Key quotations

Quotations belong to moments, not just themes

A quotation becomes useful when you understand who speaks, what has just happened and what the words reveal. In Macbeth, the same image can change its meaning: blood initially accompanies admired military service, then becomes evidence of murder and a reminder of guilt. Learning connections is therefore more valuable than treating every quotation as a separate sentence.

First establish meaning: explain the words in their dramatic situation. Then consider what they contribute to an argument about a character or theme. For close reading, examine a precise method—a verb, contrast, question, rhythm or stage action—and explain its effect.

These skills serve different parts of Edexcel’s Shakespeare question. Part (a) assesses language, form and structure in the printed extract: AO2, 20 marks. Context earns nothing there. Part (b) asks about the play elsewhere, from memory: the argument and its references earn AO1 marks, 15, and relevant context earns AO3 marks, 5. Language analysis is not assessed in part (b). The quotation bank supports understanding and recall; it is not a requirement to use every quotation in an answer.

Macbeth: from honoured soldier to ambitious murderer

Before Macbeth appears, the Sergeant praises “brave Macbeth” in Act 1 Scene 2. This establishes a reputation which the ending will overturn. His capacity for violence does not begin with Duncan’s murder: what changes is its purpose, from defending the kingdom to securing his own power.

Macbeth’s first words, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” in Act 1 Scene 3, echo the Witches’ earlier reversal of good and evil. The day combines dreadful conditions with military success, but the verbal echo also connects him to their unsettling world before he speaks with them. It can suggest an affinity with them or foreshadow their influence.

Once his new title confirms part of their prediction, Macbeth calls their approach “This supernatural soliciting” in an aside in Act 1 Scene 3. “Soliciting” suggests an invitation or temptation. The opposing judgements which follow show him struggling to interpret apparent success alongside his frightening thoughts of murder. The aside exposes this private conflict while the other characters see only his distracted behaviour.

In Act 1 Scene 4, Macbeth asks, “Stars, hide your fires”. Duncan has named Malcolm his successor, so Macbeth now sees an obstacle between himself and the crown. His command to conceal his “black and deep desires” shows that he recognises their moral darkness. Structurally, this desire precedes Lady Macbeth’s persuasion: she intensifies an ambition he already possesses.

Macbeth names his motive as “Vaulting ambition” in his soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 7. The image evokes an excessive leap that carries someone beyond a secure landing. Ambition is both the force driving him and the danger he can foresee. His recognition that Duncan is a good king, his relative and his guest makes the eventual murder a deliberate violation of several obligations.

His statement to Lady Macbeth, “I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none” in Act 1 Scene 7, initially places a moral limit on courage. Here “become” means be appropriate to: a worthy man should not prove himself through dishonourable actions. This gives a clear contrast with Lady Macbeth’s attempt to equate manhood with murder.

Duncan and Lady Macbeth: trust meets deliberate deception

Duncan admits, “There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face” in Act 1 Scene 4. Here “art” means a skill or reliable method, and “construction” means the mind’s make-up: outward appearance cannot reliably reveal inward intention. His “An absolute trust” refers to the former Thane of Cawdor, who betrayed him. Macbeth then enters. That sequence creates dramatic irony: Duncan welcomes another man whose loyalty is becoming dangerously uncertain.

Lady Macbeth turns this problem into a strategy. Her advice, “look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't” in Act 1 Scene 5, separates appearance from intention. The flower suggests harmless beauty; the serpent suggests concealed danger and recalls biblical temptation. A Christian audience could connect this image with a fall into sin. The imperatives show her directing Macbeth’s performance as Duncan’s welcoming host.

Her appeal to the spirits to “unsex me here” in Act 1 Scene 5 asks for the removal of qualities she associates with femininity and compassion. It reveals what she wants to become, rather than proving that she has already eliminated feeling. Her later hesitation and guilt expose the limits of that ambition.

In the same speech, Lady Macbeth commands, “Come, thick night”. She wants darkness to conceal the murder from sight and from heaven’s judgement. Her invocation makes concealment an attempt to avoid moral scrutiny as well as discovery. It connects with Macbeth’s earlier appeal to the stars, showing their similar desires before they discuss the plan together.

