English Literature - Macbeth - Macbeth - Quotes

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Act 1, Scene 2 - Macbeth is a Hero - Card 1

  • "brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name" - Captain
  • "valour's minion" - Captain
  • "he unseamed him from the nave to the chops" - Captain
  • "valiant cousin" - Duncan
  • "worthy gentleman" - Duncan
  • "As sparrows, eagles, or the hare, the lion." - Captain
  • "they were as cannons overcharged with double cracks" - Captain
  • "doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe" - Captain - (translation - they attacked our enemies twice as hard)
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Act 1, Scene 2 - Macbeth is a Hero - Card 2

  • "they meant to bathe in reeking wounds" - Captain - (translation - It was as if they wanted to bathe in our enemies' blood)
  • "Bellona's bridegroom" - Rosse - (Bellona was the Roman godess of war.)
  • "noble Macbeth" - Duncan
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Act 1, Scene 3 -Macbeth meets the witches -Card 1

  • "All hail Macbeth!" - The Witches
  • "Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair?" - Banquo
  • "My noble partner" - Banquo
  • "Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more." + "Speak, I charge you."- Macbeth - He tries to command the witches (imperative sentences) and it seems as though they have sparked his ambition. 
  • "the greatest is behind" - Macbeth - (translation = the greatest (title) is yet to come.)
  • "this supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good" - Macbeth
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Act 1, Scene 3 -Macbeth meets the witches -Card 2

  • "If good, why do I yield to that suggestion, whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature?" - Macbeth - Macbeth is physically shocked at the thought of killing Duncan.
  • "Present fears are less than horrible imaginings." - Macbeth - Macbeth's murderous thoughts terrify him more than the witches.
  • "My thought, whose murder is yet but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered in sumise, and nothing is, but what is not." - Macbeth - Even though Duncan's murder is just a fantasy, it shakes him to the core. "Nothing is but what is not" suggests that it is unnatural.
  • "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir." - Macbeth - Macbeth hopes that he will not have to commit any crime to become king.
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Act 1, Scene 3 -Macbeth meets the witches -Card 3

  • "worthy Macbeth" - Banquo
  • "My dull brain was wrought with things forgotten" - Macbeth - Macbeth has considered regicide previously and the witches promises have caused these murderous thoughts to resurface.
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Act 1, Scene 4 - Duncan thanks Macbeth - Card 1

  • "worthiest cousin" - Duncan
  • "Would thou hadst less deserved, that the proportion both of thanks and payment might have been mine" - Dunacn - (translation = Only if you deserved less could I thank and reward you enough)
  • "more is thy due than more than all can pay" - Duncan -  (translation = I owe you more than I can ever repay)
  • "The service and the loyalty I owe, in doing it, pays itself" - Macbeth - He states he is rewarded enough by having the privellidge to serve Duncan.
  • "I have begun to plant thee, and will labour to make thee full of growing." - Duncan - He wants to see Macbeth succeed. This makes his murder all the more horrific.
  • "My worthy Cawdor!" - Duncan
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Act 1, Scene 4 - Duncan thanks Macbeth - Card 2

  • "That is a step on which I must fall down or else o'erleap, for in my way it lies." - Macbeth (in reference to the naming of Malcom as Duncan's heir) - At the sign of an obstacle, Macbeth becomes uneasy and believes he can no longer rely on chance. The use of the possessive pronoun "my" suggests that he thinks that he has a right to the throne and that Malcom is undeserving.
  • "Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires" - Macbeth - Macbeth's link to darkness shows he has evil intentions, which are further highlighted by the rhyming couplets succeeding his statments, mimicing the withches mannerisms. This also shows how the witches are manipulating Macbeth.
  • "he is full so valiant" - Duncan
  • "it is a peerless kinsman" - Duncan - (translation = no one compares to Macbeth)
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Act 1, Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth plots against Duncan

  • "thy nature, it is too full o'th'milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way." - Lady Macbeth - Lady Macbeth believes Macbeth is too weak to do what it takes to become king.
  • "art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it." - Lady Macbeth
  • "what thou wouldst highly, thou wouldst thou holily; thou wouldst not play false, and yet wouldst wrongly win." - Lady Macbeth - (translation = The things you want to do, you want to do like a good man. You don't want to cheat, yet you want what doesn't belong to you.)
  • "Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor" - Lady Macbeth
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Act 1, Scene 6 - Duncan arrives at Macbeth's castl

