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.
7.
8.
9.
External Conflict
Personification
Simile or Metaphor
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
1. Fair is foul, and foul is fair. / Hover through the fog and filthy
air.
2. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth has won.
3. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
4. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. / Not so happy, yet much
happier. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none!
5. 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.
6. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,
without my stir.
7. There’s no art / to find the mind’s construction in the face. / He
was a gentleman on whom I built / an absolute trust.
8. Stars, hide your fires, / let not night see my black and deep
desires.
9. Yet I do fear thy nature. / It is too full o’ the milk of human
kindness / to catch the nearest way.
Notes
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.
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).
Macbeth’s opening lines show a connection
between the title character and the witches. Do
these lines foreshadow potential evil in Macbeth?
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.
Banquo is a character who fears the witches. He is
clearly not as ambitious as Macbeth.
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.
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).
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.
Symbol – Milk
Euphemism – “ catch the nearest way”
10. Come you spirits / that tend on mortal thought, unsex me here,
/ and fill me, from the crown to the toe, topfull / of direst
cruelty.
11. Look like the innocent flower, / but be the serpent under it.
12. This castle hath a pleasant seat, the air / nimbly and sweetly
recommends itself / unto our gentle senses.
13. “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”
14. “…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…”
15. 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.
16. Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does
murder sleep, — the innocent sleep; Sleep, that knits up the
ravell'd sleave 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.
17. “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.”
18. 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.
19. The time has been / that when the brains were out, the man
would die, / and there an end!
Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth is too nice to do
what is necessary to obtain the crown.
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.
Simile.
Appearance vs. Reality (deceptive nature of
appearance)
Dramatic Irony
Macbeth has to use the word “it” instead of death
or murder. Macbeth is clearly uncomfortable with
the idea of hurting Duncan (internal conflict)
Internal Conflict
Macbeth is listing reasons NOT to kill Duncan.
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?
Symbol – Sleep
Allusion – Neptune
Hyperbole – Macbeth is exaggerating in order to
show just how guilty he feels.
Gender issues.
Order vs. Disorder
Natural vs. Unnatural
Macbeth’s actions have thrown nature off balance.
Another way to interpret this scene is that Macbeth
22. 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.
is unable to handle the guilt that he feels and is now
driven into a world of chaos and delusion.
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).
Role Reversal – Macbeth (the embodiment of evil)
is now ordering the witches around. This marks a
significant shift from the beginning of the text.
Lady Macduff recognizes the immoral nature of
man. Her lines connect to “fair is foul and foul is
fair.”
23. Out, damned spot!
Spot = Blood = Guilt
24. What's done cannot be undone.
27. “Lesser than Macbeth but greater; Not so happy but happier.”
Lady Macbeth hits upon a major idea in the text:
despite the guilt that we feel, we cannot change the
past.
Macduff needs to be the person to kill Macbeth;
otherwise, he will be unable to accept the loss of his
family.
Dramatic Irony – Lady Macbeth is the least gentle
character in the play (arguably).
Equivocation
28. “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”
Appearance vs. Reality
29. "My genius is rebuked, as it is said Mark Antony's was by
Caesar"
Allusion
20. From this moment / the very firstlings of my heart shall be / the
firstlings of my hand.
21. “I conjure you by that which you profess/(Howe’er you come to
know it), answer me.”
25. If thou beest slain and with no stroke of mine, / my wife and
children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
26. “Oh gentle Lady tis not to hear for you what I can speak.”
30. “Twas a Rough Night”
31. "Approach the chamber and destroy your sight with a new
Gorgon"
32. “I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s
feet…I will try my last”
Macbeth is worried that Banquo (like Mark Antony
did for Caesar) will bring him to justice and expose
his wrongdoings.
Understatement
Macbeth does not want to face the horrific acts that
he has committed.
Allusion – Gorgon
Duncan’s death is so horrific that it could
(figuratively speaking) turn a person to stone.
Conflict
Macbeth refuses to give up and admit defeat to
Malcolm.