When Macbeth withdraws from the murder plan, she makes his courage and masculinity conditional on obedience: “When you durst do it, then you were a man” in Act 1 Scene 7. “Durst” means dared. She treats killing as proof of manhood, whereas Macbeth has argued that becoming a man involves moral limits.

Lady Macbeth also declares, “I have given suck” in Act 1 Scene 7: she has breastfed a child and knows maternal tenderness. She then claims she would kill her nursing baby rather than break an oath like Macbeth’s. The contrast between loving nurture and imagined violence makes her pressure shocking. This is a hypothetical claim about her determination, not an account of an actual killing.

Her command to “screw your courage to the sticking-place” in Act 1 Scene 7 imagines courage as something that can be tightened and held firm. The promised “we'll not fail” presents murder as a shared enterprise and reassures him with apparent certainty.

The murder: questions, shared speech and unequal responses

Alone before killing Duncan, Macbeth asks, “Is this a dagger which I see before me” in Act 2 Scene 1. His repeated questions test sight against touch and expose uncertainty. He considers the dagger a creation of his troubled mind, but the surrounding references to witchcraft also allow a supernatural reading. Either way, the vision dramatises a man drawn towards a murder he already intends: it points along “the way that I was going”, rather than introducing a new plan.

Lady Macbeth’s private admission, “Had he not resembled / My father as he slept” in Act 2 Scene 2, explains why she did not kill Duncan herself. The resemblance awakens an attachment which her earlier language tried to suppress. This can reveal remaining tenderness, or a specific emotional limit rather than general moral resistance. Her conditional statement still imagines that she would otherwise have committed the murder.

After Macbeth returns, their short exchanges include Macbeth’s “When?”, Lady Macbeth’s “Now.” and Macbeth’s “As I descended?” in Act 2 Scene 2. They are speaking verse, not switching to prose. Their brief contributions participate in the scene’s shared and fragmented verse lines. Instead of two composed speeches, the audience hears rapid checking and anxious attention to sound.

Shared verse can suggest their closeness: each immediately responds to the other, and both are implicated in the same act. Yet this exchange also shows fear and imperfect communication. They are urgently trying to establish who spoke and what was heard. Performance can emphasise breathless coordination or nervous pauses; the words support both a conspiratorial connection and a relationship under strain.

Macbeth reports a voice declaring “Macbeth does murder sleep” in Act 2 Scene 2. He has killed a sleeping king, but the personification enlarges the damage: he imagines destroying sleep itself, with its innocence, restoration and peace. The voice can be read as his conscience condemning him. Later nightmares and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking develop the consequences of this moment.

Lady Macbeth responds to his refusal to return the daggers with “Infirm of purpose!” in Act 2 Scene 2: she calls his determination weak. Her exclamation and subsequent commands restore her practical control. Macbeth, however, imagines his hand turning “The multitudinous seas incarnadine” in the same scene. “Multitudinous” conveys vast extent; “incarnadine”, used as a verb, means to make red. The hyperbole makes guilt seem capable of contaminating the world rather than being washed away.

Her claim, “A little water clears us of this deed” in Act 2 Scene 2, offers the opposite scale. Water can remove physical evidence, but her certainty overlooks the psychological and moral consequences which Macbeth already feels.

When Macduff discovers Duncan’s body, he announces “Most sacrilegious murder” in Act 2 Scene 3. “Sacrilegious” means violating something sacred. His description of Duncan’s body as “The Lord's anointed temple” presents regicide as an attack upon a king appointed by God. For a part (b) argument, this connects the murder’s consequences with beliefs about the sacred authority of rightful kings, rather than treating it only as a private crime.

Kingship achieved: insecurity replaces satisfaction

Lady Macbeth’s “Nought's had, all's spent” in Act 3 Scene 2 means that they have gained nothing worth having despite paying everything. The antithesis between “Nought” and “all” turns their success into a total loss. The next line rhymes “spent” with “content”, giving the reflection a compact, conclusive shape. She speaks before Macbeth enters, allowing the audience to hear unhappiness she then tries to manage in him.

Macbeth’s corresponding concern is safety. “To be thus is nothing; / But to be safely thus” in Act 3 Scene 1 means that being king is worthless unless his position is secure. The Third Witch’s prediction to Banquo, “Thou shalt get kings” in Act 1 Scene 3, means that Banquo will father kings, not become king himself. Macbeth consequently treats Banquo and Fleance as threats to his dynasty and orders their deaths. Fleance’s escape leaves that fear unresolved.

Banquo’s suspicion, “Thou play'dst most foully for't” in Act 3 Scene 1, shows that he doubts the innocence of Macbeth’s rise. His private speech also reveals hope for his own descendants. He is therefore a contrasting response to temptation, but not someone untouched by the attraction of the prophecy.

Macbeth’s “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!” in Act 3 Scene 2 makes anxiety feel poisonous and painfully active. Yet he now withholds the murder plan from her: “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck”. The affectionate address can sound protective, but the command also excludes her from decisions she previously directed. Their shared ambition is no longer matched by shared knowledge.

At the banquet, Lady Macbeth asks, “Are you a man?” in Act 3 Scene 4 when Macbeth reacts to Banquo’s ghost. The question returns to her earlier strategy of shaming him through his masculinity. This time, however, her pressure cannot preserve their public appearance of royal composure: she eventually dismisses the guests.

After the banquet, Macbeth imagines himself wading through blood in Act 3 Scene 4. He presents continuing violence as no harder than turning back. This is his justification, not proof that repentance is impossible: the metaphor shows how he makes further killing appear the practical choice.

The Witches: confidence created through misleading promises

“Double, double toil and trouble” is spoken by all three Witches in Act 4 Scene 1. Its repetition, rhyme and trochaic rhythm—strong stress followed by weaker stress—create a chant. The four-beat pattern contrasts with the five-beat verse common among the other characters, making the ritual sound distinct and unnerving. “Trouble” names harm even while Macbeth seeks reassurance from them.

The Second Apparition promises that “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” in Act 4 Scene 1. Macbeth takes this to mean that no human opponent can defeat him. In Act 5 Scene 8, Macduff explains that he was “Untimely ripp'd” from his mother’s womb: surgically delivered rather than born in the usual way. The violent verb abruptly destroys Macbeth’s confidence.

This is equivocation: the promise allows a meaning Macbeth has failed to consider. The moving wood works similarly, when Malcolm’s soldiers carry branches from Birnam as camouflage. The apparent impossibilities encourage Macbeth to feel invulnerable, but human action fulfils them. His downfall therefore involves both supernatural deception and his own willingness to trust the interpretation he prefers.

Scotland’s suffering and a different kind of manhood

Macduff’s “Bleed, bleed, poor country!” in Act 4 Scene 3 presents Scotland as a wounded body. The repetition intensifies his distress at Macbeth’s tyranny. Blood now represents national suffering, extending the consequences beyond the couple’s private guilt.

Later in the scene, Macduff responds to the murder of his family with “But I must also feel it as a man”. He insists that grief belongs alongside action. Unlike Lady Macbeth’s earlier pressure, this definition of manhood does not require compassion to be suppressed. The play places competing ideas of masculine conduct in dialogue: ruthless daring, moral restraint and emotional responsibility.

Angus describes Macbeth’s title hanging “like a giant's robe / Upon a dwarfish thief” in Act 5 Scene 2. The simile makes kingship seem too large for the man who has stolen it. Clothing represents the role he cannot properly fulfil: he possesses the title but lacks the moral stature and loyalty that should sustain it.

The ending: guilt, grief and competing judgements

Lady Macbeth’s “Out, damned spot! out, I say!” in Act 5 Scene 1 recalls her earlier commanding voice, but now she cannot command away an imagined stain. “Damned” connects the spot with spiritual as well as emotional consequences. Her speech is prose, with abrupt shifts between memories rather than the sustained verse of her earlier appeals. This change helps present a loss of conscious control; prose itself is not inherently a sign of madness.

Her “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” in Act 5 Scene 1 reverses the confidence of “A little water”. Smell now makes guilt seem inescapable even beyond what she sees. The imagined abundance of perfume echoes Macbeth’s vast ocean: she has reached the overwhelming sense of contamination he expressed immediately after the murder.

On hearing of her death, Macbeth says, “She should have died hereafter” in Act 5 Scene 5. This can sound emotionally exhausted or detached: death seems inevitable, with no time available for grief. It can also express regret that she did not die later, when there would have been an appropriate time to mourn. His following meditation on time and death supports both numbness and a profound sense of loss.

