Macbeth Quotations and Analysis (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature)

Macbeth Quotations and Analysis

Macbeth essay questions in the WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature exam usually focus on one of three things:

• A theme

• A character

• A relationship between two or more characters

This means it’s a great idea to learn quotations according to key themes or character, because you will have plenty of evidence to support the points you make in any essay. 

In this revision guide, we’ve included eight of the best Macbeth quotes on this page to learn for your GCSE exam, organised by the following characters:

• Lady Macbeth Quotes

• Macbeth Quotes

• Witches Quotes

Lady Macbeth Quotes

Key word or phrase: “milk”

What the quotation means

• Lady Macbeth is referring to her husband, Macbeth

• She wonders whether he is too kind and honourable to commit regicide and become the king of Scotland himself

Analysis

• This line comes from the point in the play where Lady Macbeth has begun to plot the murder of King Duncan

• In this quotation, Shakespeare is exploring human nature as well as societal expectations of masculinity

• The use of the word “milk” could refer to its white colour:

  • White can represent purity (honour) 

  • White can also refer to cowardliness and later in the play, Lady Macbeth directly accuses Macbeth of being a “coward” and having a “heart so white”

• But the reference could also be to milk as something created by women:

  • Stereotypically, this could then be a symbol of compassion or kindness

  • However, again, these traits could be seen as weaknesses in a man

  • Lady Macbeth - earlier in the play - has in fact asked evil spirits to take her own “milk for gall”, meaning that she wants to renounce her own feminine traits

Key word or phrase: “man”

What the quotation means

• Lady Macbeth is talking directly to Macbeth, attempting to persuade him to kill King Duncan

• She tells him that killing him would be brave and manly

Analysis

• Throughout the play, Shakespeare explores the idea of masculinity and what makes a good man:

  • In Act 1, Scene 2, Macbeth is praised for his bravery — and violence — in battle

  • Here, Lady Macbeth is again trying to present violence as the act of a brave warrior

• However, Shakespeare seems to argue that acts of violence should only be committed in the name of one’s king, or country:

  • Murder in the service of one’s own advancement isn’t noble 

  • All of Macbeth’s violence after his exploits on the battlefield can then be seen as dishonourable

• Lady Macbeth’s power at this point of the play means that her manipulation of Macbeth is successful:

  • Even though he has just said that he doesn’t want to go ahead with “this business”, by the end of the scene she has persuaded him to commit regicide

Key word or phrase: “blood”

What the quotation means

• Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and talking to herself in this scene

• She is referring to King Duncan, expressing her surprise that he had so much blood

Analysis

• This scene represents the total mental unravelling of Lady Macbeth:

  • Over the course of the play, her agency, and her power over Macbeth, have been diminishing

  • She is increasingly isolated from her husband and as characters, they do not share a scene after Act 3 

  • Macbeth has begun keeping secrets from Lady Macbeth

• The “blood” Lady Macbeth is referring to symbolises her guilt:

  • In Act 2, Scene 2, Lady Macbeth says “a little water clears us of this deed”, suggesting she believes that the guilt from committing regicide will “wash off” 

  • However, throughout the play, Shakespeare uses the motif of blood to represent the Macbeths’ increasing guilt 

  • By Act 5, Scene 1, the guilt — and the references to blood — are overwhelming

• Lady Macbeth’s surprise (indicated with the rhetorical question here) highlights her earlier hubris:

  • Shakespeare is suggesting that committing a mortal sin will always have dire consequences

Macbeth Quotes

Key word or phrase: “hand”

What the quotation means

• Macbeth in this scene is weighing up whether or not to commit regicide

• He seems to be hallucinating, seeing an image of a dagger in front of him

Analysis

• Shakespeare uses hallucinations to represent the (deteriorating) mental state of his characters in the play:

  • Banquo’s ghost, the ghostly knocking on the castle doors and blood all represent the Macbeths’ guilt later in the play 