  • "we love him highly" - Duncan
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Act 1, Scene 7-The Macbeths plan the murder-Card 1

  • "If th'assassination could trammel up with his surcease, success, that but this blow might be the be-all and end-all - here, but here, on this bank and shoal of time, we'd jump the life to come" - Macbeth - (translation = If murdering Duncan could prevent any consequences, then this murder might be all I have to do, and I would gladly put my soul and the afterlife at risk to do it.) - Macbeth is afraid of the consequences that may come of Duncan's murder yet, if these could be prevented he's gladly sacrifice the afterlife for a chance to be king.
  • "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 - He does not want to betray Duncan's trust after all he has given him. The strict societal customs of the time mean that the conventions of a good host are important to Macbeth and murdering the king as his host would further build on the atrocities of the deed.
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Act 1, Scene 7-The Macbeths plan the murder-Card 2

  • "I have no spur to pr*ck the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself and falls on th'other" - Macbeth - (translation = I have no reason to kill Duncan except my own ambition, and ambition causes people to rush towards their downfall) 
  • "We will proceed no further in this business." - Macbeth 
  • "I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none." - Macbeth - (translation = I do everything that is suitable for a man. He who dares to do maore is not a man at all.)
  • "When you durst do it, then you were a man. And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man." - Lady Macbeth
  • "If we should fail?" - Macbeth - He is still unsure and cautious about the murder.
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Act 1, Scene 7-The Macbeths plan the murder-Card 3

  • "I am settled and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat." - Macbeth - It was not very difficult to persuade Macbeth into commiting the crime, even after he was seemingly strongly opposed to it. This shows that he is weak and that Lady Macbeth plays a dominant role in the relationship, contrary to what was typical of the time. - Use of the noun "feat" shows him to have a rather large ego and likely believes he is rather powerful. (feat = an achievement that requires great courage, skill, or strength)
  • "Away, and mock the time with the fairest show: false face must hide what the false heart doth know." - Macbeth - The rhyming couplets succeeding Macbeth's statements show how the witches play a part in manipulating him into going through with it. 
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Act 2, Scene 1 - Macbeth sees the dagger - Card 1

  • "nature seems dead" - Macbeth (whilst on his way to Duncan's chamers) - Nature reflects upon Macbeth's evil state of mind and the crimes he is about to commit.
  • "with Tarquin's ravishing strides" - Macbeth - The reference to Tarquin (the model of the two-faced and evil king) portrays Macbeth in a similar light. - (Tarquin was a Roman prince who sneaked into a Roman wife’s bedroom in the middle of the night and r*ped her, while in the day time, he acted as a good and honorable king.)
  • "Thou sure and firm-set earth, hear not my steps, which wat they walk, for fear thy very stones prate of my whereabout" - Macbeth - He is fearful that the stones of the castle will alert others to his whereabouts. This anxious and unstable disposition shows the initiation of Macbeth's mental decline and how it is linked with Duncan's murder. - (prate = speak)
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Act 2, Scene 1 - Macbeth sees the dagger - Card 2

  • "Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell." - Macbeth - Rhyming couplets show how the witches are manipulating him. - (knell = funeral bell)
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Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth has killed Duncan - Card

  • "Did not you speak?" "When?" "Now." "As I descended?" "Ay." "Hark!" - Lady Macbeth / Macbeth - Short sentences are indicative of their troubled and uneasy disposition following Duncan's murder.
  • "I could not say 'Amen'" "'Amen' stuck in my throat- Macbeth - Shows that by committing the deed (and partly by placing trust with the witches) he has sold his soul to hell. He is unable to ask for God's forgiveness, as though these deeds cannot be forgiven.
  • "Macbeth does murder sleep" + "Macbeth shall sleep no more"- Foreshadows how Macbeth will be so haunted by this nightmarish deed that he will hardly be able to sleep.
  • "worthy thane" - Lady Macbeth
  • "I'll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done" - Macbeth
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Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth has killed Duncan - Card

