Macbeth Group

Question:

tamooney
tamooney
Student
High School - 12th Grade

In Shakespeare's "Macbeth", what is the quote for Act III, Scene IV, lines 72-74?

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Posted by tamooney on Wednesday January 14, 2009 at 4:35 PM and tagged with act 3, banquet, lady macbeth, macbeth, scene 4, shakespeare.

Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    eNotes Editor

    Here's the bit of the play you were referring to: 

    LADY MACBETH
    Are you a man? 

    MACBETH:
    Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
    Which might appal the devil.

    LADY MACBETH:
    O proper stuff!
    This is the very painting of your fear;
    This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
    Led you to Duncan.

    Macbeth is raving, thinking that he sees Banquo's ghost. Lady Macbeth asks him whether he's a man (her tactic from before Duncan's murder to get him to pull himself together), adn he replies that he is a man, and a bold (brave) one. Why? Because he can look at something which would scare the devil (Banquo's ghost).

    Lady Macbeth sarcastically replies that this is "proper stuff". What Macbeth sees, she says, is imaginary, painted only by his fear - just like the dagger he thought led him to Duncan.

    Hope it helps!

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth-text/act-iii-scene-iv

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    Posted by robertwilliam on Thursday January 15, 2009 at 10:27 AM