Macbeth Quotes

Macbeth Quotes

1. UNDER THE WITCHES' INFLUENCE

   • SUPERNATURAL BEHAVIOUR
   • "Till he inseam'd him from the nave to th' chaps, And fix'd his head upon our battlements"
     • "his brandish'd steel which smoked with bloody execution, like valour's minion"
       • "as cannons overcharg'd with double cracks, so they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe"
   • "Disdaining Fortune"
   • "So foul and fair a day I have not seen"

2. DISCONNECT BETWEEN HIS EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR

   • "why do you dress me in borrowed robes?
     • "New honours come upon him, like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould but with the aid of use"
   • "look like th' innocent flower but be the serpent under't"
     • Links to the old Thane of Cawdor. Duncan has no idea what people are thinking (There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face) and therefore, Duncan has to trust blindly which is his strength. Macbeth knowingly betrays his vulnerability (a new born babe) and this is his unforgivable sin.
     • "False heart must hide what the false heart doth know."
       • "Where we are, there's daggers in men's smiles"

3. VILLAINOUS NATURE

   • "If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs"
   • "that is a step on which I must fall down or else o'er-leap"
   • "Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires"
   • "If we should fail?"
   • "A friend"
     • "If you shall cleave to my consent...it shall make honour for you"
   • "Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men"
     • Using Lady Macbeth's tactics once he is King, he is now bigger than her, does he no longer need her know he has granted himself his ambition literally with his own hands?
     • "Well then, now have you consider'd of my speeches?"
     • "Both of you know Banquo was your enemy"

4. CONSCIENCE

   • "too full o' th' milk of compassion to catch the nearest way"
     • Macbeth wrestles with his conscience to be able to kill such a gracious king
     • "We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honour'd me of late"
       • "wouldst not play false, and yet wouldst wrongly win"
         • "the eye wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see"
   • "I think not of them"
     • Macbeth's conscience switches off in the build up to killing the king, he loses his morality
     • "I am settled"
       • "on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood"
   • "one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried "Murder!""
     • Macbeth regrets his decision but is it out of fear of being caught or his morality switching back on?
     • "I'll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again I dare not."
       • "Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!"

5. LACK OF HEIRS AND THEREFORE PROTECTION

   • "Your children shall be kings"
     • "Do you not hope your children shall be kings"
       • "Goes Fleance with you?"
   • "Bring forth men-children only"
     • "fruitless crown"
     • "a barren sceptre in my gripe"
   • "To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus."
     • "For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd"