preview

MacBeth Quotes Analysis

Decent Essays

1. So fair and foul a day I have not seen
Macbeth to Banquo
At the heath, after the battle, before they meet the witches
I had never seen a day with such terrible weather, but with great outcomes in battle.
Pathetic fallacy: weather reflecting the atmosphere/events of the story. If the weather is bad, bad things will happen. Soon after Macbeth says this, the three witches show up and tell him prophecies which he will act upon and pay for with his life.
Foreshadowing: the bad weather signifies that something bad will happen.

2. 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 consequences.
Banquo to Macbeth
After they …show more content…

Methought I heard a voice cry, “sleep no more: Macbeth does murder sleep”…
Macbeth to Lady Macbeth
After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth is talking to Lady Macbeth about the event
I thought I heard a voice say “you can sleep no more, Macbeth is murdering sleep”
Reveals character: Macbeth thinks it is his conscience, telling him he can 't sleep anymore due to his guilt. He is starting to emotionally break down.

8. …the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures; tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil…
Lady Macbeth to Macbeth
After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth is talking to Lady Macbeth about the event
Sleeping and dead people can’t hurt you any more than pictures can. Only children are afraid of scary pictures.
Theme 1-appearances can be deceiving: dead people may look scary but they can’t hurt anyone.

9. …here lay Duncan, his silver skin lac’d with his golden blood and his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature…
Macbeth to Macduff, Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lady Macbeth (everyone at the murder scene)
After Macbeth killed Duncan’s servants, explaining why he killed them
There was Duncan, his white skin all splattered with his precious blood. The gashes where the knives had cut him looked like wounds to nature itself.
Theme 3-overturning the natural order of things is bad: Duncan is being compared to nature itself, killing him will have no good outcome

10. To show an unfelt sorrow is an office which the

Get Access