1. MACBETH SLICED in QUOTES
LEARN KEY QUOTES
KNOW:
Structure, Language, Ideas, Context, Effects on Reader

2. Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Act 1 Scene 1 The Witches
Ideas
Language
Structure
Context
Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Effects / Explore

3. Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Language: repeated fricatives give menacing feel. Oxymoron implies the world has turned upside down (‘topsy-turvy’). Pathetic Fallacy.
Ideas: the theme of the SUPERNATURAL is introduced here. Audience will expect ‘unnatural’ events. Unusually, we don’t meet the hero (?) Macbeth in the opening scene – is he in the plot with the witches?
Act 1 Scene 1 The Witches
Structure: Rhyming couplet gives resolution to the scene plus adds sense of casting spells / witchcraft. Shakespeare uses DIFFERENT METRE (rhythm) for the witches: it’s not iambic (stressed then unstressed) but trochaic instead (unstressed then stressed)
Context: Shakespeare uses popular beliefs about witches law passed making witchcraft punishable by death under King James. People believed witches servants of the devil. Also, Shakespeare uses Classical Literature here as the 3 witches are like the 3 FATES of Greek mythology: ‘wyrd’ means FATE in Old English & these witches are ‘the weird sisters’ – in ancient myths one Fate spun the thread of someone’s life, one measured the thread and one cut it.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Effects / Explore: the scene uses narrative enigma to keep audience confused and questioning: is Macbeth evil? What are the witches plotting?

4. Quick Slice of Learning: Macbeth & Metre
Trochaic tetrameter is a rapid meter of poetry consisting of four feet of trochees. A trochee is made up of followed by one stressed syllable and one unstressed syllable: DAdum / DAdum / DAdum / DAdum. (8 syllables in total)
The witches in Macbeth speak in incomplete trochaic tetrameter (7 syllables instead of 8). Shakespeare uses this to show they are different / not ‘normal’ as a trochaic metre is the opposite of an iambic metre (and most of the play is iambic)
Most of the play is iambic pentameter: five feet of iambs with an unstressed syllable then a stressed syllable:
IAMBIC deDUM / deDUM / deDUM / deDUM / deDUM (10 syllables)

5. King Duncan: “What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won”
Act 1 Scene 2 Army Camp
Ideas
Language
Structure
Context
King Duncan: “What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won”
Effects / Explore

6. “What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won”
Ideas: King Duncan is referring to the old Thane of Cawdor being a traitor and that he is about to give the title to Macbeth instead (due to his ‘brave’ actions fighting the Norwegians). Introduces theme of APPEARANCE Vs REALITY (whether you can trust what’s on the surface)
Act 1 Scene 2 Army Camp
Language: the play uses a lexical (semantic) field of winning and losing which are also opposites. This hints that fortunes / FATE may change suddenly. The words also echo the witches, suggesting that they predicted this would happen (prophecy)
Context: the King is the most important person on Earth under God. Society at the time believed in ‘THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING’ - everything had a place / a hierarchy of status. Even heaven had a hierarchy with god ruling over different groups of archangels & angels. On Earth, it was Kings, churchmen, nobles, merchants then peasants.
Structure: use of repetition to structure the line gives a sense of inevitability which links to theme of FATE suggesting it’s Macbeth’s fate to be a great nobleman and have social status under King Duncan
King Duncan:
“What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won”
Effects / Explore: the audience see Macbeth as a good soldier and loyal to the King in this scene. It makes it more shocking later when he thinks about killing Duncan

7. Act 1 Scene 3: a heath Macbeth’s first words in the play:
Language
Alliteration emphasised the connection between foul and fair. Could be linked to Macbeth’s connection with the witches.
Idea
The inseparable nature of Macbeth and the forces of darkness.
Structure
Links back to the words of the witches. Repetition.
Macbeth’s first words in the play:
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen”
Context
Shkp as a writer: creating the tone of darkness.
Fate vs Free Will – is Macbeth in charge of his destiny?
Effects / Explore
Immediate link between Macbeth and the witches
Introduction of the theme of paradox  two conflicting ideas are expressed in the same sentence and this exactly the same as the situations Macbeth will be confronted with throughout the play e.g the foul actions Macbeth commits in order to reach fair ends.
Theme: Supernatural

