Macbeth – Theme Quotations
Act 1, Scene 4 Macbeth meets King Duncan Macbeth: “[Aside] Stars, hide your fires! Let not light
Ambition and is given the title Thane of Cawdor.
Act 1, Scene 5 Lady Macbeth has just heard
about the Witches prophecy that Macbeth will
be King.
Act 1, Scene 7 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are
in conversation. Macbeth has just informed
Lady Macbeth that he does not think they
should kill Duncan.
Act 3, Scene 1 Macbeth is on stage alone. He is
now king and thinking about the witches’
prophecy o Banquo.
Act 3, Scene 4 Macbeth resolves to do whatever
is necessary to keep his throne.
Act 1, Scene 5 Lady Macbeth has just heard
Gender about the Witches prophecy that Macbeth will
be King.
Act 1, Scene 7 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are
in conversation. Macbeth has just informed
Lady Macbeth that he does not think they
should kill Duncan.
Act 3, Scene 4 Macbeth is frightened when
Banquo’s ghost appears.
Act 4, Scene 3 Macduff discovers that his family
has been slain, on Macbeth’s orders.
Act 1, Scene 1 The three witches meet.
The
Supernatu Act 1, Scene 3 Macbeth and Banquo have just
spoken with the Witches. Macbeth has been
ral told he will be King.
Act 2, Scene 1 Macbeth is on stage alone. He
is hallucinating and imagines a dagger before
him.
Act 3, Scene 2 Macbeth talks about his plans for
the murder of Banquo and Fleance with the
murderers.
Act 4, Scene 1 The witches gather to reveal the
final prophesies to Macbeth.
Act 1, Scene 7 Macbeth is on stage alone and
Guilt considering whether or not to kill Duncan.
Act 2, Scene 2 After murdering King Duncan
Macbeth is consumed with guilt.
Act 3, Scene 4 Banquo’s ghost appears at the
see my black and deep desires.”
Lady Macbeth: “Hie thee hither, that I may pour my
spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valor of my
tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round”
Lady Macbeth: “Art thou afeard to be the same in
thine own act and valor as thou art in desire?”
Macbeth: “Upon my head they placed a fruitless
crown and put a barren scepter in my grip, thence to
be wrenched with an unlineal hand, no son of mine
succeeding.”
Macbeth: “I am in blood stepped in so far that, should
I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er.”
Lady Macbeth “Make thick my blood, stop up the
access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious
visitings of nature shake my fell purpose… Come to my
woman's breasts, and take my milk for gall.”
Macbeth: “Prithee, peace: I dare do all that may
become a man; who dares do more is none.”
Macbeth: “Bring forth men-children only, for thy
undaunted mettle should compose nothing but
males.”
Lady Macbeth: “Are you a man? … O, proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear. Shame itself!”
Malcolm: “Dispute it like a man.”
Macduff: “I shall do so, but I must also feel it as a
man.”
Witches: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
Macbeth: “This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill,
cannot be good.”
Macbeth: “Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a
false creation, proceeding from the heat‐oppressèd
brain?”
Macbeth: “Ere the bat hath flown his cloister'd flight,
ere to black Hecate's summons the shard-borne
beetle with his drowsy hums hath rung night's
yawning peal, there shall be done a deed of dreadful
note.”
Witches: “Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”
Macbeth: “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.”
Macbeth: “Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no
more! Macbeth does murder sleep, — the innocent
sleep”
Macbeth: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this
blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will
rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine”
Macbeth: “Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is
 Banquet.
Act 5, Scene 1 Lady Macbeth has gone mad with
guilt and is sleepwalking.
Act 1, Scene 2 The Sergeant describes
Loyalty Macbeth’s brave actions during the battle.
and
Bravery Act 1, Scene 7 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are
in conversation. Macbeth has just informed
Lady Macbeth that he does not think they
should kill Duncan.
Act 4, Scene 3 Macduff reveals his sincere love
for his country through his desire to see a good
and honourable man as its king.
Act 5, Scene 7 Macbeth and Macduff meet
face to face. They fight.
Act 1, Scene 3 Macbeth is about to meet the
Chaos and witches for the first time.
Disorder Act 2, Scene 1 On the night of the murder,
Banquo and Fleance discuss how dark the
knight is.
Act 2, Scene 3 Lennox speaks to Macbeth the
morning after the murder of Duncan.
Act 2, Scene 4 Ross speaks to an Old Man about
the strange things that have occurred in nature.
Act 2, Scene 4 Duncan’s royal horses, known for
being well-trained and obedient have apparently
turned to cannibalism.
Act 3, Scene 5 Hecate admonishes the witches
for their disobedience. The "supernatural" still
has rules and hierarchy.
cold thou hast no speculation in those eyes”
Lady Macbeth: “Here's the smell of the blood still: all
the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh, oh, oh!”
Sergeant: “For brave Macbeth… disdaining fortune,
with his brandish'd steel… unseam'd him from the
nave to the chaps, and fix'd his head upon our
battlements.”
Lady Macbeth: “We fail? But screw your courage to
the sticking-place, and we'll not fail.”
Lady Macbeth: “I would, while it was smiling in my
face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.”
Macduff: “O nation miserable
With an untitled tyrant, bloody-sceptered”
Macbeth: “I will not yield, to kiss the ground before
young Malcolm’s feet, and to be baited with the
rabble’s curse.”
Macbeth: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”
Banquo: ““There’s husbandry in heaven… Their
candles are all out”
Lennox: “The night has been unruly… some say, the
earth was feverous and did shake.”
Old Man: “'Tis unnatural, even like the deed that's
done. On Tuesday last,a falcon, towering in her pride
of place, was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.”
Ross: “Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung
out… Contending 'gainst obedience”
Hecate: “And which is worse, all you have done hath
been but for a wayward son, spiteful and wrathful,
who, as others do, loves for his own ends, not for
you.”