Macbeth – Disturbed Characters

 ‘I am afraid to think what I have done’

o I’m afraid even to think about what I’ve done.

 ‘O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife’

o Argh! I feel like my mind is full of scorpions, my dear wife.

 ‘I could not say Amen’

o I couldn’t reply “Amen”

 ‘Is this thy dagger I see before me’

o Is this a dagger I see in front of me

 ‘It is the childhood that fears the painted devil’

o Only children are afraid of scary pictures.

 ‘Strange things I have in head that will to hand, which must be acted ere they may be
scanned.’
o I have some schemes in my head that I’m planning to put into action. I have to do
these things before I have a chance to think about them.

 ‘Blood will have blood’

o The dead will have their revenge

 ‘You can behold such sights and keep the natural ruby of your cheeks when mine is blanch’d
with fear.’
o I see you looking at these terrible things and keeping a straight face, while my face
has gone white with fear.

 ‘Prithee, see there! Behold, look, lo’

o Please, just look over there. Look! Look!

 ‘Never shake thy gory locks at me’

o Don’t shake your bloody head at me.

 Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”
o I thought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth is murdering sleep.”

 ‘Better be with the dead than on the torture of the mind to end in restless ecstasy.’
o I’d rather be dead than endure this endless mental torture and harrowing sleep
deprivation.
 ‘Strange and self-abuse is the initiate fear that wants hard use. We are yet but young in
deed.’
o My strange self-delusions just come from inexperience. We’re still just beginners
when it comes to crime.

 ‘And with thy bloody and invisible hand cancel and tear to pieces that great bond which
keeps me pale.’
o Use your bloody and invisible hand to tear up Banquo’s lease on life, which keeps
me in fear.

 ‘Sleep in affliction of these terrible dreams which shake us nightly.’

o spend my nights tossing and turning with these nightmares I’ve been having

 ‘Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.’

o Bad deeds force you to commit more bad deeds.

 ‘Besides, this Duncan hath borne faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office,
that his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet tonged against the deep damnation of his
taking off.’
o Besides, Duncan has been such a humble leader, so free of corruption, that his
virtuous legacy will speak for him when he dies, as if angels were playing trumpets
against the injustice of his murder.

 ‘Augurs and understood relations have by maggot pies and coughs and rook brought forth
the secret’st man of blood.’
o The craftiest murderers have been exposed by the mystical signs made by crows and
magpies.

 ‘Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak.’

o Gravestones have been known to move, and trees to speak, to bring guilty men to
justice.

 ‘Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence!’

o Get out of here, you horrible ghost, you hallucination. Get out!

 ‘I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go
o'er.’
o I have walked so far into this river of blood that even if I stopped now, it would be as
hard to go back to being good as it is to keep killing people.

 ‘If charnel houses and our graves must send those that we bury back, our monuments shall
be the maws of kites.’
o If the dead are going to return from their graves, then there’s nothing to stop the
birds from eating the bodies. So there’s no point in our burying people.
 ‘Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee. Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is
cold. Thou hast no speculation in those eyes which thou dost glare with!’
o Go! And get out of my sight! Stay in your grave. There’s no marrow in your bones,
and your blood is cold. You’re staring at me with eyes that have no power to see.

 ‘What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.’
o Whose hands are these? Ha! They’re plucking out my eyes.

 ‘The mind I sway by and the heart I bear shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.’
o My mind and courage will never falter with doubt or shake with fear.

 ‘Why should I play the Roman fool and die on mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the
gashes do better upon them.’
o Why should I commit suicide like one of the ancient Romans? As long as I see
enemies of mine alive, I would rather see my sword wound them than me.

 ‘Out, out, brief candle!’

o Out, out brief candle

 ‘Life’s but a walking shadow’

o Life is nothing more than an illusion