  • "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No - this my hand will rather the multitudinous sea incarnadine, making the green one red" - Macbeth - Macbeth states that not even Neptune's ocean could wash evidence of this deed from his hands, showing the sheer magnitude of it. - This is also indicative of Macbeth's ego. Perhaps he believes that he has done something so great that not even a god (Neptune) could stand up to it. - (incarnadine = turn red)
  • "a heart so white" - Lady Macbeth - She is accusing Macbeth of cowardice for refusing to go back to the crime scene.
  • "Your constancy hath left you unattended." - Lady Macbeth - (translation = You've lost your nerve.)
  • "To know my deed, t'were best not to know myself." - Macbeth - (translation = It's better to be lost in my thoughts than to think about what I have done.)
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Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth has killed Duncan - Card

  • "Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou couldst." - Macbeth - He regrets what he has done.
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Act 2, Scene 3 -Duncan's body is discovered-Card 1

  • "The night has been unruly - where we lay, our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, Lamentings heard i'th'air, strange screams of death and prophesying with accents terrible of dire combustion and confused events, new hatched to th'woeful time. The obscure bird clamoured the livelong night. Some say, the earth was feverous and did shake." + "My young rememberance cannot parallel a fellow to it." - Lennox - Nature is, once again, mimicing the deeds being commited. There were strong winds, owls screeching and even an earthquake on the night of Duncan's murder, suggesting it is unnatural and goes against God (as kings were thought to be the representative of God on earth). - (obscure bird = owl)
  • "'Twas a rough night." - Macbeth - Short sentences imply he is tense and on edge.
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Act 2, Scene 3 -Duncan's body is discovered-Card 2

  • "Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessèd time, for from this instant, there's nothing serious in mortality. ..." - Macbeth - Shows that his greif is false as his language is too poetic, considering he is supposedly in shock.
  • "Th'expedition of my violent love outran the pauser, reason." + "'Who could refrain, that had a heart to love, and in that heart courage to make's love known?" - Macbeth - (translation (of the 1st) = My love of Duncan overpowered my reason, (driving me to kill the guards)) - (translation (of the 2nd) = Who could have restrained himself, who loved Duncan and had the courage to act on it?)
  • "There's daggers in men's smiles" - Donalbain - He states that people often hide their true intentions. Perhaps he's implying that he thinks it was Macbeth who killed Duncan.
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Act 2, Scene 4 - Macbeth is to be king - Card 1

  • "Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man's act, threatens his bloody stage." - Rosse - (translation = You can see the skies. They look like they're upset about what mankind has been doing, and they're threatening the Earth with storms.)
  • "dark night strangles the travelling lamp" - Rosse - (travelling lamp = the sun)
  • "'Tis unnatural" - Old Man
  • "A falcon, towering in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed." - Old Man - A falcon has been killed by an ordinary owl that often goes after mice and is lower in the food chain. This symbollises Macbeth killing Duncan.
  • "'Tis said they (Duncan's exemplar horses) ate eachother." - Old Man
  • All of the above - Further suggests that Macbeth's actions go against nature.
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Act 2, Scene 4 - Macbeth is to be king - Card 2

  • "'Gainst nature still! Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up thine own life's means!" - Rosse - Rosse thinks that "thriftless (pointless) ambition" drove Donalbain and Malcom to murder Duncan. He believes this is a pitiful reason. - (by "life's means" he means Duncan (their farther)).
  • "Will you to Scone?" "No, cousin, I'll to Fife." - Rosse/Macduff - Macduff says he will not attend Macbeth's coronation, suggesting that he doesn't support Macbeth's claim to be king. - (Macbeth's coronation takes place in Scone.)
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Act 3, Scene 1-Macbeth plots Banquo's murder-Card1

  • "Thou hast it now - King, Cawdor, Glamis, all" - Banquo - The use of the determiner(?) "all" suggests that Banquo feels as though he has nothing and resents Macbeth for it. He has also listed Macbeth's aquired titles in descending order of hierarchy and succeeding them is "all", perhaps implying that he has lost everything in becoming king (in terms of his morals and values).
  • "To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus" - Macbeth - He is not happy being king until he can be sure his position is secure. This shows his unsteady state of mind developing. He is so anxious of losing his title that he will go to great lengths (murder) to secure it.
  • "in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared" + "There is none but he whose being I do fear" - Macbeth (speaking about Banquo) - He is afraid of Banquo's loyalty to Duncan.
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Act 3, Scene 1-Macbeth plots Banquo's murder-Card2