8. Act 1 Scene 4: King Duncan’s Castle
Language
Personification of stars
Sibilance of S emphasises the heinous nature of regicide
‘Deep’ suggests the extent of his ambitions and yet ‘black’ does suggest he has a conscience – he knows it is wrong.
Ideas
The contrast between action and tbought.
Is it worse to know something is wrong and do it anyway?
Structure
Rhyme and enjambment of ‘fires’ and ‘desires’ connects his thoughts and actions.
Context
Fate vs Free Will
References to ‘stars’ as the controller of fate – an Elizabethean belief. Modern day audiences respond differently
MACBETH: [Aside] Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires
Effects / Explore
This explores whether we should let fate control our destiny or whether our ambition should take over. Or, is our ambition our fate?
‘black and deep’ shows Macbeth is already concerned by is thoughts.
It also explores the contrast between our thoughts and our outwardly behaviour.
As M contemplates his fate, his couplets foreground the cosmology of the play – heaven (desires) and hell (fires). This recurs throughout the play.
Theme: Ambition, Fate/FreeWill,

9. Act 1 Scene 5 Macbeth’s Castle
Ideas
Nature
Gender roles
Ambition
Power and influence
Language:
‘milk’ is an interesting choice. 1) it is a source of life for babies and her distaste is obvious – is her behaviour as unnatural as infanticide? It also implies the weakness of milk itself, that something that sustains life is weak could be linked to her murderous intentions.
Personification of his ‘nature’ as too gentle for ambition.
Milk is metaphorical for the stereotypical feminine nurture and kindness.
Structure: This is a soliloquy so we get an insight into her. Previously, there has been little mention of a wife and immediately we get this shocking insight.
Context
Women were expected to follow mens’ wishes but here Lady Macbeth is the opposite of what was normal and expected. This role reversal could surprise an Elizabethan audience – her unnatural behaviour supports this response.
Lady Macbeth (after reading the letter):
…yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way
Effects / Explore
‘Milk’ may also show how she feels Macbeth needs to be nurtured to commit regicide. It also has connotations of innocence. It contrasts with the ‘dark’ desires he has in Act1Scene3.
What does it mean to be a ‘man’?
Theme: Ambition, Power, Corruption

10. Act 1 Scene 7: Macbeth decides
Ideas
Appearance vs reality
Structure
Macbeth moves from not wanting to kill Duncan to deciding to.
Monosyllabic – creates a sense of certainty in his decision.
The final line is decisive.
Regular verse adds a sense of stability.
Language
Antithesis between ‘hide’ and ’show’ shows how appearances and reality are interlinked but also separate entities which we can control.
Alliteration of ‘f’ sounds – it becomes almost mechanical, as though it in itself is not genuine.
Context.
Gender roles are again challenged throughout this.
Macbeth: “We will proceed no further in this business” Then (after persuasion by Lady M):
“False face must hide what the false heart doth know”
Effects / Explore.
Lady M has worked hard to get M to agree to kill Duncan. M now completely over turns his first decision.
Is Macbeth absolutely sure?

11. Act 2 Scene 1: Macbeth outside King’s chamber
Ideas
Appearances vs reality
Structure
Opening line has feminine ending, reinforcing M’s uncertainty at what he is seeing.
Second line has trochaic inversion with caesura. It sandwiches two stresses around the end of the sentence
Language
Foreshadowing the bloody end to M’s own life as a result of his actions.
Rhetorical Q further emphasises the exploration of appearances vs reality.
‘come’ is a command word, almost transferring the blame for the upcoming murder to the dagger itself.
Context
A dagger would be a regularly used implement in battle.
Macbeth:
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
Effects / Explore
Shkp presents a psychological insight to a man on the brink of regicide.
The direction of the dagger is almost tempting M into ‘clutching’ it. This could be symbolic of the temptation he has to commit the act, that Duncan is a metaphorical sword, in the easiest place for M to strike.

