Macbeth Foreshadowing Quotes

When the hurly-burly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.

FIRST WITCH: When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
SECOND WITCH: When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1. The Witches meet at the beginning of the play to discuss their future meeting with Macbeth. Here Shakespeare uses the motif of weather to foreshadow future events. The thunder and lightning suggest that there will an upset in the order when they meet with Macbeth. The “hurly-burly” is also suggestive of revolt and chaos that Scotland will soon face.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1. This couplet is chanted by the three Witches when they get together during a storm to talk about their future meeting with Macbeth. The incantation “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” is synonymous with the Macbeth drama. It sets the scene and tone for everything that follows in the play. It means that appearances can be deceiving and it foreshadows what will happen in the course of the play. What seems good will be evil, and what appears evil will be good. The words “fair” and “foul” are each a metaphor for the other. The “fog and filthy air” bad weather that accompanies the Witches suggests the moral uncertainty in Scotland and how characters are unable to distinguish between what is “fair” and “foul.”

The merciless Macdonwald –
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villanies of nature
Do swarm upon him…
For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name!
Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour’s minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’ chops,
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 2. The Captain tells King Duncan how the brave Macbeth led the Scots to victory against the King of Norway and executed the traitorous rebel Macdonwald. We see how Macbeth had the ability to defy fate and fortune with his sword. The quote shows that he is loyal to the King. We also witness his ruthlessness and propensity for gruesome violence. The battle “hero” is introduced as a bloodthirsty killer, who slices his opponent open from naval to jaw. This foreshadows Macbeth being a killer during the rest of the play. The passage uses metaphorical language to emphasize Macbeth’s heroic and bloody role in the battle – his sword “smoked with bloody execution.” We see simile and personification when Macbeth is likened to “valour’s minion” – the servant of courage. Macbeth is initially presented as a patriot in the play.

Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-toss’d.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. The witch plotting revenge on a sailor knows that she cannot destroy his ship, but she can call up storms to disrupt his voyage. This shows that while the Witches can use their powers to influence events, they are not all-powerful and cannot completely control a person’s fate. Foreshadowed here is how the Witches will influence Macbeth through their prophecies, but cannot force him to act. Macbeth by exercising his free will and through his own actions will end up dooming himself.
So foul and fair a day I have not seen

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. Macbeth’s line echoes the incantation spoken by the Witches and which is synonymous with the play: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” Macbeth’s first words in the drama are significant. They may refer to the good outcome of the battle that brought victory to Scotland, also the foul weather on the heath. They also link Macbeth to the Witches, foreshadowing how he will come be easily led and manipulated by them.
All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter

FIRST WITCH: All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH: All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH: All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. When Macbeth invites the Witches to speak, their words are prophetic and foreshadowing of things to come. They hail him as Thane of Cawdor, an example of dramatic irony since the audience already knows that but Macbeth does not. They also prophesy that he will be later become King of Scotland.
Witches prophecy to Banquo

FIRST WITCH: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
SECOND WITCH: Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH: Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. When Banquo asks the Witches to tell him his future, they make cryptic prophecies. The final one predicts that his descendants will be kings, but he will not. In saying how he will be lesser and greater than Macbeth, this may be suggesting that he won’t rise to the rank of Macbeth, but will enjoy greater honor and reputation. The Witches’ statement about Banquo being not as happy but happier than Macbeth is equally ambiguous. But it too can be explained by Banquo suffering a violent death yet not going through the mental torment of Macbeth before dying. There is a great deal of subtle foreshadowing here.

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s
In deepest consequence.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. Banquo shows himself to be much more cautious than Macbeth in reacting to the Witches’ prophecies. He calls attention to the danger of acting on the predictions of the evil “instruments of darkness,” as he metaphorically describes the Witches. They may be telling a little truth in order to gain their confidence, so that they can deceive and betray them into causing harm, he warns. This is foreshadowing of Macbeth’s fatal decision to kill King Duncan. This passage raises the question: do the Witches control people’s fate, or do people have free will to decide their own fate, regardless of what the Witches prophesy.

Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. Macbeth uses a metaphor to compare the Witches’ statements about his thaneships of Glamis and Cawdor to the prologue of a play. He speaks these lines on realizing that their prophecy about him being Thane of Cawdor has come true. The final act of the drama he sees as having a royal theme, when he becomes King of Scotland – the Witches’ second prophecy. The passage tells us of Macbeth’s ambition and desire for power and is foreshadowing of his later ruthless actions to acquire that power.

Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. In Macbeth’s first soliloquy he tries to work out the implications of the Witches’ prophecy that he will be king. We get an insight into his state of mind as his ambition for power is triggered by the prophecy. For the first time he gives voice to the thought of murdering King Duncan. The thought terrifies him and leaves him confused. If what the Witches told him is good, he wonders why he is entertaining horrible thoughts of murder. But he reasons that it cannot be evil, since the Witches’ forecast that he would be Thane of Cawdor turned out to be right. Macbeth is so consumed with his own ambitious fantasizing, that he becomes detached from reality. He struggles with his conscience over whether to commit murder. But he can only think of “what is not” – his fantasy of being king. The final sentence suggests too that what seems to be real is actually not, ironically like Macbeth’s supposed loyalty to King Duncan, whom he kills. The murder of Duncan is foreshadowed in the passage.

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. In Macbeth’s second soliloquy he is plagued with self-doubt over whether he should kill King Duncan and the consequences for him if he does. If he carries out the assassination, he believes that it must be done quickly. But he fears the retribution he will face, both in this world and the next. The killing might not bring an end to the whole affair, his violent deed could return to haunt him and trigger a cycle of violence that could destroy him. Using the metaphor of a “poisoned chalice,” Macbeth foresees that justice could ensure that he drink from the same cup that he himself poisoned. In other words he may end up dead like Duncan. The dark imagery of “bloody instructions” and “poisoned chalice” suggests that Macbeth knows the King’s murder would unleash a dark and evil period in Scotland. And it does. The passage foreshadows that and Macbeth’s eventual death. An ocean metaphor is used to compare time to a bank or shoal (a shallow part of the ocean). Shakespeare uses another metaphor to compare the murder to bloody instructions being taught.

I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself,
And falls on the other.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. Ambition is one of the strongest themes in Macbeth. In the final words of Macbeth’s soliloquy, he reveals that the sole reason for his murder of Duncan is his ambition. An extended equestrian metaphor explains that he has no other motivation to spur himself to commit regicide than ambition. Shakespeare also personifies ambition as overleaping and falling, which also foreshadows Macbeth’s downfall.

I have given suck, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. Lady Macbeth is the complete antithesis of what most people’s image of a woman and mother is. She describes herself as having been a loving and nurturing mother in the past. But she shockingly admits she would kill her own suckling baby before abandoning the plan to seize power and take the Scottish throne. Consumed with uncontrolled ambition, she is prepared to use every means to pressurize and shame Macbeth into killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth’s extreme words paint a picture of a woman with a very disturbed mind, foreshadowing her later descent into complete madness.

There’s husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1. An uneasy Banquo observes that the lights of heaven are shut off, foreboding the horrible crime that is about to happen. He uses the metaphor of “candles” for the stars. He also uses a simile to compare sleep to a heavy lead summonsing him, a sleep that eludes him because of “cursed thoughts.” He asks the powerful supernatural spirits to curb these thoughts. He doesn’t reveal what these thoughts are, but they are likely connected with the Witches’ prophecies. Banquo seems suspicious that something bad is about to happen. The passage foreshadows Duncan’s murder.

It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern’st good-night.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. Lady Macbeth hears an owl shriek at the time her husband is meant to be murdering Duncan. In a metaphor she compares the owl to a bellman or town crier. The “fatal bellman” was the night watchman who rang a bell at the door of a condemned prisoner to summon him for execution. According to medieval folklore, the owl’s screech foretold the death of a person. This passage is foreshadowing of Duncan’s death. It is also an example of the use of supernatural animal imagery to signal a disruption in the natural order of things.
Sleep no more - Macbeth

Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep!” the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. After Duncan’s murder, a troubled Macbeth begins to hear voices in his head. He imagines one speaking to him about his evil deed of murdering sleep – the King was killed while asleep in his bed. The voice predicts that Macbeth himself will never rest peacefully again, foreshadowing his problems sleeping from this moment on. In this passage sleep is personified as a knitter of a “sleave of care,” that soothes our hurt minds and is the most nourishing thing in life. Macbeth’s mind is starting to unravel here because of his guilt.

The night has been unruly: where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events
New hatch’d to the woeful time. The obscure bird
Clamour’d the livelong night: some say the earth
Was feverous and did shake.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3. The Scottish nobleman Lennox remarks to Macbeth how stormy it was the night before, with chimneys blown down, cries of death, terrifying voices prophesying fire and chaos, and the earth shaking. These supernatural occurrences and havoc in nature show how the natural order has been upset by the murder of the lawful King Duncan during the night. The earth and weather are reacting to an unnatural crime. This is an example of pathetic fallacy. We also see foreshadowing of the discovery and announcement of Duncan’s murder.

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. A troubled Macbeth is so racked with guilt after killing Duncan that he envies the dead King. He observes that the dead can sleep in peace, while his own sleep is disrupted by terrible nightmares. Macbeth foreshadows his own death by saying that it is better to be dead.
    • 1
    • 2
Close