GCSE English Literature · Macbeth
The key Macbeth quotes for GCSE are short lines that fit many questions, like "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" and "Out, damned spot". Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas set Macbeth closed book, so you quote from memory. Start with the ten quotes starred Learn first.
Every quote checked word for word against the Folger Shakespeare text
How your exam tests Macbeth
AQA8702
What is printed for you and the marks are being checked against AQA's own page. AQA's specification at a glance
Pearson Edexcel1ET0
OCRJ352
WJEC EduqasC720
Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas print at most an extract, so learn quotes from all five acts. SPaG means spelling, punctuation and grammar.
The quotes
Each quote has who says it, where and what it means. Learn the highlighted words.
Go straight toMacbethLady MacbethBanquoMacduffThe witchesOthers
Stars, hide your fires;Let not light see my black and deep desires.
Macbeth, aside, after Duncan names Malcolm heirAct 1, Scene 4
Macbeth hides his murderous wish even from heaven.
Light against dark, and the rhyme of "fires" and "desires" makes the wish sound settled.
I have no spurTo prick the sides of my intent, but onlyVaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itselfAnd falls on th' other—
Macbeth, alone, decidingAct 1, Scene 7
Only ambition drives him, and he knows it will make him fall.
Ambition is a rider who jumps so hard he falls. He foresees his own fall, yet goes on.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,The handle toward my hand?
Macbeth, alone, before the murderAct 2, Scene 1
A dagger that may be real, supernatural or his guilty mind.
Macbeth does murder sleep
Macbeth, repeating a voice he heardAct 2, Scene 2
By killing Duncan he has killed his own peace and rest.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand? No, this my hand will ratherThe multitudinous seas incarnadine,Making the green one red.
Macbeth, just after the murderAct 2, Scene 2
Not even the whole ocean could wash his guilt away.
Hyperbole: one hand would turn the sea red, and "Making the green one red" lands hard.
I am in bloodStepped in so far that, should I wade no more,Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
MacbethAct 3, Scene 4
He has killed so much that stopping is as hard as going on.
Blood as a river he is halfway across. He chooses to keep wading, the mark of a tyrant.
It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.
Macbeth, after Lady Macbeth's deathAct 5, Scene 5
Life means nothing to him now: all noise, no sense.
The end of the "Tomorrow and tomorrow" speech. The short last line lands like a full stop on his ambition.
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
Lady Macbeth, about MacbethAct 1, Scene 5
She fears her husband is too kind to kill.
Mother's milk makes kindness sound feminine, so she links gentleness with weakness.
The raven himself is hoarseThat croaks the fatal entrance of DuncanUnder my battlements.
Lady Macbeth, alone, after reading Macbeth's letterAct 1, Scene 5
She already treats Duncan's visit as his death. Ravens were birds of ill omen.
Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty.
Lady MacbethAct 1, Scene 5
She asks evil spirits to strip away her pity and fill her with cruelty.
Her commands sound in control, yet she needs supernatural help to be cruel.
Look like th' innocent flower,But be the serpent under 't.
Lady Macbeth, to MacbethAct 1, Scene 5
Hide your evil plan behind a welcoming face.
The serpent recalls the Devil in the Garden of Eden, linking deception with evil.
When you durst do it, then you were a man
Lady Macbeth, to MacbethAct 1, Scene 7
A real man, she says, dares to kill.
Questioning his courage is the weapon that changes his mind.
I would, while it was smiling in my face,Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gumsAnd dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as youHave done to this.
Lady Macbeth, to MacbethAct 1, Scene 7
She would kill her own baby rather than break a promise.
Tender details ("smiling", "boneless gums") make the violence more shocking.
But screw your courage to the sticking placeAnd we'll not fail.
Lady Macbeth, to Macbeth, as he waversAct 1, Scene 7
Courage screwed tight, she says, is all they need to succeed.
A little water clears us of this deed.
Lady Macbeth, just after the murderAct 2, Scene 2
She thinks guilt washes off as easily as blood.
Understatement set against his ocean. Act 5 proves her wrong.
Pair it with “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” Act 2, Scene 2Naught's had, all's spent,Where our desire is got without content.
Lady Macbeth, aloneAct 3, Scene 2
They have the crown, but no happiness from it.
Out, damned spot, out, I say!
Lady Macbeth, sleepwalkingAct 5, Scene 1
She cannot wash away the blood she once dismissed.
Broken prose instead of the confident verse of Act 1 shows her control has gone.
Pair it with “A little water clears us of this deed.” Act 2, Scene 2The instruments of darkness tell us truths,Win us with honest trifles, to betray 'sIn deepest consequence.
Banquo, about the witchesAct 1, Scene 3
Evil tells small truths to win trust, then betrays.
Thou hast it now—king, Cawdor, Glamis, allAs the Weïrd Women promised, and I fearThou played'st most foully for 't.
Banquo, alone, about MacbethAct 3, Scene 1
Banquo suspects Macbeth cheated to make the prophecy come true.
I shall do so,But I must also feel it as a man.
Macduff, told to take revenge like a manAct 4, Scene 3
A real man, Macduff says, feels grief before taking revenge.
It answers Lady Macbeth's idea of manhood.
Pair it with “When you durst do it, then you were a man” Act 1, Scene 7Macduff was from his mother's wombUntimely ripped.
Macduff, to Macbeth, in the last fightAct 5, Scene 8
Macduff was born by caesarean, so the prophecy turns against Macbeth.
