(1) Stars, hide your…to see.
These lines have been quoted from a soliloquy of Macbeth. The prophecy of the witches fires his imagination. A guilty ambition germinates in his mind. A very short way to the throne lay through the murder of King Duncan. An idea flashes in his mind to murder the king and secure the crown. But in this hazardous venture one obstacle stood in his way, and that was Malcolm, the elder son of the king, whom he had only a little while ago nominated the Prince of Cumberland.
But Macbeth’s conscience did not easily conform to his planning. He could not do any act of such heinous guilt and crime in the faintest light. Night and pitch darkness were the only time when such a deed could be done. Therefore he prays to the evil powers to cover up even the twinkling eyes of the stars. He is afraid that the least light would expose his black and guilty designs. He does not have the heart to see even his own hand holding the knife. But after the completion of the deed, he could see his knife in his hand without any compunctions. These sentiments show that Macbeth was not a habitual sinner or murderer. He was a good man driven to the path of sin and crime under the force of circumstances.
(2) Yet do…………attend it.
These lines have been extracted from the first speech of Lady Macbeth in Act I Scene V of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Lady Macbeth, who is a woman of iron will and tremendous energy, reads the letter of Macbeth who has narrated in it his meeting with the Witches and their prophecies. She at once makes up her mind to get the third prophecy fulfilled for her husband.
But Lady Macbeth doubts the capabilities of her husband Macbeth. She gives her own estimate of him. She has little faith in him. He is too human- hearted. In her opinion. he is not without moral scruples and he will be most unwilling to take the easiest way to the realisation of his ambition. It will be a hard job to persuade him to do what is necessary to win the crown. Lady Macbeth means to say that Macbeth is devoid of unfair means or unscrupulousness which are necessary for the fulfilment of his ambition.
These lines reveal Lady Macbeth’s estimate of her husband. If ambition seems to stir Macbeth, in Lady Macbeth it is the ruling passion. But her love for Macbeth is greater than her ambition. She, however, wishes to serve as the sole inspirer and guide of Macbeth in achieving her end.
(3) Hie thee hither….crowned withal,
These lines have been quoted from a soliloquy of Lady Macbeth. Macbeth has informed Lady Macbeth through a letter how the Witches met him and prophesied about his kingship. On reading the letter at once an idea comes to her mind that Kingship could be easily and immediately secured by murdering the king. But she knows at the same time that her husband is a man of weak determination who would avoid the path of sin and guilt. Therefore she decides to prompt and encourage him to do the deed of murder and secure the throne.
She wants him to come to her without any delay, so that she could pour the fire and determination of her mind and character into his mind. She would upbraid, chastise and admonish him for his inherent weakness so much with all the fire and force of her language that he would not waver from his determination. Nothing would be allowed to stand between him and the royal crown. Both his fate and the supernatural powers have promised the throne to him, and the same would not be allowed to slip from his hands only for want of determination and moral compunctions.
The passage shows that Lady Macbeth was stronger and possessed greater will power than her husband.
(4) Come, you spirits…effect and it.
These words have been uttered by Lady Macbeth in Act I, Scene V of Shakespeare’s great tragedy Macbeth. Having received the news of Macbeth’s meeting with the three Witches and their prophecies, out of which two have come true, Lady Macbeth begins to nourish the fulfilment of the third prophecy. When the messenger informs her that the king is visiting her palace. she hardly believes it. To her, who has already resolved on the murder of Duncan, the news seems to be too good to be true.
Lady Macbeth invokes here the evil spirits that wait upon murderous thoughts. Let them make her forsake the tender womanly feelings that reside in her breast. Let them saturate her with the direct cruelty. Let her blood be thickened so that her sensibilities may be deadened. Let no compassion find its way to her heart. Let her have nothing to do with pricks of conscience that may arise in her nature spontaneously. She would not fit her conscience enfeeble her stern purpose or mediate between its execution and itself. She would rather have all hurdles removed from the pathway of her murderous designs.
Lady Macbeth seems to have an undaunted ambition. For its fulfilment, she has nothing to do with any moral scruple. Whereas ambition stirs the conscience of Macbeth, in Lady Macbeth, it is the ruling passion.
(5) I have no spur…………the other.
These lines are again a part of Macbeth’s same soliloquy. Macbeth has not yet been able to suppress and stifle his conscience completely. His conscience still pricks him and forces him to consider again what motive drives him to do the heinous crime of murdering the king. There is nothing against the king to call for his murder. He has been a noble king throughout Moreover, he is staying with him as his guest. The only motive behind his stipulated deed of murder was his own guilty ambition. He was possessed by a vaulting ambition. He was riding upon a mighty horse of guilty ambition in which there was a great hazard for him. If he failed in the fulfilment of his ambition, it would mean his complete ruin. His immoderate ambition may defeat itself by its own excess.