  • "under him my genius is rebuked" - Macbeth - (Translation - Around him, my guardian angel is scorned) - Banquo looks down upon Macbeth's guardian angel for letting him commit such heinous crimes.
  • "Know that it was he who, in the times past, that held you so under fortune, which you thought had been our innocent self." - Macbeth - He convinces the murderers that it was Banquo who made their lives so miserable, showing how disloyal he is to his friend. (This contrasts with Banquo - Act 1, Scene 3 - "New honours come upon him like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould but with the aid of use." - He covers for Macbeth.)
  • "It is concluded. Banquo, thy souls's flight, if it find heaven, must find it out tonight." - Macbeth - Rhyming couplets upon the descion of a murder shows how Macbeth is being manipulated by the witches.
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Act 3, Scene 1-Macbeth plots Banquo's murder-Card3

  • "Rather than so, come fate into the list. And champion me to the utterance." - Macbeth - Macbeth speaks as though he's challenging fate, showing how he has become overwhelmed with power. I may also represent his need to be in control.
  • Note!: When Macbeth was considering Duncan's murder, the thought of it shock him to the very core, yet, with Banquo, there is no hesitation, showing how he has lost his morals and murdering Duncan has caused his mental state to decline. 
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Act 3, Scene 2 - Macbeth feels anxious - Card 1

  • "you keep alone, of sorriest fancies" - Lady Macbeth - Macbeth has become distant and often dwell in his dismal thoughts. - (fancies = thoughts)
  • "poor malice" - Macbeth - (translation = pathetic evil deeds) - He regrets the things he has done. They were not worth it.
  • "Better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, than on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy." + "Duncan is in his grave; after life's fitful fever, he sleeps well" - Macbeth - (translation = I’d rather be dead than endure this endless mental torture and harrowing sleep deprivation. We killed those men and sent them to rest in peace so that we could gain our own peace.) - He envies Duncan as he has had an escape from the torture of life. This further emphasises Macbeth's regret and how his deeds were futile. He feels as though his life is no better for becoming king.
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Act 3, Scene 2 - Macbeth feels anxious - Card 2

  • "O, full of scorpions is my mind" - Macbeth - He feels as though his mind is working against him, causing him pain and torment.
  • "scorpions" + "bat" + "beetle" + "crow" - Macbeth - Unpleasant animal imagery links to the witches' spell in Act 4, Scene 1, showing further how Macbeth is being manipulated by them.
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Act 3, Scene 3 - Banquo is murdered

  • Note!: In this scene, Macbeth has sent a third murderer that was not originally asked for. This may be indicative of howanxious and paranoid he has become. 
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Act 3, Scene 4 - Banquo's ghost appears - Card 1

  • "Then comes my fit again - I had else been perfect; whole as the marble, founded as the rock, as broad and general as the casing air. But now, I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in saucy doubts and fears." - Macbeth - (translation = Now I’m scared again. Otherwise I would have been perfect, as solid as a piece of marble, as firm as a rock, as free as the air itself. But now I’m all tangled up with doubts and fears.) - The alliteration suggests that Macbeth feels trapped by the witches promises to Banquo and by his anxieties, as though he is running out of options. He still feels insecure in his position and his paranoia is thus increasing.
  • "Are you a man?" - Lady Macbeth - She accuses Macbeth of cowardice, once again. - She also states these fearful expression make him look like "a woman" and that he is "quite unmanned in folly" (meaning that his foolishness has taken away his manhood.).
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Act 3, Scene 4 - Banquo's ghost appears - Card 2

  • "It will have blood, they say. The blood will have blood." - Macbeth - (translation = There’s an old saying: the dead will have their revenge.) - Macbeth is fearful that the murders may be his downfall.
  • "In his house I keep a servant fee'd" - Macbeth - Since Macduff refused to attend Macbeth's coronation, he has payed a servant to spy for him in MAcduff's castle, showing that he is paranoid and insecure.
  • "Strange things I have in head that will to hand, which must be acted ere they my be scanned." - Macbeth -  (translation = I have some schemes in my head that I’m planning to put into action. I have to do these things before I have a chance to think about them.) - Macbeth is acting impulsively, without thought. His behaviour has become reckless as a result of his paranoia. - Rhyming couplets suggest that these actions are being controlled by the witches and that they are the cause of this reckless behaviour.
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Act 3, Scene 4 - Banquo's ghost appears - Card 3

