seen").

Banquo is the object of multiple paradoxes in this scene:

FIRST WITCH. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
SECOND WITCH. Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. (1.3.68-70)

The first and third of these paradoxes aren't difficult to understand, but how, exactly, is Banquo "much happier" than Macbeth? Macbeth has Banquo murdered early in the play. There's no time for Banquo to be happy about his son becoming King, for example, and there's no other happy or important event that Banquo enjoys in the play. Is Banquo supposed to be happy, or simply content, to know that he "shalt get kings"?

The Witches don't appear to anyone in the play except Macbeth and Banquo. Thus, there is the question of whether the witches really exist. Banquo voices this question:

BANQUO. Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner? (1.3.86-88)

Near the end of the scene, Macbeth thinks about what's happened. Why did the Witches appear and make these prophecies?

MACBETH. This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. (1.3.141-142)

Macbeth works out this paradox for himself in the rest of the speech. He ends the speech by saying in plain language what the Witches expressed paradoxically in the first scene of the play.

MACBETH. ... and nothing is
But what is not. (1.3.152-153)

It remains to be seen how all of these paradoxes are resolved through the rest of the play.

It is also worth noting some of the metaphors that Shakespeare uses in act 1 of the play. In scene 3, for instance, there is a metaphor in the following quote:

Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.

Through the reference to "happy prologues" and the "swelling act," Shakespeare is comparing Macbeth's rise to power to the sequence of acts and scenes in a play which leads to a climax. For Macbeth, the climax will be his accession to the throne of Scotland.

In addition, there is another metaphor in act 1, scene 7:

To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on th' other.

In this example, Macbeth is comparing his ambition to a horse jumping over a fence. This metaphor helps to emphasize just how ambitious Macbeth really is: his ambition is galloping ahead of himself. He is barely in control of it.

It is also worth noting the use of irony in act 1. In scene 4, for example, there is irony in the following words from King Duncan:

There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.

This is ironic because King Duncan does not realize that Macbeth is already planning his murder. Just like the previous Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth is acting kind and loyal towards Duncan but is already planning his removal from the throne.

In act 1, scene 1, there are many examples of end rhyme in the weird sisters' speech. At the end of the scene, they chant altogether,

Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air. (1.1.12-13)

Here, they employ alliteration—the repetition of the "f" sound in "fair," "foul," "foul," "fair," "fog," and "filthy." This particular sound, when repeated, begins to sound dirty or sordid, an association appropriate given the statement's meaning and the sisters' intent.

In act 1, scene 2, the captain employs a simile to compare Macbeth and Banquo to weaker animals who must fight more predatory ones. When asked if the Norwegian king, with his fresh troops, was frightening to these two soldiers, the Captain says, "Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion" (1.2.35). He compares them to sparrows who must face eagles or hares that must face lions.  And yet they do fight, proving their valor again. The captain also uses an allusion when he refers to "Golgotha," the site where Jesus was crucified in the Bible (1.2.40).

You might like to examine a scene such as Act I scene 2 and focus on the literary devices that this scene contains. One of the notable examples of literary devices is the way that the Captain reports the deeds of Macbeth in battle and how he is compared to various things to emphasise his valour, bravery and skill in warfare. Note the following examples of similes:

Doubtful it stood;
As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their art.

Here the Captain describes the fight between the two sides and how close it was, comparing the armies to two exhausted swimmers who can not beat the other because of their fatigue. However, it is Macbeth, who enters "like Valour's minion" who wins the day and tips the balance of the battle.

These are some of the examples of literary devices in this scene, but there are plenty of others, so hopefully now that I have shown you what you are looking for you can go back and identify other examples of literary devices in Act I. Good luck!

The play begins with one of the most often quoted paradoxes:

Fair is foul and foul is fair.

A paradox is a seeming contradiction, and this line spoken by all three witches at the end of the first scene suggests their deceptive nature--nothing is what it seems to be.

Examples of personification are more difficult to find perhaps because they are more scarce.  But one example of giving inanimate objects human characteristics might be in King Duncan's speech:

My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow.

Here Duncan is ascribing human traits to his happiness that is disguising itself with his tears (of joy).

Alliteration is the repetition of the first consonant sounds of words that are close together.  It serves as a type of verbal highlighter that emphasizes key ideas.  Alliteration is quite common throughout the play.  One example is Macbeth's speech in scene 4:

Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.