(6) Mine eyes……….mine eyes.
These lines have been extracted from the soliloquy of Macbeth in Act II, Scene I of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. When Macbeth is alone, he is so overpowered by the thought of murder that he seems to see a phantom of a dagger before his eyes, the handle being towards him. But he also feels that it may be a dagger of the mind, a creation of the passion-oppressed brain. He lays hands on his own dagger, and seems to see no difference between the dagger he draws and the one that dangles in the air before his eyes, yet he cannot touch this dagger in the air. Thus he feels as if his eyes are being mocked by his other senses.
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The dagger, which Macbeth considers as the creation of his mind, still dangles in the air before his eyes. When he puts out his hand to catch hold of it, it melts away into the air. Macbeth does not know whether he should trust his eyes or his other senses. The dagger is persistently present before his eyes Either his eyes are mocked by other senses, or his eyes alone are to be trusted to the exclusion of other senses. The dagger is still before his eyes. Now he begins to see spots of blood on its hilt. A moment ago it was not blood- stained. Then Macbeth convinces himself that it cannot be a real dagger. The murderous thoughts within him take the shape of a dagger, and appear before his eyes.
Macbeth is passing through a hallucination which has plunged him in the thoughts of murder he is going to perpetrate. The dagger which he sees dangling before his eyes is nothing but the physical translation of his murderous thoughts.
(7) Thou sure and…………..or to hell.
This soliloquy is spoken by Macbeth minutes before the deed of murder is done. Macbeth is still not quite free from the pricks and compunctions of conscience. He fears that everything is against the deed of murder he is shortly going to commit. He is so terribly afraid that he cannot put even his footstep upon the earth. In the meantime Lady Macbeth has rung the bell to give signal to Macbeth that the right moment had come to commit the deed.
Let not the firm and stable earth hear his steps, or mark which way they proceed. He fears that even the pebbles of the floor may echo the sound of his footsteps and rob the time of horror which is so needed for a deed like this. While he is just meditating over his idle fear, Duncan lives. Mere words can infuse little fire into action. As soon as he enters the bed-chamber of Duncan, the deed would be done. The bell rung by Lady Macbeth summons him to act. Let not Duncan hear the bell, for it is his death-bell which would dispatch him either to heaven or to hell. The bell signals to him to proceed towards Duncan’s chamber and do the deed.
(8) O! these…grandam.
These words have been spoken by Lady Macbeth in Act III Scene IV of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. When Macbeth welcomes his guests at his palace, he regrets the absence of Banquo. But suddenly the ghost of Banquo appears and sits in Macbeth’s place. The ghost is not visible to the guests. Macbeth who only sees the ghost, is unnerved and addresses it, unmindful of the guests.
Lady Macbeth tells the guests that Macbeth often suffers from such fits. Lady Macbeth admonishes her husband privately for giving way to horrible imaginings, for bragging at a shadow or phantom. But Macbeth believed that he had seen the ghost of Banquo, and was quite beside himself. and began to rave. He might have betrayed himself. As a precautionary measure, Lady Macbeth takes him aside and lectures him on his false and absurd apprehensions. These sudden outbursts of passion and distracted looks and gestures can be nothing but the result of hallucinations. There is no basis for such fears. According to her, such fears are unworthy of a man, though they may be appropriate to a crony, who seated by the fire side on a winter evening tells a hair-raising story which she has heard from her grandmother.
(9) I am in blood…..be scann’d.
These lines have been taken from Macbeth’s conversation with Lady Macbeth. Macbeth has not been able to pardon himself from the sin of murder of the king, Banquo and several others. He commits crime after crime because he has been caught in a network of sin and evil from which he cannot escape. He must commit more and more murders to secure himself from harm and retribution. Everything must now give way to his own interest. He has gone so far in bloody crimes that it would be impossible to retrace his steps, even if he had a mind to do so. He has a number of strange schemes in contemplation. These must be executed before they may be known or exposed to the people at large.
(10) That will never………….mortal custom.
In these lines Macbeth feels fully satisfied and secured at the prophecy of the third apparition that Macbeth will never be vanquished until the great Birnam Wood rose against him. Macbeth thanks the apparition for this assurance and feels that he will never be defeated because the great forest would never rise against him. He stands assured that he will live his allotted span of life and die a natural death. He has now no need to fear any rebellion. There is the prospect of a rebellious force invading Scotland. But Macbeth is not to fear it. No human power can impress the Birnam Wood to uproot its plants and trees and rise in rebellion against his castle Dunsinane.
This is, however, a false assurance, a play upon words, for in a metaphorical sense the Birnam Wood does indeed rise against his castle and he is finally killed on the battlefield.
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