Pair it with “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth.” Act 4, Scene 1Fair is foul, and foul is fair
The witchesAct 1, Scene 1
Good and evil swap places, so nothing in the play is what it seems.
A paradox in a chanting rhyme. Macbeth's first line, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen", echoes it.
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
Third WitchAct 1, Scene 3
The prophecy that starts everything: Macbeth will be king.
none of woman bornShall harm Macbeth.
Second ApparitionAct 4, Scene 1
A trick of words: Macduff was not born in the usual way.
True in its words, false in its meaning. The prophecy gives Macbeth the confidence that destroys him.
For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)
Captain, reporting the battleAct 1, Scene 2
At the start Macbeth is praised as a fearless, loyal hero.
There's no artTo find the mind's construction in the face.
Duncan, about the traitor CawdorAct 1, Scene 4
You cannot read a traitor's mind in his face.
Dramatic irony: Duncan then trusts Macbeth, the new Thane of Cawdor.
'Tis unnatural,Even like the deed that's done.
Old ManAct 2, Scene 4
Nature itself rebels against the murder of a king.
Now does he feel his titleHang loose about him, like a giant's robeUpon a dwarfish thief.
Angus, about MacbethAct 5, Scene 2
The crown never fitted him: a small man in stolen clothes.
"Thief" reminds us he stole the crown, and "dwarfish" shrinks the warrior of Act 1.
this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen
Malcolm, in the play's last speechAct 5, Scene 8
Malcolm's final verdict on Macbeth and his wife.
"Butcher" reduces the "brave Macbeth" of Act 1 to a killer of the helpless.
Pair it with “brave Macbeth” Act 1, Scene 2No quote matches. Not every line of the play is here, so try another word, clear the filters, or see the FAQ for famous lines.
Opens Aripsy with these quotes, ready to turn into flashcards.
Written by Amin Mudassir, Founder of Aripsy · Last checked ·
Examiners' reports favour a short quote that proves your point, with one word in it explained.
Weak
Macbeth says "Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself". This is a metaphor that shows he is ambitious.
Stronger
Macbeth admits his only "spur" is "Vaulting ambition", picturing a rider who jumps so hard he "o'erleaps itself" and falls. Before the murder he already sees how his ambition will end, which makes his choice to go on more damning.
Answer from memory, as in the exam. Question 1 is a recall task, not an exam question type. Aripsy wrote every question, mark scheme and model answer.
Practice task · 8 marks
Q1: Choose one quotation from Act 1 or Act 2 and one from Act 5 that show how Lady Macbeth changes. For each, explain what Shakespeare's language shows about her at that point in the play.
[8 marks]
In Act 2 Scene 2 Lady Macbeth tells her shaking husband that "A little water clears us of this deed." The understatement of "little" shows how lightly she treats the murder: to her, guilt is a mark on the skin that a quick wash removes. She sounds calm and practical while he imagines a whole ocean turning red.
By Act 5 Scene 1 the same image has turned against her. Sleepwalking, she cries "Out, damned spot, out, I say!" The "spot" is the blood she once dismissed, and now no amount of washing removes it. Her commands are frantic rather than controlled, and she speaks in broken prose instead of the confident verse she used in Act 1. Shakespeare uses the link between water and blood to show that the guilt she denied has worked its way into her mind, so the woman who seemed strongest is the one it breaks.
Pearson Edexcel-style, part (b) · 20 marks
Q2: Pearson Edexcel-style question, part (b). Guilt is important in Macbeth. Explain how guilt affects Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in different parts of the play.
In your answer, think about:
Include relevant context of the play in your answer.
[20 marks]
Guilt hits Macbeth and Lady Macbeth at different times and in opposite ways. Straight after killing Duncan, Macbeth is horrified by his own hands: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?" The hyperbole shows he already feels his crime is too big to undo. He also hears a voice cry that "Macbeth does murder sleep", and sleep, a symbol of peace and innocence, is lost to them both from this point.
Lady Macbeth seems untouched. "A little water clears us of this deed" treats guilt as a stain on the skin. Yet by Act 3 she admits "Naught's had, all's spent": the crown has brought no happiness, a first sign that what they did weighs on her.
Macbeth's guilt turns into fear rather than remorse. He sees Banquo's ghost at the banquet, but instead of stopping he decides he is "in blood / Stepped in so far" that going back is as hard as going on. By Act 5 life is "full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing", as if he has killed his own conscience. Lady Macbeth's guilt goes the other way: it is buried and then breaks out. Sleepwalking, she cries "Out, damned spot, out, I say!", and the water that was meant to clean her becomes a stain that will not go.
Context sharpens this. Many in Shakespeare's audience believed that kings were chosen by God, a view James I wrote about and promoted, so killing Duncan was a sin as well as a crime. The Old Man's "'Tis unnatural, / Even like the deed that's done" shows nature recoiling from the crime, so the guilt they feel is part of a wider judgement on the murder of a king.
Pick a practice question, write your answer, and get an estimated mark with the points you earned and missed.
Write your answer to the question, then choose Mark my answer. Your first check doesn't need an account.
A script checks every quote word for word against the Folger Shakespeare edition (Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine), which gives our act and scene numbers and modern spelling, and against the public-domain Project Gutenberg text. Drafted with AI assistance. The notes are our own.
Read our editorial policy.
From each board's specification (Pearson Issue 2, OCR version 3.0, Eduqas version 4), read 1–4 November 2026. AQA's details are being checked against AQA's own page.
