Macbeth Quotes

“Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here. / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty.”

(Lady Macbeth) (Act 1, Scene 5)

Analysis

These lines are spoken by Lady Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 5, lines 36–52, as she awaits King Duncan’s arrival at her castle. She has planned Duncan’s murder and convinced Macbeth to kill the king, although Macbeth is still quite hesitant. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, is determined to kill Duncan and urges the gods to make her more masculine, so that she can kill Duncan herself. When she says, “Come to my woman’s breasts, / And take my milk for gall,” the audience can infer that Lady Macbeth likely sees womanhood—represented by images such as breasts and milk, symbols of nurture—as the obstacle that prevents her from fulfilling her ambitions. It is after all Lady Macbeth’s resolve that drives Macbeth.

“Out, damned spot; out, I say. One, two,—why, then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”

(Lady Macbeth) (Act 5, Scene 1)

Analysis

These words are spoken by Lady Macbeth in Act 5, Scene 1, lines 30–34, as she sleepwalks through the castle at night. These lines represent her transformation from a ruthlessly driven person to a person ravaged by guilt. When, after killing Duncan, Macbeth had worried that his hands will forever be bloodstained, Lady Macbeth had said, “A little water clears us of this deed,” quickly dismissing his guilt with her pragmatism. However, she soon finds herself crippled by guilt. Later, she also imagines that her hands are permanently bloodstained, and she is also unable to wash away the stains.

Equally notable is the fact that this speech is not in verse. This is one of very few instances in the play when a major character—except the witches, who speak in four-foot couplets—moves away from iambic pentameter. This shows that Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness is now complete. Her insomnia is foreshadowed in an earlier scene where Macbeth, after killing Duncan, had claimed that he’d heard an ominous voice declaring that he had killed sleep. Torn apart by guilt and insomnia, Lady Macbeth remarks, “Hell is murky.” The line shows that the Macbeths have created their own hell with their relentless pursuit of power.

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, / And then is heard no more. It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.”

(Macbeth) (Act 5, Scene 5)

Analysis

Macbeth utters these lines in Act 5, Scene 5, lines 16–27, when he is informed of Lady Macbeth’s death. Given their strong love for each other, Macbeth’s reaction to news of Lady Macbeth’s death might seem subdued on the surface. However, these lines also contain despair and pessimism. Lady Macbeth’s death, coupled with the English army marching toward his castle, seems to rob Macbeth of hope and his sense of purpose. Life has been rendered redundant; he feels it is “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.” Nonetheless, this line can also be seen as Macbeth’s attempt to justify his many misdeeds: for if everything is meaningless, then his crimes, too, are insignificant and amount to nothing.

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”

(The Witches) (Act 1, Scene 1)

“When the battle’s lost and won.”

(Second Witch) (Act 1, Scene 1)

“Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.”

(Lady Macbeth) (Act 1, Scene 5)

“I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.”

(Macbeth) (Act 1, Scene 7)

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?”

(Macbeth) (Act 2, Scene 2)

“What’s done is done.”

(Lady Macbeth) (Act 3, Scene 2)

“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.”

(Lady Macbeth) (Act 3, Scene 2)

“All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

(Lady Macbeth) (Act 5, Scene 1)

“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.”

(Macbeth) (Act 5, Scene 5)

“I bear a charmed life.”

(Macbeth) (Act 5, Scene 8)