Macbeth Key Quotations wjec-eduqas Shakespeare

Key Quotations

The best way to revise quotations is to group them by character or theme. Below you will find definitions and analysis of the best quotations, arranged by the following themes:

• Ambition and power

• The supernatural

• Appearance versus reality

• Corruption of nature

Ambition and power

Principally, Macbeth is a play about ambition and its consequences. It can also be seen as a warning against those who seek to undermine or overthrow the rule of a rightful king.

“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition” – Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII

Meaning and context

• Macbeth is saying that it is his own ambition that is his only motivation to murder King Duncan

• This soliloquy comes as Macbeth is deciding whether to kill King Duncan or not

Analysis

• Shakespeare has his protagonist, Macbeth, clearly state his hamartia (“ambition”) to the audience

• It is implied that there is no other motivation for Macbeth (“no spur”)

• Shakespeare could be suggesting that Macbeth’s fatal flaw (“ambition”) overcomes all of his other, positive character traits

• Later in the same soliloquy, Macbeth says this ambition “o’erleaps itself” (trips itself up), suggesting Macbeth is aware on some level that he is doomed if he commits regicide

“When you durst do it, then you were a man” – Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII

Meaning and context

• Lady Macbeth is suggesting that only if Macbeth commits the murder of King Duncan that he could be considered a real man

• This comes after Macbeth has expressed doubts about the plan to commit regicide

Analysis

• Lady Macbeth is attacking Macbeth’s masculinity

• It would hurt Macbeth’s pride; in the Jacobean era, manliness would have been equated with strength, so here Lady Macbeth is calling Macbeth weak

• It is an example of role reversal: Lady Macbeth, unusually for a woman, is manipulating and dominating a man

• As a woman, Lady Macbeth’s power is in her skills of deception and manipulation

“Life […] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” – Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

Meaning and context

• Macbeth is suggesting that although in life lots seem to happen, ultimately, it is meaningless and without purpose

• This powerful soliloquy comes after Macbeth is told of the death of Lady Macbeth

Analysis

• This is an example of nihilism: a belief that life is pointless (“signifying nothing”)

• For a largely Christian Jacobean audience, this rejection of God’s plan and the suggestion of a rejection of Heaven and Hell, would have been shocking

• However, it is also a moment of pathos: the audience, despite his blasphemous words, would still feel sympathy for a once noble general who has lost his wife

• It perhaps also represents a moment of anagnorisis: a tragic hero’s realisation that all his actions were for “nothing” and that he will be defeated 

The Supernatural

The vast majority of people in Jacobean England were Christian and believed in the literal word of the Bible. Supernatural events or characters, therefore, would have been seen as evil and the work of the devil.

Paired quotations

“Stars hide your fires; let not light see my dark and deep desires” – Macbeth, Act I, Scene IV

“Come, thick night and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of Hell […] nor Heaven peep through” – Lady Macbeth, Act I, Scene V

Meaning and context

• Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are asking for their evil (“dark”, and in some editions, “black”) desires to be hidden from God

• Both quotations come as they are plotting the murder of King Duncan

Analysis

• Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are both on their own on stage when they speak these lines, suggesting that these soliloquys reveal the characters’ true feelings

• The fact that Lady Macbeth echoes Macbeth’s words shows that they still have a close relationship based on shared ideas (unlike later in the play)

• The religious symbolism (“stars”, “light”, “Heaven”) suggests that both characters are aware of the significance and consequences (“Hell”) of committing regicide

• Both characters use imperative verbs (“hide”, “come”) to command the natural world (“stars”, “night”). This could be seen as blasphemous and an attempt to disrupt the Great Chain of Being or God’s plan