Macbeth
Primary
Sources
(Themes &
Quotes)
Theme of
Ambition
Macbeth – “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?
Present fears Are less than horrible
imaginings:/My thought, whose murder
yet is but fantastical, /Shakes so my single
state of man that function/Is smother'd in
surmise, and nothing is but what is not.”
(I.iii.134-142)
Macbeth – “The Prince of Cumberland!
that is a step/On which I must fall down, or
else o’erleap, /For in my way it lies. /
Stars, hide your fires;/Let not light see my
black and deep desires:/ The eye wink at
the hand; yet let that be, / Which the eye
fears, when it is done, to see.” (I.iv.50-55)
Letter from Macbeth – “This have I
thought good to deliver thee, my dearest
partner of greatness, that thou mightst not
lose the dues of rejoicing, by being
ignorant of what greatness is promised
thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.”
(I.v.10-13)
Lady Macbeth – “That I may pour my
spirits in thine ear;/And chastise with the
valour of my tongue/All that impedes thee
from the golden round, / Which fate and
metaphysical aid doth seem/To have thee
crown'd withal.” (I.v.25-30)
Lady Macbeth – “Stop up the access and
passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace
between The effect and it!” (I.v.45-49)
Macbeth – “If it were done when 'tis done,
then 'twere well/It were done quickly: if
the assassination/Could trammel up the
consequence, and catch/With his surcease
success” (I.vii.1-4)
Macbeth – “I go, and it is done; the bell
invites me. /Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a
knell/That summons thee to heaven or to
hell.” (II.i.62-65)
Lady Macbeth – “Go get some water, /And
wash this filthy witness from your hand. /
Why did you bring these daggers from the
place? /They must lie there: go carry them;
and smear/The sleepy grooms with blood.”
(II.ii.44-48)
Lady Macbeth – “Give me the daggers: the
sleeping and the dead/Are but as pictures:
'tis the eye of childhood/That fears a
painted devil.” (II.ii.51-53)
Lady Macbeth – “Get on your nightgown,
lest occasion call us, /And show us to be
watchers. Be not lost/So poorly in your
thoughts.” (II.ii.68-70)
Lady Macbeth - “Soundly invite him--his
two Chamberlains Will I with wine
and wassail so convince
That memory.” (I.vii.63-65)
Lady Macbeth - “Infirm of purpose! Give
me the daggers. /The sleeping and the dead
are bus as pictures. / Tis the eye of
childhood." (II.ii.50-55)
Macbeth - “To be thus is nothing but to be
safely/thus our fears in Banquo slick deep,
and in his royally of nature feigns that
which would be feared. / Thou is none last
he whole being I do fear.” (III.i.49-55)
Lady Macduff - “To tell his wife, to leave
his babes, his mansion and his titles in a
place from whence himself does fly.”
(IV.ii.6-8)
Macduff - “Hail King! For so thou
art./Behold where stands the usurpers
cursed head. /The time is free. I see thee
compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, that
speak my salutations in their minds.
(V.viii.54-57)
Theme of
Betrayal
Ross - “Norway himself, with terrible
numbers, assisted by that most disloyal
traitor, the thane of Cawdor began a dismal
conflict.” (I.ii.51-53)
Macbeth – “I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest
show:/False face must hide what the false
heart doth know.” (I.vii.79-82)
Angus - “With those of Norway, or did
line the rebel/With hidden help and
vantage, or that with both/He labored in
his country’s wrack, I know not;/But
treasons capital, confessed and proved,
/Have overthrown him.” (I, iii, 114-118)
Macbeth - “And take the present horror
from the time, /Which now suits with it. /
Whiles I threat, he lives. /Words to the
heat of deeds too cold breath gives. /I go,
and it is done. The bell invites me. /Hear it
not, Duncan, for it is a knell/That
summons thee to heaven or to hell”
(II.i.60-64)
Macbeth - “And put a barren scepter in my
grip, thence to be wrenched with an
unlineal hand, /No son of mine succeeding.
If ’t be so, For Banquo’s issue have I filed
my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I
murdered;/Put rancors in the vessel of my
peace/Only for them; and mine eternal
jewel/Given to the common enemy of
man,” (III. i.65-72)
Macbeth - “The castle of Macduff I will
surprise, /Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge
o' th' sword/His wife, his babes, and all
unfortunate souls/That trace him in his
line. No boasting like a fool.” (IV.i.155-
160)
Lady Macduff - “He had none. /His flight
was madness. When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors.” (IV, ii, 3-4)
Lady Macduff - “Wisdom! To leave his
wife, to leave his babes, /His mansion and
his titles in a place/From whence himself
does fly? He loves us not” (IV, ii, 6-8)
Macbeth - “There the grown serpent lies.
The worm that’s fled/Hath nature that in
time will venom breed;/No teeth for th'
present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow
We’ll hear ourselves again.” (III.iv.30-33)
Macbeth - “So is he mine; and in such
bloody distance/That every minute of his
being thrusts/Against my near’st of life.
And though I could/With barefaced power
sweep him from my sight/And bid my will
avouch” (III.i.119-123)
M Macbeth - "Tonight we hold a solemn
supper, sir, /and I'll request your
presence."
(III.i.14-15)
Hecate - "And that distilled by magic
spells/Shall raise such artificial sprites
(apparitions)/As by the strength of their
illusion/Shall draw him (Macbeth) on his
confusion.” (III.v.25-29)
Macbeth - " And with him to leave no rubs
nor botches in the work- Fleance, his son,
that keeps him company, whose absence is
no less than his fathers, must embrace fate
of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves
apart." (III.i.133-138)
Macbeth - "Argh! I feel like my mind is
full of scorpions, /my dear wife. You know
that Banquo and his son Fleance are still
alive."(III.ii.37-38)
Angus - “Now does he feel/His secret
murders sticking on his hands”
(V.ii.16-17)