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow” in Act 5 Scene 5 makes time seem repetitive rather than purposeful. The sentence continues into the next verse line, where time “Creeps in this petty pace”. This enjambment carries the thought onwards, while the repetition and alliteration of “petty pace” make that progress feel slow and diminished. Macbeth once looked eagerly towards future greatness; now he sees successive days leading only towards death.

“Out, out, brief candle!” in Act 5 Scene 5 imagines life as a fragile flame. “Brief” reduces the future for which he committed murder to a short span ending in darkness. The subsequent image of a “poor player” makes human ambition resemble a temporary performance on a stage. This theatrical metaphor invites the audience to see the collapse of Macbeth’s role as king as part of a wider crisis of meaning.

Nevertheless, “Lay on, Macduff” in Act 5 Scene 8 shows that Macbeth finally chooses to fight after recognising the deception. It can preserve something of his original warrior courage, while also revealing pride and refusal to submit. That complexity matters when Malcolm calls the couple “this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen” in Act 5 Scene 8. The condemning labels reflect the suffering they have caused and the new ruler’s public judgement. The audience has also witnessed their hesitation, intimacy and anguish, so Malcolm’s verdict need not exhaust their dramatic significance.

Worked paragraph for part (a): close analysis of Duncan’s trust

In the short passage in Act 1 Scene 4 where Duncan reflects on Cawdor’s betrayal and then welcomes Macbeth, Shakespeare presents a troubling gap between understanding deception and recognising it.

Duncan admits that there is “no art / To find the mind's construction in the face”. The categorical “no” suggests that judging inward intentions from outward appearance is impossible, while the contrast between “mind” and “face” separates hidden thought from its visible surface. His description of “An absolute trust” emphasises how completely he believed in Cawdor. Shakespeare then places Macbeth’s entrance immediately after this admission, before Duncan greets him as “O worthiest cousin!” The superlative praise shows that Duncan’s recent experience has not made his welcome cautious. This sequence creates dramatic irony and tension: his recognition that appearances are unreliable is followed by another confident expression of trust.

Worked paragraph for part (b): an argument about masculinity

Shakespeare presents manhood as a disputed ideal rather than simply a willingness to kill. In Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth initially argues, “I dare do all that may become a man”, placing moral limits on courageous conduct. Lady Macbeth instead makes his masculinity depend on murdering Duncan, and he abandons his refusal. Her persuasion exploits expectations associating manliness with strength and bravery, turning his wish to appear courageous against his better judgement. Later, in Act 4 Scene 3, Macduff insists, “But I must also feel it as a man” after learning of his family’s murder. He intends to oppose Macbeth without denying his love or grief. These contrasting responses suggest that ruthless daring is an inadequate measure of manhood: courage can coexist with conscience and emotional responsibility.

Quotation bank by character and theme

The bank contains 40 quotations, grouped by character and labelled by theme. Cover the speaker, place and final column to test recall. Alternatively, choose a theme and find evidence from different stages of the play. A slash marks a verse line break.

Recall the character arcs

• Macbeth: honoured soldier → ambitious murderer → insecure tyrant → exhausted but defiant fighter.
• Lady Macbeth: persuasive control → dissatisfaction → exclusion from decisions → involuntary confession.
• Banquo: wary of temptation, but hopeful about his descendants.
• Duncan: misplaced trust; Macduff: grief joined to action; Malcolm: public condemnation and restored rule.

Part (b): retrieve thematic connections

• Ambition: “Vaulting ambition” → “Nought's had, all's spent”: success brings no contentment.
• Deception: Duncan’s trust → flower and serpent → misleading promises.
• Guilt: Macbeth’s vast seas contrast with Lady Macbeth’s little water; her imagined spot reverses her confidence.
• Masculinity: Macbeth’s moral limits → Lady Macbeth’s pressure → Macduff’s right to feel grief.
• Tyranny: Scotland bleeding; Macbeth cannot fill the royal robe.
• Fate and choice: prophecies tempt and mislead; Macbeth chooses murder and further violence.

Support an argument with relevant moments elsewhere in the play and brief context tied to the point. AO1: 15 marks; AO3: 5 marks. Close paraphrase and precise event references count; language analysis is not assessed.

Part (a): recognise methods in the extract

• Asides and soliloquies: access to private motives.
• Act 2 Scene 2: shared, fragmented verse suggests connection under pressure.