Macbeth Insanity Quotes

Question: art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? -act 2, scene 1: macbeth

Answer: macbeth recognises madness in himself

Question: these deeds must not be thought after these ways; so, it will make us mad -act 2, scene 2, lady macbeth

Answer: lady macbeth assumes that talking over their crime will make them mad or get them caught, however it is the opposite to this, and she ends up sleepwalking, being unable to stop talking about it

Question: who was it, that thus cried? Why worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength to think so brain-sickly of such things -act 2, scene 2: lady macbeth

Answer: lady macbeth confirms that the voice was in macbeth’s imagination, dismissing it and telling him again not to think of what they have done

Question: o, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! -act 2, scene 3: macbeth

Answer:

Question: one, two -act 5, scene 1: lady macbeth

Answer: lady macbeth dreams she hears a bell, possibly the one that calls macbeth to kill duncan, reliving this memory over again

Question: I would not have such a heart in my body for the dignity of the whole body -act 5, scene 1: gentlewoman

Answer: the gentlewoman recognises lady macbeth’s madness as tragic, creating sympathy for her with the audience

Question: there’s a knocking at the gate -act 5, scene 1: lady macbeth

Answer: lady macbeth relives the night of duncan’s murder, hearing macduff knocking at the gate again, which terrifies her enough to go to bed, a place that also scares her as she needs to keep a light beside her bed

Question: more needs she the divine than the physician -act 5, scene 1: doctor

Answer: this is ironic as the reason lady macbeth has gone insane is that she plotted to murder the divine duncan