  • Note!: The apperance of Banquo's ghost emphasises Macbeth's mental decline yet also shows how the dead "rise again" in Macbeth's words, once again, showing how the natural order has been reversed since Duncan's murder.
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Act 3, Scene 6 - Lennox is suspicious - Card 1

  • "Who cannot want to thought how monsterous it was for Malcom and for Donalbain to kill their gracious farther? ... Did he not straight in pious rage the two delinquents tear, that were slaves of drink and thralls of sleep? Was not that nobly done?" - Lennox - (translation = who can help thinking how monstrous it was for Malcolm and Donalbain to kill their gracious father? ... Wasn’t it loyal of him to kill those two servants right away, while they were still drunk and asleep? That was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?- The use of rhetorical questions imply that Lennox is speaking sarcastically and believes that Macbeth is, in actual fact, guilty of Duncan's murder, though he cannot say thus as to do so would be treacherous.
  • "tyrant" - Lord
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Act 3, Scene 6 - Lennox is suspicious - Card 2

  • Note!: In this scene, we hear much of King Edward. He is said to be "holy" and "pious" (pious = saintly/devotedly religious) and to treat Malcom (who is staying with him in England) with "such grace, that the malevolence of fortune nothing takes from his high respect" (translation = so well that despite Malcolm’s misfortunes, he’s not deprived of respect. Macduff went there to ask King Edward for help.). This is juxtaposed to Macbeth's tyranical reign, diminishing him by comparison.
  • (Macduff is trying to form an alliance with the people of Northumbria and their lord, Siward so that...) "we may again give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, do faithful homage and recieve free honors" - Lord - It is said that Macbeth's reign has lead to starving families and sleepless nights, showing how Scottland has declined succeeding Macbeth's coronation, further suggesting that Macbeth was never meant for the throne.
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Act 3, Scene 6 - Lennox is suspicious - Card 3

  • "our suffering country (Scottland) under a hand accursed!" - Lennox 
  • Note!: In this scene, it is shown that even minor character such as Lennox and the lord hate Macbeth. This shows how Macbeth's tyranical reign has affected everyone and that the hatred of him is widespread across Scottland.
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Act 4, Scene 1 -Macbeth visits the witches -Card 1

  • "something wicked" - The Witches
  • "answer me" + "I will be satisfied. Deny me this, and an eternal curse fall on you. Let me know."- Macbeth - Imperative sentences show how Macbeth attempts to command the witches and even threatens them with an "eternal curse". This shows how he has become overwhelmed by the power he has so rapidly recieved and believes he is more powerful than the witches. Shows he has a large ego.
  • "He will not be commanded." + "Seek to know no more"- The Witches - Shows that these supernatural forces are far more powerful than Macbeth. They refuse his demmands.
  • "From this moment, the firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand." - Once again, shows how his behaviour is becoming reckless and he is acting without thought. 
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Act 4, Scene 1 -Macbeth visits the witches -Card 2

  • "Though you untie the winds and let them fight against the churches, though the yeasty waves confound and swallow navigation up, though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down, though castles topple on their warders' heads, though palaces and pyramids do slope their heads to their foundations, though the treasure of nature’s germens tumble all together, even till destruction sicken, answer me to what I ask you." - Macbeth - Macbeth is willing to let the witches 'unleash violent winds that tear down churches, make the foamy waves overwhelm ships and send sailors to their deaths, flatten crops and trees, make castles fall down on their inhabitants' heads, make palaces and pyramids collapse, and mix up everything in nature', simply so that he is able to get the information he desires. This shows how he has become greedy and lacks any regard for anything other than himself.
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Act 4, Scene 1 -Macbeth visits the witches -Card 3

  • "Then live, Macduff, what need I fear of thee? But yet, I'll make assurance double sure. And take a bond of fate - thou shall not live, that I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, and sleep in spite of thunder." - Macbeth - (translation = Then I don’t need to kill Macduff. I have no reason to fear him. But even so, I’ll make doubly sure. I’ll guarantee my own fate by having you killed, Macduff. That way I can conquer my own fear and sleep easy at night.) - Macbeth has been told that 'none of woman born shall harm Macbeth' yet he still decides he shall kill Macduff showing the sheer magnitude of his paranoia. He now says that killing him would allow him to sleep better, whereas he says Duncan's death made him deprived of sleep. This shows how his mental state has changed. He no longer cares about his conscience or about others, only about his position.
  • "No boasting like a fool, this deed I'll do before this purpose cool" - Macbeth - Rhyming couplets show how the witches are controlling and manipulating Macbeth.
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Act 4, Scene 2 - Lady Macduff is murdered

