Macbeth

William Shakespeare

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All Guides > Macbeth > Quote Bank > Violence

Quote

Character

Act/Scene

“Unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse.”

Lady Macbeth

Act 1, Scene 5

“Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”

Macbeth

Act 2, Scene 1

“I had laid their daggers ready; / He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled / My fater as he slept, I had done’t.”

Lady Macbeth

Act 2, Scene 2

“Here lay Duncan, / His silver skin laced with his golden blood, / And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature.”

Macbeth

Act 2, Scene 3

“Tis unnatural, / Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last, / A falcon [...] Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at, and kill’d.”

Old Man

Act 2, Scene 4

“O horror, horror, horror! / Tonge nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!”

Macduff

Act 2, Scene 4

“Blood will have blood”

Macbeth

Act 3, Scene 4

“I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

Macbeth

Act 3, Scene 4

“From this moment / The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand. And even now, / To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done”

Macbeth

Act 4, Scene 1

“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.”

Macbeth

Act 4, Scene 1

“What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, / At one fell swoop?”

Macduff

Act 4, Scene 3

“Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.”

Macduff

Act 5, Scene 6

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Macbeth

Sample Essay

Set in medieval Scotland, Macbeth’s story begins as it ends: with Scotland at war and foul play in the air. Opening in the midst of a storm, three mysterious witches meet and plot their dark plan involving a man known as
Macbeth, who is kin to the king of Scotland, Duncan. Macbeth’s title is Thane of Glamis, and he is a highly capable warrior, as seen when it is revealed Macbeth has succeeded in ending the rebellion against Duncan’s rule.


After the battle, Macbeth and his fellow thane Banquo encounter the three mysterious witches who begin to tell prophecies of great fortune to both men. To Macbeth they tell of a great rise to power, promising him that he will first become Thane of Cawdor and then eventually king of Scotland. They also tell Banquo that although he will not be king, his line will beget kings. The witches vanish into thin air, and Macbeth and Banquo doubt what they have been told until a messenger from King Duncan confirms Macbeth as the new Thane of Cawdor after the previous thane died in the rebellion. Now believing wholeheartedly in the prophecy, Macbeth he agrees to Duncan’s request to host a feast at Macbeth’s castle at Inverness where Lady Macbeth receives the news and begins to plot her and her husband’s ambitious ascent.


Once the royal party arrives, Lady Macbeth conspires with her husband to murder Duncan and take his place as king, at first admonishing Macbeth for his reluctance to fulfil his ambition. During the night while the King is sleeping, Macbeth sneaks into his chamber and murders him.


The next morning, in the presence of lords, Macbeth blames the King’s death on two drunk servants who Macbeth kills to hide his guilt. Noting the absence of the King’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain, Macbeth shifts blame upon them and declares himself as the rightful king of Scotland, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Yet as swift as Macbeth’s rise to power is, his downfall is equally abrupt. To secure his power, and with the death of King Duncan still being seen as suspicious, Macbeth begins to fear Banquo’s side of the prophecy, since he assumes Banquo’s sons will one day kill him to take the throne. After Banquo and his son leave Macbeth’s castle one night, the new king hires murderers to slay Banquo and his son Fleance. Only succeeding in killing Banquo, Macbeth briefly feels at peace until the ghost of Banquo appears at a feast sitting in Macbeth’s chair, only seen by Macbeth himself. Madly raving at thin air, more suspicion grows as Macbeth begins to descend deeper into paranoia. Once again he consults the witches, who tell him to beware of the thane Macduff. However, they seemingly allay his worries, promising that no mortal man born from a woman can kill Macbeth, and that he will not be defeated until the forest of Birnam Wood moves upon his castle. Satisfied, Macbeth sends more murderers to kill Macduff’s wife and children. Meanwhile, Macduff meets with Prince Malcolm who leads an English army to defeat Macbeth and claim his rightful throne. Using branches from Birnam Wood to disguise themselves, the army sneaks upon Macbeth’s castle, as more and more men abandon him.

Lady Macbeth, delusional from guilt, mysteriously dies (though it is heavily implied that she commits suicide), and Macbeth laments the folly of his ambition. Meeting Macduff in battle, Macbeth brags he is invincible as no man is not born from a woman can kill him... until Macduff reveals he was taken from his mother’s womb (i.e. a cesarean birth), and Macduff subsequently beheads Macbeth. Presenting the head to Malcolm, the young prince is then decreed as the new king of Scotland.

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