12. Act 2 Scene 2: after the killing
Ideas
Madness/sanity
Illusions
Structure
Stark syllabic difference in this quote. From multi to mono, which is reflective of his unbalanced mental state.
Language
‘blood’ is symbolic of his guilt
‘incarnadine’ C16 meaning ‘pink’ – the Latin foot ‘carn’ refers to flesh. He realises that blood can be washed but the guilt cannot.
‘multitudinous’ refers to many seas around the Globe.
Context
The technique of not letting us ‘see’ the murder may be borrowed from the ancient Greek tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles. They are kept off stage to make them more terrible through the power of suggestion
‘Neptune’ is the god of the Sea.
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.
Effects / Explore
The person who is knocking is actually Macduff, who eventually goes on to destroy Macbeth.

13. Act 2 Scene 3: Macduff, Malcolm and Donalbain
Language
‘tongue’ shows that the events are too shocking to name or talk about and ‘heart’ shows the emotional reaction to Duncan’s murder.
Ideas
The difference between terror and horror.
Context.
A modern audience might view women as stereotypically emotional, but hundreds of years ago, it was almost the opposite. Men were the emotional ones, and women were thought to be too flighty to have real emotions, except for towards their children.
Structure
Epizeuxis of ‘horror’ – MCD is stupefied by the horror
Macduff:
O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee!
Effects / Explore
The witches claim to perform ‘a deed without a name’ which unsettles our faith in the unknown (ie something we can’t name). The sense that the most terrifying aspects of existence transcend language.

14. Act 2 Scene 4: Ross and an ‘old man’ outside castle
Ideas
Nature
The chain of being
Language
Rich symbolism here: the owl killing the falcon mimics Macbeth’s soaring ambition. A falcon’s pride of place is its highest point of flight. An owl usually goes down to kill, but in this case, has gone up, signifying how unnatural MCB’s behaviour is. A falcon is also a day creature, and a royal companion whereas an owl is deathly.
Structure.
This scene serves to connect what has gone on with the next act. It is a brief pause to postulate on the order in humanity.
Context
An owl at this time was intertwined with darker imagery and death, stemming from Norse legends.
The disruption of the ecological pyramid, the food chain, is used as a microcosm of the disruption that is occuring to the natural divine law of the monarchy.
There is also a biblical link – a divinely appointed monarch has been assassinated and it is so calamitous that the natural order has been disrupted – this is reminiscent of events following the death of Christ.
Old Man:
'Tis unnatural…On Tuesday last, A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd
Effects / Explore
Like those who sought to crucify Christ, M and LM are relegated to mere player status – they become, briefly, instruments whose crime against all of humanity has surpassed their collective motive of ambition. Through them, Evil has been unleashed and it has destroyed God’s beloved.

15. Act 3 Scene 1: Macbeth’s Palace
Ideas
Ambition
Deceit
Corruption
Structure
At the end of this speech, Banquo tells himself to ‘hush’. This enables the audience to gain an insight.
Language
‘it’ meaning M’s desire for power or the crown.
‘king, Cawdor, Glamis’ – tricolon listing M’s titles almost formulaic – like the way M talks about murdering D. Unnatural.
Context
Fate vs free will. Banquo could be considering the same things we are thinking. If the Witches predict the event, MB as King, but they do not predict the means.
Banquo:
Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promised, and, I fear, Thou play'dst most foully for't:
Effects / Explore
‘foully’ – foul crops up again as a recurring motif throughout the play.
Banquo is deceiving MB about his true thoughts. Instead he postulates on the actions of MB rather than rushing to the treachery that has occurred.

