Macbeth Foreshadowing Quotes

It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
Augurs and understood relations have
By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret’st man of blood.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. Macbeth recalls an old saying about the murdered dead having their revenge. Haunted by guilt, he fears that his shedding of Banquo’s blood will lead to his own death. His murder of his friend may be discovered by supernatural means, he believes. Macbeth is aware that stones have moved, trees have spoken, birds have told secrets. All of these things have identified murderers like Macbeth – “the secret’st man of blood.” This is foreshadowing of Macbeth’s own violent death.

Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use:
We are yet but young in deed.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4. In speaking these lines to Lady Macbeth, Macbeth shows how comfortable he has become with committing murder. He has already killed King Duncan and has had his friend Banquo killed. He implies and foreshadows that he will commit more murders to serve his ambition, when he tells his wife that they are “yet but young in deed.” The man who said he would never sleep again after killing Duncan, now seems untroubled by guilt and more emboldened after the murder of Banquo. He suggests to Lady Macbeth that they go to sleep and dismisses his earlier hallucination of Banquo’s ghost as inexperience. It is clear that Macbeth’s tolerence levels for evil and violence have risen. He has matured from being the reluctant murderer of Duncan, who needed to be motivated by his wife, to a fully-fledged monster. There is a certain irony in Macbeth’s description of himself as “young in deed.” He is certainly not inexperiences in crime, having already killed Duncan, his grooms, and Banquo.

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
He hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace and fear:
And you all know, security
Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 5. Goddess Hecate prophesies that Macbeth will be fooled by her magic into thinking he is immune to fate, he will mock death, and think he is beyond wisdom and fear. Overconfidence is man’s greatest enemy, she says. This is foreshadowing the apparitions that appear to Macbeth in Act 4, lulling him into a false sense of security, leading to his death.

Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1. The second apparition summoned by the Witches is that of a bloody child, urging him to be violent (“bloody”), courageous and determined. The apparition prophesies that no man born naturally of woman will be able to hurt Macbeth. This provides him with a false sense of security regarding any threat from Macduff. However, we later learn that Macduff was born through a C-section – “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped.” So this passage turns out to be ironic, since Macduff is fated to be Macbeth’s eventual nemesis. The passage shows the deceptiveness of the Witches. Macbeth’s death is foreshadowed here.

Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1. The Witches continue their deceitful nature with their third apparition, a child crowned, with a tree in his hand. The child’s prophecy may at first appear to suggest that Macbeth is invincible. And this is exactly what he believes. In response he says: “That will never be Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root.” But the apparition’s words turn out to be ironic and foreshadowing, because it is Macbeth’s fate to be defeated just as the prophecy describes.

Filthy hags!
Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes!
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
Another yet! A seventh! I’ll see no more:
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
Which shows me many more; and some I see
That two-fold balls and treble scepters carry.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1. When the Witches show Macbeth their fourth apparition of a procession of kings descended from Banquo, he is clearly upset and angry. He asks if Banquo’s lineage will continue to occupy the throne until the end of time. Foreshadowed here is Banquo’s children having power.

All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Macduff uses bird metaphors to convey his immense grief and loss on learning of the horrific murders of his wife and children. His words and tender imagery of a mother hen and her chickens convey his deep affection for the family he lost all at once. The passage shows the agony of an uncomprehending and manly warrior trying to make sense of such senseless slaughter at the hands of Macbeth’s thugs. He also uses the metaphor of “hell-kite” to compare Macbeth to a murderous bird of prey. This sets the stage for Macduff seeking revenge and eventually killing Macbeth. The passage is thus foreshadowing of future events.

Let every soldier hew him down a bough
And bear ‘t before him: thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host and make discovery
Err in report of us.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 4. Malcolm orders his soldiers to cut down Birnam Wood tree branches and carry them in order to conceal the real size of the army about to attack Macbeth. By his trick Malcolm is unknowingly fulfilling the Witches’ prophecy that Macbeth will never be vanquished until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. For as the soldiers march, it will appear as if the wood is moving to Dunsinane. This passage is foreshadowing of Macbeth’s immiment defeat.
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