MACBETH: KEY QUOTATIONS
MACBETH: KEY QUOTATIONS
Memorise around 25-30 short quotations for ages 14-16 or around 35-45 for ages 16-18.
Task 1: Compile a list of quotations - enough for your level, from a range of different scenes and acts.
You should have your own key quotations written down before looking at the examples below.
Task 2: Analyse each quote in as much detail as possible, using language, form and structure techniques
to enhance your ideas.
The Witches by John Raphael Smith
COPYRIGHT © 2021 SCRBBLY
, MACBETH: KEY QUOTATIONS
Example:
“Fair is foul and foul is fair:” - 1.1 - Witches
techniques — chiasmus, fricative alliteration, antithesis, trochaic tetrameter (falling rhythm)
analysis — fair — ‘Jacobean’ meaning is beautiful, blonde/fair haired, honest / just — beauty is ugly /
horrible, and that ugliness is beautiful; things that are just are wrong and things that seem wrong are
right.
Task 3: Try linking the quotations that you’ve chosen to wider themes and ideas of the play. You may
group several quotations together under one theme. Also try enhancing your analysis of them by using
context points to develop your interpretations further.
Example:
“You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” - 1.3 - Banquo to
Witches
themes — gender, power, horror/fear, uncanny
context — actors were all men in the Jacobean era, creates an arguable source of humour which amplifies
the later tragedy, similar themes to “unsex me here” in 1.5. Lady Macbeth (monosyllabic lexis — single
syllable words that create a heavy, intense feeling and stand out from the rest of the character’s
complex, rhetorical language) uncanny and frightening as LM and Witches are both played by young
men on Shakespeare’s stage.
KEY QUOTATIONS:
Below are some (not all!) of the most important quotations in Macbeth. Add them to your list if
you haven’t already written them down. For each one, try to think about techniques, themes, ideas,
context and attitudes that could be linked. Some of these quotations are synthesised (grouped
together). For extra marks in essays, you should use and analyse at least one or two synthesised
groups of quotations throughout the whole piece.
Task 4: Use your list and these quotations below to make mind maps based on key themes in Macbeth.
This is a great way to prepare for essay planning!
COPYRIGHT © 2021 SCRBBLY
MACBETH: KEY QUOTATIONS
Memorise around 25-30 short quotations for ages 14-16 or around 35-45 for ages 16-18.
Task 1: Compile a list of quotations - enough for your level, from a range of different scenes and acts.
You should have your own key quotations written down before looking at the examples below.
Task 2: Analyse each quote in as much detail as possible, using language, form and structure techniques
to enhance your ideas.
The Witches by John Raphael Smith
COPYRIGHT © 2021 SCRBBLY
, MACBETH: KEY QUOTATIONS
Example:
“Fair is foul and foul is fair:” - 1.1 - Witches
techniques — chiasmus, fricative alliteration, antithesis, trochaic tetrameter (falling rhythm)
analysis — fair — ‘Jacobean’ meaning is beautiful, blonde/fair haired, honest / just — beauty is ugly /
horrible, and that ugliness is beautiful; things that are just are wrong and things that seem wrong are
right.
Task 3: Try linking the quotations that you’ve chosen to wider themes and ideas of the play. You may
group several quotations together under one theme. Also try enhancing your analysis of them by using
context points to develop your interpretations further.
Example:
“You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” - 1.3 - Banquo to
Witches
themes — gender, power, horror/fear, uncanny
context — actors were all men in the Jacobean era, creates an arguable source of humour which amplifies
the later tragedy, similar themes to “unsex me here” in 1.5. Lady Macbeth (monosyllabic lexis — single
syllable words that create a heavy, intense feeling and stand out from the rest of the character’s
complex, rhetorical language) uncanny and frightening as LM and Witches are both played by young
men on Shakespeare’s stage.
KEY QUOTATIONS:
Below are some (not all!) of the most important quotations in Macbeth. Add them to your list if
you haven’t already written them down. For each one, try to think about techniques, themes, ideas,
context and attitudes that could be linked. Some of these quotations are synthesised (grouped
together). For extra marks in essays, you should use and analyse at least one or two synthesised
groups of quotations throughout the whole piece.
Task 4: Use your list and these quotations below to make mind maps based on key themes in Macbeth.
This is a great way to prepare for essay planning!
COPYRIGHT © 2021 SCRBBLY