"Deep desires" is an example of alliteration suggesting Macbeth's murderous inclination.  This line, by the way, is also filled with assonance--repetition of vowel sounds.  Look how many times the long i sound, as in "eyes," is repeated.

The Weird Sisters deliver a paradox when they tell Banquo that he will be "Lesser than Macbeth and greater" and "Not so happy, yet much happier" (1.3.68, 69). How can it be possible to be both lesser than Macbeth and greater? Or less happy and happier at the same time? The answer is that Banquo will not be king himself (so he'll be less great and less happy), but his descendants will be kings (so he'll be greater and happier than Macbeth, who will not pass on his crown to his progeny).

Banquo uses a simile when he says, "The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, / And these are of them" (1.3.82-83). He says that the appearance of the Weird Sisters seems to come from bubbles surfacing from the depths of the earth, just as bubbles in the water do because their appearance was so sudden and immediate.

Macbeth employs a metaphor that also doubles as clothing imagery when he says to the Thanes of Ross and Angus "The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me / In borrowed robes?" (1.3.114-115). He compares the new title he's been awarded to a set of borrowed clothing because he does not realize that the Thane of Cawdor is a traitor and will soon be executed. Banquo employs another metaphor and clothing image when he says of Macbeth "New honors come upon him, / Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold / But with the aid of use" (1.3.160-162). He compares the new honors that Macbeth has been granted to new clothes that don't fit or feel quite right until one wears them awhile.

The Captain employs an allusion when he refers to the field of battle where Macbeth and Banquo fight as "another Golgotha" (1.2.44). Golgotha is "the place of dead men's skulls" (Mark 15:22) where Jesus Christ was crucified in the Bible, and the Captain implies that the field of battle is so terrible that it is like such a horrible place.

King Duncan uses the Doctrine of Correspondence when he claims that "signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine / On all deservers" (1.4.47-48). He suggests that the heavens above will recognize those deserving on earth and will shine on them.

An example of paradox is when the witches say, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." Their statement says that what is seemingly good turns out to be bad.

And example of a simile is when the first witch says in sc. 3 that "Like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do." She's comparing herself to a rat without a tail.

An example of a metaphor is when Banquo says in the same scene "If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not." Grains and time are being compared--there are seconds and minutes in time, but not grains.

An example of Doctrine of Correspondence is when Lady Macbeth is addressing Macbeth and telling him how to act.  "To beguile the time, look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue: look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under 't."   She is using a tangible thing to explain something that is abstract.

An example of clothing imagery would be when Macbeth and Banquo approach the witches not knowing who or what they are.  "What are these so withered, and so wild in their attire, that look not like th' inhabitants o' th' earth, and yet are on't?"  This describes how they appear to the men.  Very crazy and unkempt.

I haven't found an allusion to use.  But the others are all examples for you.

In Scene 1, Banquo has a conversation with Macbeth but is not aware that Macbeth is plotting to kill King Duncan. However, the audience is aware of Macbeth's plot. This would classify as dramatic irony since the audience has knowledge of the plot while certain characters in the play are unaware of the situation.

In Scene 2, Macbeth laments about his restlessness and uses a metaphor by comparing his sleep to "great nature’s second course." Lady Macbeth then calls her husband a coward and uses a simile to compare dead bodies to harmless pictures by saying, "The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures."

In Scene 2, Macbeth uses a hyperbole to describe his guilt after killing King Duncan. After Lady Macbeth tells him to wash the blood off of his hands, Macbeth says,

"Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red" (2.3.60-64).

In Scene 3, Lennox describes the eerie night when King Duncan was murdered. He provides imagery of the chaotic night by saying,

"Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say, lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death, and prophesying with accents terrible of dire combustion and confused events new hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird clamored the livelong night" (2.3.29-35).

He then employs personification by commenting that the Earth shook and was "feverous."

I would identify dramatic irony as the chief literary device used by Shakespeare, particularly in Act 3, scene 4 of Macbeth.

In the banquet scene it is impossible to know if Banquo's ghost is real or a hallucination. The fact that no one sees the figure except Macbeth does not prove it unreal, since ghosts presumably have the power to appear only to select persons and to be invisible to everyone else, and often do so in literature. But it is ironic that Macbeth, in attempting to free himself of his worries by having Banquo killed, has created the opposite result: he has, in effect, caused his guilt to be revealed to the courtiers when he sees the ghost and becomes hysterical. Though at this point Ross, Lennox and the others cannot know exactly what has happened that led to Macbeth's panic, his behavior must at least arouse their suspicions.