• However, Macbeth has not yet committed regicide so it could be argued that this hallucination represents his desire to murder King Duncan: his personal ambition means he sees a murder weapon in his mind’s eye:

  • The imperative and alliteration in the line after this — “come, let me clutch thee” — emphasises his desire and ambition

  • Crucially, the handle is pointing towards “my hand”, suggesting his responsibility for the evil act 

• This hallucination foreshadows Macbeth’s later mental breakdown:

  • His hallucinations become more vivid and overwhelming as the play progresses

  • Shakespeare even prefigures Macbeth’s guilt when, in the same soliloquy, he mentions “gouts of blood”

Key word or phrase: “blood”

What the quotation means

• Macbeth is hallucinating at a banquet in this scene and sees the ghost of his former comrade Banquo

• He is suggesting that violence will only lead to further violence

Analysis

• In this scene, Macbeth has lost control of his mind:

  • He sees an apparition of his murdered friend Banquo covered in blood

• Shakespeare emphasises this loss of control by:

  • Having Macbeth speak in disjointed utterances

  • Using repetition of “blood”

  • Using a combination of blank verse and rhyming couplets to suggest Macbeth can’t regulate his own thoughts

• Shakespeare uses the word “blood” to symbolise two things here:

  • The first is violence as this quotation foreshadows both Macbeth’s continued murdering spree (of Macduff’s family), but also his own death — with an implied understanding of his own doomed fate

  • The second is guilt as the more sinful violence Macbeth commits, the more overwhelmed he will become with guilt

Key word or phrase: “nothing”

What the quotation means

• This quote — part of a longer soliloquy — is spoken by Macbeth after he is told of Lady Macbeth’s death

• He is suggesting that life is meaningless

Analysis

• This scene represents the moment of anagnorisis for Macbeth:

  • All of his actions were for “nothing” and the life that he had planned with Lady Macbeth will never come to pass

  • It could also be argued that it is the moment in the play when Macbeth implicitly accepts his fate

• The idea that life signifies “nothing” is a representation of nihilism:

  • This could be seen by a Jacobean audience as blasphemous and rejecting ideas about God’s plan

  • However, this moment still elicits sympathy in the audience as he echoes the words of Lady Macbeth (“Out, out”) in this scene

Witches Quotes

Key words or phrase: “thunder, lightning"

What the quotation means

• These are the very first lines of the play and we are introduced to three witches on a desolate moor

• The witches are referring to the terrible weather conditions

Analysis

• The first lines of the play – along with the stage directions (“Open ground. Thunder and lightning”) – set an ominous tone for the rest of the play

• Shakespeare is alerting the audience to the fact that his play is a tragedy:

  • The three witches represent a chorus

  • They are also representatives of the supernatural, and so the ideas of treachery, violence and evil are foreshadowed

• The terrible weather – and the fact that the witches are predicting more dramatic weather in the future – could represent the breakdown of the natural order to a Jacobean audience:

  • As agents of the devil, the witches want to destabilise God’s kingdom as set out in the Great Chain of Being

  • Their trickery of Macbeth has the aim of undermining this divine order

Key word or phrase: “double”

What the quotation means

• The witches are casting spells in thundery weather just before the arrival of Macbeth seeking his next set of prophecies

• The witches are lighting a cauldron and suggesting that things will only get twice as bad for Macbeth after they are done with him

Analysis

• The witches are once again presented as disruptors of the natural order:

  • They are brewing a spell to create evil and spread disharmony

• The use of the word “double” (twice) suggests deception:

  • This idea of the number two representing duplicity is repeated across the play, with Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 7 also speaking of “double trust”

• Shakespeare has the witches use rhyming couplets, rather than blank verse, to give these lines an unnatural quality:

  • Blank verse would normally be the metre for a Shakespeare play, so this can be seen as strange

  • The witches’ malign influence on Macbeth means that he too mirrors their language and speaks in rhyming couplets frequently throughout the play

Sources

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Cedric Watts, Wordsworth Classics, 2005