Macbeth Character Quotes

Under him,
My Genius is rebuked; as, it is said,
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar. He chid the sisters
When first they put the name of king upon me
And bade them speak to him.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1. The paranoid Macbeth wants Banquo killed for a number of reasons. While seeing Banquo as a threat to his crown, Macbeth also believes that his “Genius is rebuked” by Banquo. He recalls that when the Witches first said Macbeth would be king, Banquo chided the Witches and bade them speak to him. In historical terms Macbeth sees himself as Mark Antony, who in the battle for power was eventually defeated by Octavius Caesar. Macbeth fears that Banquo will do a Caesar on him, so he has to be eliminated.

They hail’d him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench’d with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1. Macbeth is now king but he doesn’t feel secure and is afraid of Banquo, as is evident in his soliloquy. In a metaphor, Macbeth says that the Witches gave him a “barren sceptre” with their prophecy that he would be king. He describes the sceptre as barren, because the witches also said that the throne would pass to Banquo’s descendants. Macbeth is angry and his ambition is frustrated, because he doesn’t have children to pass on the throne to, and it will go to Banquo’s sons.

For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murder’d;
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1. An upset Macbeth realizes that he has sold his soul – “eternal jewel” (metaphor) – so that Banquo’s descendants will be kings. For that he has killed Duncan and destroyed his peace of mind. That is where his ambition has brought him to.

FIRST MURDERER: We are men, my liege.
MACBETH: Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men,
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clept
All by the name of dogs.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1. Macbeth is trying to persuade and manipulate the murderers into killing Banquo and his boy Fleance. Here he reduces the humanity of the murderers to the level of animals. In a metaphor he compares the different kinds of men to different types of dogs, each with its own skills.

We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it;
She’ll close and be herself, while our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. The snake is a metaphor for the danger the Macbeths find themselves in after Duncan’s murder. Macbeth doesn’t feel safe on the throne and sees Banquo as a threat to his position as long as he is alive. This passage is ironic, since it was Macbeth who created the snake in the first place with his uncontrollable desire for power that pushed him to regicide.

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: 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.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. A troubled Macbeth is so racked with guilt after killing Duncan that he envies the dead King. He observes that the dead can sleep in peace, while his own sleep is disrupted by terrible nightmares. Macbeth foreshadows his own death by saying that it is better to be dead.

O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. The scorpions are metaphorical symbols of both Macbeth’s guilt and his evil desire to murder Banquo and Fleance, having already killed Duncan and framed innocent people for it. At this point he is consumed by confusion and fear. Banquo was once his best friend, but while he and his son are still alive he fears his throne is not safe because of the Witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will be kings.

Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister’d flight, ere, to black Hecate’s summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. Macbeth hints to his wife of his plan to kill Banquo and Fleance before nightfall. The passage references the supernatural, a goddess associated with witches, bats and beatles. Hecate was goddess of witchcraft, night, moon and ghosts. She is described as black, a symbol for evil in the play. Macbeth’s “deed of dreadful note” is the murder of Banquo and his son. We also find an example of personification in “The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night’s yawning peal.”

Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. Macbeth tells his wife that she is better off not knowing what he is planning for Banquo and his son until she can celebrate the deed. In the same sentence that he displays affection for his wife by calling her “dearest chuck,” Macbeth is referring to the murders he has planned of his friend Banquo and Fleance. Macbeth’s coolness reflects his brutalized and insensitive nature as he progressively grows more tyrannical and cruel. He knows that he is becoming evil, but wishes Lady Macbeth to remain “innocent” of the crime his hired thugs have been sent to commit.

Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale! Light thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood;
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. Macbeth commands the night to come quickly in order to conceal his evil actions and facilitate the murder of Banquo and his boy. Both night and day are personified in the passage. A hawking metaphor is used to describe the night, seeling is stitching the bird’s eyelids shut for training. In another metaphor Macbeth calls on the night to use its “bloody and invisible hand” to destroy Banquo. In his speech there is much made of darkness and light, one representing evil and the other good. Macbeth is calling on the forces of darkness and evil to cancel out the good.

Thou art the best o’ the cut-throats: yet he’s good
That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,
Thou art the nonpareil.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. Macbeth compliments one of his thugs on being the best of the murderers on learning that he cut Banquo’s throat. Macbeth shows no remorse for arranging to have his best friend killed – the ultimate betrayal. He goes on to tell the murderer that whoever can cut the young Fleance’s throat is a cutthroat without parallel. This tells us how important it is to Macbeth that Fleance dies.

Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. After learning that Banquo has been killed on his orders, Macbeth appears to compose himself in front his guests at his post-coronation banquet. He toasts them as if nothing has happened, showing how deceptive and two-faced he is. There is an example of dramatic irony, since the audience knows what Macbeth’s guests do not. Lurking beneath his verneer of conviviality and hospitality is a man who plotted the murders of Banquo and his son.

Here had we now our country’s honour roof’d,
Were the graced person of our Banquo present;
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
Than pity for mischance!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. Shakespeare adds dramatic irony and an unexpected twist to the story at this point. A deceptive Macbeth expresses disappointment that Banquo is not present for his coronation banquet, suggesting that this is due to Banquo’s “unkindness” and not any “mischance.” The audience knows that Banquo is absent because Macbeth had him murdered. Macbeth has not yet noticed that moments before this Banquo’s ghost entered to sit in Macbeth’s place.

MACBETH: The table’s full.
LENNOX: Here is a place reserved, sir.
…MACBETH: Which of you have done this?
LORDS: What, my good lord?

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. The themes of appearance vs reality, madness, and the supernatural are shown here. Macbeth is the only one at the gathering of Scottish nobility to see the ghost of Banquo at the banquet. He becomes so insanely paranoid that he imagines seeing the ghost of the friend he had murdered. The other lords are confused by Macbeth’s behavior.

Thou canst not say I did it; never shake
Thy gory locks at me.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. A horrified and unnerved Macbeth speaks to the ghost of Banquo that he sees sitting in his seat at the coronation banquet. The bloody apparition, visible to no one else, is a hallucination of Macbeth’s mind and a sign of his guilt and growing mental instability brought on by the murders of Duncan and Banquo. He tells the ghost that no one can say he murdered Banquo. He seems to deceive himself into believing that since he didn’t carry out the deed but only ordered it he is somehow innocent. The ghost’s “gory locks” is a reference to the twenty gashes to Banquo’s head delivered by his murderer. Macbeth is losing his mind at this point.
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