  • "egg" + "fry" - Murderer (referring to Macduff's son) - Calling him "egg" (runt) and "fry", emphasises how young he is, making Macbeth's desicion to have him killed all the more horrific.
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Act 4, Scene 3 - Macduff wants revenge - Card 1

  • "Each new morn, new windows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows strike heaven on the face, that it resounds as if it felt with Scottland and yelled out like syllable of dolour." - Macduff - (translation =  Each day new widows howl, new orphans cry, and new sorrows slap heaven in the face, until it sounds like heaven itself feels Scotland’s anguish and screams in pain.- Macbeths reign is so horrific that even heaven has been affected to the point at which it yelled out screams of pain.
  • "tyrant" - Malcom
  • "whose sole name blisters our tounges" - Malcom - It hurts to even speak Macbeth's name.
  • "I am not treacherous." "But Macbeth is." - Macduff/Malcom - Malcom has no doubt that it was Macbeth who murdered Duncan.
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Act 4, Scene 3 - Macduff wants revenge - Card 2

  • "Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell." - Malcom - (translation = Angels are still bright even though Lucifer, the brightest angel, fell from heaven.) - He is saying that even though Macbeth reigns, there may still be good people in Scottland. - In this analogy, Macbeth is compared to lucifer, the devil.
  • "Great tyranny!" - Macduff
  • "I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash is added to her wounds." - Malcom - (translation = I do think Scotland is sinking under Macbeth’s oppression. Our country weeps, it bleeds, and each day a fresh cut is added to her wounds.) - Macbeth's tyranny has drastically damaged Scottland. Female pronoun to describe Scottland shows that it is weak due to conceptions of females in Shakespeare's time.
  • "black Macbeth" - Malcom - Meaning 'evil Macbeth'.
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Act 4, Scene 3 - Macduff wants revenge - Card 3

  • "Not in the legions of horrid hell can come a devil more damned in evils to top Macbeth." - Macduff - (translation = Even in hell you couldn’t find a devil worse than Macbeth.)
  • "bloody, luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, sudden, malicious, smaking of every sin that has a name" - Malcom - (translation = murderous, lecherous, greedy, lying, deceitful, violent/impulsive, malicious, and guilty of every sin that has a name.) - (luxurious/lecherous = excessive sexual desire) (avaricious = greed for wealth or material gain) - Juxtaposed to the qualities of a good king listed later in the scene - ("justice, verity, temperance, stableness, bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, devotion, patience, courage, fortitude") - and the holy King Edward who is "full of grace."
  • "untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered" - Macduff - (translation = usurping, murderous tyrant) - (untitled/usurping = take (a position of power or importance) illegally or by force.) - The sceptre is a symbol of his royal position. That it is bloody shows that his sovereignty is tainted.
  • "devilish Macbeth" - Malcom
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Act 4, Scene 3 - Macduff wants revenge - Card 4

  • "Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot be called our mother, but our grave; where nothing, but who knows nothing, is once seen to smile; where sighs, and groans, and shrieks that rend the air are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems a modern ecstasy. The dead man's knell is there scarce asked for who, and good men's lives expire before the flowers in their caps, dying or ere they sicken." - Rosse - (translation = Alas, our poor country! It’s too frightened to look at itself. Scotland is no longer the land where we were born; it’s the land where we’ll die. Where no one ever smiles except for the fool who knows nothing. Where sighs, groans, and shrieks rip through the air but no one notices. Where violent sorrow is a common emotion. When the funeral bells ring, people no longer ask who died. Good men die before the flowers in their caps wilt. They die before they even fall sick.)
  • "That's an hour's age doth hiss the speaker - each minute teems a new one." - Rosse - (translation = Even news an hour old is old news. Every minute another awful thing happens.)
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Act 4, Scene 3 - Macduff wants revenge - Card 5

