Imperative, Macbeth tries to control the Witches, which prompts them to leave - 8"Why do you dress me in borrow'd robes?"Character: Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 3
Significance: constantly referenced
Temporary, impostor
Semantic field - 9"He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute trust."Character: Duncan
Act 1 Scene 4
Significance: Following line - 'Enters Macbeth'
Ironic, replacing the traitorous Thane of Cawdor which another traitor - 10"The Prince of Cumberland: that is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap"Character: Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 4
Significance - Inescapable - 11"Stars, hide your fires, / Let not light see my black and deep desires, / The eye wink at the hand. Yet let that be, / Which the eye fears, when it is done to see."Character: Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 4
Significance: Macbeth is being cowardly, not wanting the stars to see what he is doing - 12"My dearest partner of greatness"Character: Macbeth (in his letter read by Lady Macbeth)
Act 1 Scene 5
Significance: Equal lust for power, complimenting her, no reference to gender - 13"Yet I do fear thy nature, It is too full o'th'milk of human kindness"Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 5
Significance: Lady Macbeth is doubting Macbeth (inversion of gender roles) - 14"That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valour of my tongue"Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 5 - 15"The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements."Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 5
Significance: the raven is an omen of death, 'fatal' suggests Duncan's fate is inevitable, possessive - 'my battlements'
Link - Act 1 Scene 2 - 16"Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull Of direst cruelty;"Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 5
Significance: going against gender stereotypes, wants to be masculine; wants to wear the 'crown'; desperate to be Queen - 17"Come to my woman's breasts And take my milk for gall"Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 5 - 18"That my keen knife see not the wound it makes"Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 5
Link - "Stars hide your fires / Let not light see my black and deep desires" - 19"Look like th'innocent flower, But be the serpent under't"Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 5 - 20"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly."Character: Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 7
Significance: avoids saying 'murder', is uncertain - 21"We will proceed no further in this business."Character: Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 7
Significance: attempting to take control, detached - 22"Like the poor cat i'th'adage?"Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 7
Lady Macbeth refers to the proverb ('The cat would eat fish, but will not wet her feet.')
Calling Macbeth cowardly - 23"Prithee, peace."Character: Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 7
Significance: inversion of gender roles, Lady Macbeth is in control - 24"When you durst do it, then you were a man."Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 7
Significance: accusing him of not being brave enough - 25"I have given suck and know / How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me; / I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums / And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn / As you have done to this."Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 7
Significance: shows Lady Macbeth's determination and ambition - 26"Their candles are all out."Character: Banqou
Act 2 Scene 1
Link - "Let not light see my black and deep desires." - 27"And yet I would not sleep; merciful powers, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts"Character: Banqou
Act 2 Scene 1
Significance: the prophecy is giving him nightmares yet he won't do anything about it, unlike Macbeth - 28"Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?Character: Macbeth
Act 2 Scene 1
Macbeth is hallucinating the dagger - fates - 29"That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold; What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire."Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 2 Scene 2
Significance: women didn't drink in that period (going against gender roles - masculine), guilt, needs reassurance, seeking to forget - 30"Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't."Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 2 Scene 2
Significance: Duncan resembled her father which stopped her from killing him - 31"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?"Character: Macbeth
Act 2 Scene 2
Link - "Out damn spot" - 32"O, yet I do repent me of my fury That I did kill them."Character: Macbeth
Act 2 Scene 3
Significance: Macbeth wants to be the hero - 33"Help me hence, ho."Character: Lady Macbeth
Act 2 Scene 3
Significance: Lady Macbeth detracts attention from Macbeth using her femininity to an advantage. - 34"There's daggers in men's smiles"Character: Donaldbain
Act 2 Scene 3 - 35"And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp."Character: Ross
Act 2 Scene 4
Nature reacting to Duncan's murder - 36Old Man - "A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd." Ross - "And Duncan's horses [...]" Old Man - "'Tis said, they eat each other."Character: Old Man
Act 2 Scene 4
Significance: Duncan - the 'falcon' - killed by Macbeth - the 'owl'.
Horses turned against their nature - 37"Lest our old robes sit easier than our new."Character: Macduff
Act 2 Scene 4
Link - "borrow'd robes" - 38—
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- Flashcards on Macbeth quotes, created by Victoria Daae on 31/03/2017.
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- Victoria Daae
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