Macbeth by Shakespeare

Act I

Weird Sisters’ Predictions Macbeth: 1. Thane of Glamis 2. Thane of Cawdor 3. King of Scotland

Banquo: 1. Lesser than Macbeth, but greater 2. Not so happy, yet happier 3. Descendents will be kings, not him

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair, / Hover through the fog and filthy air” (I.i.11-12). -Weird Sisters

“What, can the devil speak true?” (I.iii.108). -Banquo

“There’s no art / to find the mind’s construction in the face” (I. iv -King Duncan

“Stars hide your fires; / let not light see my black and deep desires” (I.iv.50-51). -Macbeth

“Yet I fear thy nature, / It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness / to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great / Art not without ambition, but without / the illness should attend it” (I.v.16-19). -Lady Macbeth

“Come you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe topful / Of direst cruelty!” (I.v.40-43). -Lady Macbeth

“Come to my woman’s breasts / And take my milk for gall…. ” (I. v -Lady Macbeth

“Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell” (I.v.50-51). -Lady Macbeth

“Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t” (I. v -Lady Macbeth

“He is 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 murtherer shut the door, / Not bear the knive myself” (I.vii.12-16). -Macbeth

“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” (I.vii.54-59). -Lady Macbeth

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know” (I.vii.82). -Macbeth

Act II

Symbolism: darkness, night, black, midnight “moon is down” (II.i.2). “after midnight” (II.ii.1). “their candles are all out” (II.ii.5).

“I think not of [the witches]” (II.ii.23). -Macbeth Liar, liar, pants on fire!

“Is this a dagger which I see before me; / the handle toward my hand “Is this a dagger which I see before me; / the handle toward my hand?” (II.i.34-35). -Macbeth Stressed?

“These deeds must not be thought/ After these ways; so, it will make us mad” (II.ii.30-31). -Lady Macbeth Foreshadowing?

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No.” (II.ii.57-58). -Macbeth

“My hands are of your color; but I shame / To wear a heart so white” (II.ii.61-62). -Lady Macbeth Calling him a whimp!

“To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself” (II.ii.70). -Macbeth

Beginning of scene iii: Opens with porter at gate for comic relief! Describes alcohol: “It provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance” (II.iii.29-30). -Porter

“O gentle lady, / Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: / The repetitiion in a woman’s ear / Would murther as it fell” (II.ii.83-86). -Banquo Irony. Which theme?

“Help me, hence, ho!” (II.iii.119). -Lady Macbeth Faker. Theme(s)?

“Wherefore did you so?” (II.iii.108). -Macduff Asks WHY he killed the guards; first sign of suspicion.

“Where we are, / There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood, / The nearer bloody” (II.iii.23). -Donalbain to Malcolm Which theme?

“Thriftless ambition, that will raven up / Thine own life’s means “Thriftless ambition, that will raven up / Thine own life’s means!” (II.iv.28-29). -Rosse about Malcolm and Donalbain (because they are suspected of murder since they fled) Ambition theme Foreshadowing