  • "our women fight, to doff their dire distress" - Rosse - (translation = Even the women would fight to rid themselves of Macbeth’s oppression.)
  • "An older and a better soldier none that Christendom gives out." - Malcom  (referring to Siward) - (translation = There is no soldier more experienced or successful than Siward in the entire Christian world.) - Shows how powerful Macbeth is that he is able to defeat Siward at the end of the play.
  • "No mind that's honest but in it shares some woe" - Rosse - (translation = No decent man can keep from sharing in the sorrow) - Shows that, since Macbeth was able to order the murder without hesitation, he is far from a decent man.
  • "hell-kite" - Macduff - (translation = bird from hell)
  • "fiend of Scottland" - Macduff
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Act 5, Scene 2 -The English army approaches-Card 1

  • "tyrant" - Menteith
  • "Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him do call it valiant fury. But, for certain, he cannot buckle his distempered cause within the belt of rule." - Caithness - (translation = Some say he’s insane. Those who hate him less call it brave anger. One thing is certain: he’s out of control.)
  • "Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love. Now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish theif." - Angus
  • "Or so much as it needs to dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds." - Lennox - (translation = however much blood we need to give to water the royal flower and drown the weeds) - Macbeth is depicted as a weed, showing he is unwanted. They are willing to drown him in their blood, so long as he is killed and taken off the throne.
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Act 5, Scene 2 -The English army approaches-Card 2

Note!: Throughout the play, various animal imagery has been used to represent Macbeth. These animals steadingly decrease down the foodchain from a "lion" and an "eagle" to birds that feed on carrion (decaying flesh of dead animals) ("mousing owl") to simply a weed, showing how others perception of him has decreased and he is now nothing more that a weed to the people of Scotland.

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Act 5, Scene 3 - Macbeth isn't afraid - Card 1

  • Note!: The broken iambic pentameter in this scene shows how Macbeth is completely clouded by madness.
  • Note!: In lines 20-30, Macbeth calls for his servant (Seyton) numerous times before he arrives. This shows how his isn't in control of his men.
  • "hang those that talk of fear" - Macbeth - He will kill anyone that is afraid/spreading fear. He is now killing for no justifyable reason. He is relentless.
  • "the thanes fly from me" - Macbeth - His men are abandoning him.
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Act 5, Scene 3 - Macbeth isn't afraid - Card 2

  • "put mine armour on" -> "pull't off, I say" - Macbeth - Shows he is anxious and troubled. - (Contrasts with Macduff in the next scene (Act 5, Scene 4) who is calm and collected - (Macbeth...) "will endure our setting down before't" ... "Let our just censures attend the true event" (translation = will allow us to lay siege to the castle ... We shouldn’t make any judgments until we achieve our goal).)
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Act 5, Scene 4 - The army hides behind branches

  • "the confident tyrant" - Siward
  • "none serve with him but constrainèd things whose hearts are absent too" - Malcom - (translation = No one fights with him except men who are forced to, and their hearts aren’t in it.)
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Act 5, Scene 5 -Lady Macbeth kills herself -Card 1

  • "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, 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. Out, out, brief candle! 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 - His language is sad and cynical. His actions have left him feeling that life is meaningless. -(Language... -Elongation via repetition and commas (slow the pace of speech). -"petty pace" resembles french word 'petit' = small. -use of adjective "dusty". Symbolises something neglected and forgotten. Shows how the memory of Macbeth will be repressed. -Metaphor of an actor. One does their best to make the most out of life yet is quickly forgotten in the end. -"frets" and "heard no more" suggest all the wrk he has put into his life is meaningless. -Metaphor of a shadow shows that life comes and goes easily and is without substance.)
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Act 5, Scene 5 -Lady Macbeth kills herself -Card 2

  • "I 'gin to be aweary of the sun" - Macbeth - He says he is tired of the sun. He doesn't care if he lives or dies.
  • "wish the estate o' the world were now undone" - Macbeth -  (Translation = I’d like to see the world plunged into chaos.)
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Act 5, Scene 7 - Macbeth kills young Siward

  • "The Devil himself could not pronounce a title more hateful to mine ear." - Siward
  • "abhorrèd tyrant" - Siward - (abhorrèd = hated)
  • "tyrant" - Macduff
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Act 5, Scene 8 - Macbeth and Macduff fight

  • "coward" - Macduff
  • "tyrant" - Macduff
  • "hell-hound" - Macduff
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Act 5, Scene 9 - Malcolm becomes king

  • "usurper's cursèd head" - Macduff - (usurper = theif of the crown)
  • "dead butcher" - Malcolm
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