Macbeth asks why he is dressed in “borrowed robes,” and later his title hangs loose “like a giant’s robe / Upon a dwarfish thief.” What does this clothing motif suggest?

After Duncan’s murder Macbeth asks, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” What does the blood image make visible?

Macbeth hears, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.” In the play’s sleep motif, what has murder destroyed?

Macbeth says, “Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires.” What does the darkness image show?

Lady Macbeth calls, “Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell.” What is she asking darkness to do?

Macbeth says he is “in blood / Stepped in so far” that returning is as hard as going on. What does this image mean?

Banquo says Macbeth’s “new honors” are “Like our strange garments” that fit only with use. What does the clothing image suggest then?

After Banquo’s ghost, Macbeth says, “It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.” What does the repeated blood image claim?

Before he loses it, Macbeth calls sleep “sore labor’s bath” and “chief nourisher in life’s feast.” What role does the sleep motif give sleep?

Alone in “If it were done when ’tis done,” Macbeth weighs Duncan’s trust as king, kinsman, and guest. What does the soliloquy reveal?

In the dagger soliloquy, Macbeth asks, “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” What private state does the speech dramatize?

Alone after becoming king, Macbeth says, “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus.” What private fear drives the speech?

After reading Macbeth’s letter, Lady Macbeth says, “Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.” What does her private speech do?

In “The raven himself is hoarse,” Lady Macbeth asks spirits to “unsex” her. What does the soliloquy expose?

After hearing Macduff has fled, Macbeth says, “The firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand.” What shift does this private vow mark?

In “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” Macbeth speaks after Lady Macbeth dies. What does the soliloquy reveal?

Macbeth ends his “brief candle” speech with life “signifying nothing.” Why can a soliloquy show this better than court dialogue?

Lady Macbeth advises, “Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t.” What figure is she using?

Macbeth says, “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” What does the line’s repeated “false” emphasize?

In “Out, out, brief candle!” what is Macbeth calling a candle?

Macbeth says life is “a walking shadow” and “a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.” What do these metaphors stress?

Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth, “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!” What does the metaphor suggest?

Lady Macbeth asks, “Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dress’d yourself?” What is she implying with the figure?

Lady Macbeth says, “Your face, my thane, is as a book where men / May read strange matters.” What is the comparison warning?

When Duncan names Malcolm Prince of Cumberland, Macbeth says aside, “That is a step / On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap.” What contrast is created?

At Inverness, Lady Macbeth welcomes Duncan with ceremonious service while the audience knows her plan. What effect does this create?

After Duncan’s body is found, Macbeth says, “Had I but died an hour before this chance, / I had lived a blessed time.” What does the audience know?

Macbeth tells Banquo, “Fail not our feast,” while planning his murder. How should the audience read the public invitation?

At the banquet Macbeth cries, “Thou canst not say I did it: never shake / Thy gory locks at me.” What separates guests from audience?

Malcolm tells Macduff he is lustful, greedy, and unfit before retracting the claims. What is the hidden purpose of that public-sounding self-attack?