Macbeth key quotes Flashcards
Quote 1 for Macbeth
and analysis
“Stars, hold your fires, let not see light my black and deep desires” - Act 1 Scene 4
- desires = murder - euphemism?
- fires + desires = rhyming couplets is the influence of witches
- relates to start of act 2 scene 1 where Macbeth will notice there are no stars in the sky
- doesn’t want light on the bad things he’s doing
Quote 2 for Macbeth
and analysis
Quote 1 for Lady Macbeth
and analysis
“unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty” - Act 1 Scene 5
- take away the feminine weaknesses
- make me a man
- so she can participate in a cruel masculine activity
- she wants to become ruthless
Quote 2 for Lady Macbeth
and analysis
“look like th’innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t” - Act 1 Scene 6
- simile
- she want Macbeth to appear gentle to hide his deceit
- flower = feminine image of beauty + fragility
- serpent = from genesis in the bible, a symbol for treachery, deceit + evil
Quote 1 for Witches/Supernatural
and analysis
"fair is foul, and foul is fair" - Act 1 Scene 1
- good is bad and bad is good
- first hint that thing might not be what they appear in this play
- a character who may at first appear good may not be so good in the end - foreshadowing
Quote 2 for Witches/Supernatural
and analysis
"All hail Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter" - Act 1 Scene 3
- playing with his ambition + planting the idea of murder in his head
- foreshadowing
- this is the line that changes the whole course of the play
Quote 1 for Ambition
and analysis
"Stars, hold your fires, let not see light my black and deep desires" - Act 1 Scene 4
- desires = murder - euphemism?
- fires + desires = rhyming couplets is the influence of witches
- relates to start of act 2 scene 1 where Macbeth will notice there are no stars in the sky
- doesn’t want light on the bad things he’s doing
Quote 2 for Ambition
and analysis
"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th' other" - Act 1 Scene 7
- metaphor of horse - only thing to motivate him is ambition but doesnt have enough in him so he would fall off the horse
- vaulting ambition = tragic flaw awakened by witches - jumps his place in hierarchy
- o’erleaps = transgressing (event that causes more)
Quote 1 for Betrayal
and analysis
"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" - Act 2 Scene 2
- guilt
- all great = epithet suggesting that even the god of the sea who is powerfull will be unable with ‘all’ his oceans to cleanse
- blood = evidence of murder
- ? = rhetorical q. emphatic answer of certainty - he will be unable to erase the signs of what he has done
- multitudinous = sheer amount
- incarnadine = vivid colour red
Quote 2 for Betrayal
and analysis