16. Act 3 Scene 2: Macbeth’s Palace
Ideas
Madness
Ambition
Structure
‘spent/content’ Rhyme here links the idea that if we get what we want, but we are not happy with it, we don’t have it. The second rhyme pushes this deeper, where LM goes as far as to say she’s rather be dead.
Language
Oxymoron: doubtful joy – shows how conflicted she is as a result of her actions.
Naught/All contrast – the line becomes a lamentation rather than a generalisation.
Context
The word ‘doubt’ often mean suspicion or fear in this time.
Lady M:
Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content: 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy
Effects / Explore
LM’s language now contrasts with M’s. In the previous scene, M’s langauge is more like hers was – he emasculates the soldiers to anger them into killing for him where as LM has now become the weak, disturbed character

17. Act 3 Scene 4: the Feast & Banquo’s Ghost
Ideas
Supernatural
Reality/Appearances
Language
Use of pronoun ‘I’ – M believes he cannot be guilty as he used killers to murder Banquo.
Blood symbolism is used again to show the emotional progression of characters.
Structure
Shortly before this, stage directions tell us that B’s ghost enters. However, we are unsure if it is real or not but we know that M can see it.
Context
In the context of playwright, this quotation and the earlier stage directions allow for the visual dramatisation of the workings of M’s mind.
Macbeth:
Thou canst not say I did it: never shake Thy gory locks at me
Effects / Explore
Macbeth is hallucinating – are hallucinations just our mind?
This part of speech signifies the collapse of the dinner party which is, in itself, metaphorical of M’s internal psychological collapse. Equally, it could be argued that the collapse of the social aspect of the party symbolises that M has broken societal rules in his regicide.

18. Act 4 Scene 1: a cavern (witches)
Ideas
The supernatural
Fate vs free will
Act 4 Scene 1: a cavern (witches)
Language
‘thing’ - M is no longer a human person.
This line also shows the witches’ prophetic ability – they know he is coming
‘wicked’ could be referring to the acts he has commited by killing B’s family – the witches know he is evil. They are complicit in this, though, having created the circumstances for his evil to out.
Structure
Rhyme of ‘thumbs’ and ‘comes’ – their words continue to be lyrical.
Context
It was customary to fold the thumb into the palm of the hand as a precaution against the supernatural. Ovid’s Fasti makes reference to this.
This also appeals to King James, who Shkp will have wanted to please – KJ was superstitious and so the witches behave in a stereotypical way.
Second Witch:
By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.
Effects / Explore
Who is in control here? The witches previously summoned M but now he goes to them. Are their prophecies just exposing his flaws, or are they controlling them?

19. Act 4 Scene 2: Macduff’s Castle
Ideas
Ambition
Innocence
Structure
The child is killed before the mother, further going against the natural order of the world. Is it more shocking that the mother must witness the child’s death before her own?
Language
‘mother’ reinforces the horror of M’s actionns and again we see terror
Context
SHKP’s use of child characters has been criticised as precocious and pathetic. Is the child’s fear justified here?
Macduff’s Son:
He has kill'd me, mother: Run away, I pray you!...
Effects / Explore
This is the point where M crosses from a challenge to the throne, which some could argue a king should expect, to moving to killing the entirely innocent. If we weren’t shocked before, we are now.

20. Act 4 Scene 3: England – Malcolm & Macduff then Ross brings latest news of Scotland
Language
‘Heaven’ has obvious biblical links. If MCB is Lucifer, Satan, what is MCD? The theme of heaven over looking the Earth runs throughout this scene with MCD and he also believes his sin has caused his family’s deaths.
Ideas
Gender roles
Structure
It is important that we find out MCD’s intentions after the witches’ prophecies about him
Macduff:
O I could play the woman…Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape, Heaven forgive him too!
Context
Views on gender would vary between a modern and older audience. We may challenge the stereotypical notions of manhood, but what’s interesting is that SHKP himself does this through MCD. Maybe it isn’t such a modern issue?
Effects / Explore
MCD is a man of little words, saying little but committing to swift and decisive action.
MCD says he could act like a female or he could act – what does this show about the role of gender? Equally, given MB and LMB’s focus on being a ‘man’, what could this show about how we should interpret what it means to be a ‘man’. He also says he ‘must feel it like a man’. He decides to kill MB – is it ever OK to take a life?

