Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Macbeth cover

Resources

  1. 01Quick overview2 min read
  2. 02Summary28 scenes
    • Act 1
    • Act 2
    • Act 3
    • Act 4
    • Act 5
    • Structure
  3. 03Themes5 min read
  4. 04Characters52 min read
    • Macbeth
    • Lady Macbeth
    • Banquo
    • The Witches
    • Macduff
    • Malcolm
    • Duncan
    • Lady Macduff and her son
    • Fleance
    • The Porter
    • The Doctor and the Gentlewoman
    • Ross
    • Lennox
    • The Captain
  5. 05Key quotes40 quotes
  6. 06Key extracts16 min read
    • Extract 1: Act 1, Scene 5: Lady Macbeth calls on the spirits
    • Extract 2: Act 2, Scene 2: The Macbeths just after Duncan's murder
    • Extract 3: Act 3, Scene 4: Banquo's Ghost appears at the banquet
    • Extract 4: Act 5, Scene 1: Lady Macbeth sleepwalks
  7. 07Stylistic features6 min read
    • Tragedy and the tragic hero
    • Verse, prose and soliloquy
    • Structure
    • Imagery and double meanings
    • Subject terminology
  8. 08Model answers10 min read
    • The question
    • A grade 9 answer
    • Grade 5 and grade 9 side by side
    • What made the difference

Key quotes

I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself

Macbeth

Act 1, Scene 7 · Ambition and power · Guilt and conscience

Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

Lady Macbeth

Act 1, Scene 5 · Masculinity and gender · Fate and the supernatural

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

The Witches

Act 1, Scene 1 · Fate and the supernatural · Appearance and reality

Trochaic chant

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?

Macbeth

Act 2, Scene 2 · Guilt and conscience

Out, damned spot! out, I say!

Lady Macbeth

Act 5, Scene 1 · Guilt and conscience

Prose

When you durst do it, then you were a man;

Lady Macbeth

Act 1, Scene 7 · Masculinity and gender · Ambition and power

All 40 quotes