Macbeth Personification Quotes

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.

Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 4. Just after King Duncan names his son Malcolm his successor, Macbeth asks the stars to hide their light so that his disloyal desire to take the throne cannot be seen by anyone. He means to achieve this goal by killing Duncan if necessary. A metaphor is used to describe his evil desires as “black and deep.” In this passage the stars are also personified. Macbeth speaks these lines in an aside, because he wishes to conceal his ambitious intentions from other people. Among the themes in play here is appearance vs reality, also fate and free will. Macbeth is not prepared to leave it to fate for the Witches’ prophecy of him becoming king to come true. He decides to act on his own free will and commit regicide to ensure his ascent to power.

Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, “Hold, hold!”

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. There are many examples of light and darkness symbolism in Macbeth, this passage being one of them. Lady Macbeth calls on the night to cover up the sight of the knife when she carries out the murder of Duncan. The metaphor of a blanket is used to signify the dark. Personification is also employed – “knife see” and “heaven peep.” In her terrifying soliloquy the ambitious Lady Macbeth shows herself to be more ruthless than her husband. Her evil and her link to the Witches is emphasized by her reference to “hell.” Her ambition and desire to be queen know no bounds.

This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle:
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,
The air is delicate.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 6. If the audience didn’t already know that Duncan was walking into a deathtrap, they would think Banquo is describing some kind of paradise as they approach Macbeth’s castle. Banquo paints an idyllic scene: the martlet or martin chooses to nest and breed on the castle, the air is sweet-smelling, and a metaphor compares the soothing breeze to “heaven’s breath.” Summer is personified, it has the martlet as its guest, while a number of other rich metaphors – “pendent bed and procreant cradle” – complete the deception of appearance. There is heavy irony in this inviting description of Macbeth’s home, for it is the castle of a regicide.

Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. In this soliloquy Macbeth is struggling with the idea of murdering Duncan, a good man who has been an exemplary King. He recognizes Duncan’s virtues and uses a simile to equate them to angels crying out against his murder. A complicated simile and metaphor follows, likening the pity for the murdered King to a newborn baby or angel riding the wind to spread news of this horrible deed throughout the land. Shakespeare also personifies “virtues” and “pity” in this passage.

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.

Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dress’d yourself? hath it slept since,
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. Lady Macbeth counterattacks after her husband refuses to carry out the plan to kill the King. Using a clothing metaphor and personification, she asks if his earlier hope was drunk when he dressed himself in it. Lady Macbeth proves to be even more ambitious than Macbeth for him to be king. She employs emotional blackmail when she equates the level of her love for him to his commitment to killing Duncan.

Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1. Working up the courage to kill Duncan, Macbeth calls on the earth not to listen to his footsteps or what direction he walks. He fears that the stones will echo his whereabouts and reveal where he is, and so break the terrible silence that suits his murderous deed. The earth and stones are personified here, as if one is a human being with ears and the other has the power of speech.

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1. Macbeth’s soliloquy in which he talks to himself about whether to murder Duncan is interrupted by the ringing of a bell. This is Lady Macbeth’s signal that Duncan’s attendants are asleep. To Macbeth this is a “knell,” the sound of a bell rung for a death or funeral. His mind is now made up up to kill Duncan. Personification is used here when Macbeth says that the bell “invites” him.
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.

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o’ the building!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3. A shocked and emotional Macduff, after discovering the body of the murdered Duncan, announces that the worst thing imaginable has happened. In his speech we get a wonderful biblical metaphor comparing Duncan’s body to a temple anointed by God, which has been broken open and its contents stolen. The word confusion is personified in the passage to emphasize the disorder and bewilderment immediately caused by this unnatural crime.

By the clock, ’tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp:
Is ‘t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame,
That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
When living light should kiss it?

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 4. Scottish nobleman Ross speaks to the Old Man about the unnatural events that occurred at the time of King Duncan’s murder. They include darkness strangling the light of the sun during the daytime. This symbolizes the evil part of human nature overpowering the good side. Personification and metaphor are used effectively to illustrate how the skies reflect the upset in the natural order caused by the King’s murder.

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard; what’s done is done.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. This passage from Lady Macbeth contains one of the first recorded uses of the phrase, “what’s done is done.” She is urging her husband to stop dwelling on the death of Duncan and his guards, keeping to himself and making sad thoughts his companions (example of personification). This shows that Macbeth’s conscience is troubling him over the murders.

Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister’d flight, ere, to black Hecate’s summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. Macbeth hints to his wife of his plan to kill Banquo and Fleance before nightfall. The passage references the supernatural, a goddess associated with witches, bats and beatles. Hecate was goddess of witchcraft, night, moon and ghosts. She is described as black, a symbol for evil in the play. Macbeth’s “deed of dreadful note” is the murder of Banquo and his son. We also find an example of personification in “The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night’s yawning peal.”

Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale! Light thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood;
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. Macbeth commands the night to come quickly in order to conceal his evil actions and facilitate the murder of Banquo and his boy. Both night and day are personified in the passage. A hawking metaphor is used to describe the night, seeling is stitching the bird’s eyelids shut for training. In another metaphor Macbeth calls on the night to use its “bloody and invisible hand” to destroy Banquo. In his speech there is much made of darkness and light, one representing evil and the other good. Macbeth is calling on the forces of darkness and evil to cancel out the good.

Alas, poor country!
Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot
Be call’d our mother, but our grave; where nothing,
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air
Are made, not mark’d; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstacy.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. When Ross meets up with Macduff in England, Macduff asks how things are going in Scotland. Ross offers this grim report on the state of affairs back home under Macbeth’s rule. Ross can no longer think of Scotland as his motherland, but his grave. He uses personification to convey how his suffering country, afraid to know itself, has been turned from a joyful place of smiles into one of “groans and shrieks.”

I cannot but remember such things were
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Macduff agonizes over the slaughter of his wife and children by Macbeth’s thugs. He questions how God could allow such a thing. Heaven is personified when he accuses it of looking on and doing nothing about the crime. But Macduff also blames himself, his guilt evident in calling himself “sinful Macduff.” He says that his wife and children were innocent and the only reason they were targeted was because they were his family.

Hang out our banners on the outward walls;
The cry is still “They come:” our castle’s strength
Will laugh a siege to scorn.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5. Macbeth shows signs of mental instability as well as arrogance and reckless bravado. The enemy troops are approaching his castle and yet he defiantly dares them to come, thinking that he is invincible. He has deceived himself by believing what the Witches have told him and that their prophecies somehow offer protection to him from all enemies. His hubris and boastful superiority is on full display in “our castle’s strength Will laugh a siege to scorn.” This is also an excellent example of personification.
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