21. Act 5 Scene 1: Lady Macbeth sleepwalking scene
Ideas
Madness
Ambition
Language
‘spot’ – the imaginary blood on LMB’s hands
Repetition (diacope) of ‘out’
‘spot’ – the motif of blood occurs again and symbolises her guilt.
‘murky’ has connotations of darkness and sorrow, suggesting that LMB is already well acquiatined with the darkness of hell.
Structure
Earlier in the play, LMB says ‘a little water clears us’ but now it does not. This structure and link makes her descent towards madness even more shocking and apparent. She also does not speak in verse and not in iambic pentamenter which reflects her lack of control over basic actions such as speech.
Context
‘hell’ has clear biblical links – but is this simply saying that sin ends in hell?
Lady Macbeth:
Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!
Effects / Explore
This is the culmination of many aspects of the play. From the recurrence of blood as a motif, to the links to previous references to washing blood and water, the sleep walking Lady Macbeth is a shadow of her former self. Given the recurrence of blood, we sense it was inevitable. Does this show that sin will always end in madness, or does one have to be mad ton begin with to commit a sin?

22. Act 5 Scene 3: Macbeth hears of the English Army
Ideas
Fate vs Free Will
Appearances and reality
Loyalty
Structure
The Dramatic Irony continues across the play – we know why MCB has such brazen confidence.
Language
‘let them fly’ shows that MB is aware that his men are now marching against him. He believes those
Context
M’s words in this scene remind us of the essential theatricality of the action – that the lengthy soliloquies, off stage deaths and poetic speeches are not meant to capture reality but to reinterpret it in order to evoke a certain emotional response from the audience. ‘The Divine Right of Kings is a politicla and relgious doctrine of absolutism, deriving a king;s right to rule directly from the will of God. This also implies that attempts to despose a king run contrary to the will of God. In this sense, we question whether MCD’s plans are ethically valid.
Macbeth:
Bring me no more reports; let them fly all: Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, I cannot taint with fear. 
Effects / Explore
Macbeth’s confidence in the witches; prophecy gives him a false confidence here.
We also consider how a prophecy from the Witches can be both true and false; were they ever accurate prophecies or did they just encourage what was already within MCB.

23. Act 5 Scene 5: Macbeth learns of Lady M’s death
Ideas
Time
Fate
Language
Episeuxis = to-morrow – the structural repetition mimics the way M is saying that days blend into one another; it is as repetitive as he feels time and life is now that he has lost his wife and his dreams of power.
The word ‘syllable’ shows M is linking the fallibility of language with the tedium of time.
‘fool’ is a metaphor of the fool as a stand in for all humanity and our ‘yesterdays’ are what lead us to our deaths
Structure
L1 is rhythmic because of it’s repetition – the repetition sounds childlike. It could also sound compulsive, like M’s growing madness. The pace of the line could also show that M is searching for meaning.
L2 syllable and time are linked metrically by stresses
Macbeth:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death
Context
‘Dust’ has biblical undertones, referring to the storms of sands and dusts taken by Eastern travellers which were often deadly.
Effects / Explore
M is lamenting that each day creeps by like all others now that his wife has died.
He goes on to question life itself – we see a shell of his former self. Is life only worth living if we have what we truly desire?

24. What is this a play about?
Act 5 Scene 8: Macduff appears with Macbeth’s head and Malcolm takes his rightful place as King of Scotland
Ideas
Natural Order
Consequences
Language
M is the ‘dead butcher’ as he has murdered so many to feed his ambition.
‘grace of Grace’ also directly contrasts with M’s language throughout the play which is often dark, supernatural and deadly.
‘crown’d’ now sees the rightful King take his place, and natural order is now restored to the world.
Structure
The final line here provides a clear summary of the feelings both the audience and the characters have.
Context
‘Grace’ has clear biblical links and cements the idea that Jacobeans would believe him to be an excellent King because of Christian nature
Malcolm’s closing speech describes “this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen”
Last lines: So, thanks to all at once and to each one, Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone
Effects / Explore
What is this a play about?