The second instance of dramatic irony is Lady Macbeth's reaction to his behavior. Though she is at least partly responsible for the chain of events leading to the crisis at this moment, she is intolerant of Macbeth and condemns him for being a coward. But it is also ironic that although she doesn't see the ghost herself, she seems unsurprised by Macbeth's hysteria and shows not the slightest confusion or puzzlement herself, simply saying to him, "Are you a man?" instead of, for instance, asking him, "What is it? What's wrong?" Last, when she makes excuses to the courtiers, saying,

Think of this, good peers, but as a thing of custom

she's apparently trying to provide a bogus explanation for the strange way he's acting. But ironically, she may be telling the truth about Macbeth's general tendency to go crazy and imagine things—just as he imagined (and she reminds him of this) the "air-drawn dagger" before he killed Duncan. The entire scene is replete with ambiguity as well as irony. We do not know if the ghost is real, yet if it is, there is even the possibility that Lady Macbeth (given that she doesn't find it necessary to ask Macbeth exactly what's causing his hysteria) does see it, but that she is so cold-blooded and so practiced a liar that she can remain perfectly calm and act as if nothing has happened as she gives her reassurances to the courtiers.

There are more literary devices than I can name, but in Act 3, Scene 1, there are three that stand out: alliteration, metaphor, and allusion.  These all relate to the theme of betrayal.

The first literary device that stands out is in Act 3, Scene 1, when Banquo comments to himself on Macbeth’s succession to king.  He shares his suspicions with the audience.

I fear
Thou play'dst most foully for't: (p. 40)

The repetition of initial consonant sounds is called alliteration.  In this case, the alliteration of the f sound at the beginning of “fear,” “foully” and “for’t.”  This reinforces the idea that Banquo is frustrated and angry.  The bitterness comes out through the alliteration.

Banquo also uses an interesting metaphor when talking to Macbeth.

I must become a borrower of the night
For a dark hour or twain.(30) (p. 41)

This is a metaphor because of course you cannot borrow night.  It is also an interesting element of foreshadowing, because Banquo is about to die.

Finally, there are allusions to historical events.  An allusion is a reference to something that happened in the past.  In this case, there is an allusion to another famous betrayal: Ceasar and Mark Antony.

My genius is rebuked, as it is said(60)
Mark Antony's was by Caesar.

As Caesar thought that Mark Antony betrayed him, Macbeth thinks that Banquo betrayed him.  This connects again to the theme of betrayal present so highly in this act.

Immediately at the beginning of Act 4 in Shakespeare's Macbeth, we feel a sense of dread and horror from the setting and the introduction of the starting characters:

A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES.

Caverns are typically dark and scary while cauldrons are creepy and associated with wicked means. Adding thunder to the mix creates an eerie atmosphere for the reader or viewer.

The descriptive words the first witch uses (poisoned and venom) as she starts to chant their actions also signify horror. Poison and venom are things people automatically associate with being bad/scary, so we start to feel a sense of dread and doom. The charm itself is cooled at the end with the blood of a baboon, suggesting something vicious and terrible will come from what they're doing since the mixture was composed of various animals' body parts.

Witches themselves are often regarded as an evil sort, using spells and charms to commit bad deeds. So by considering the characters, the setting, and the action—including the fact that we don't know what this concoction will be used for—we feel as if something dreadful is coming in the near future.

Literary devices are methods an author uses to emphasize a particular idea, action, or event or to convey his or her message. The use of these devices makes it possible for a reader to analyze and critically appraise the writer's effort and purpose.

Below are a few examples of such literary devices in Act V.

Juxtaposition. 

A great perturbation in nature, to receive at oncethe benefit of sleep, and do the effects ofwatching!

The doctor is here, in Scene 1, making a comment about Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking. He contrasts the act of sleeping with her acting as if she is awake. 

Hyperbole (exaggeration)

All the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand.

Lady Macbeth, also in Scene 1, is exaggerating the fact that she seemingly cannot remove the smell of King Duncan's blood from her murderous hands. Its stench has become so immersed that it will be impossible to remove.

Metonymy

I would not have such a heart in my bosom for theDignity of the whole body.

Lady Macbeth's gentlewoman, in Scene 1, is using a part (the heart) to represent the whole. She is talking about Lady Macbeth's heart, which is obviously anguished, although it is not just the heart which is in torment, but rather the whole person. 

Repetition

Well, well, well

The doctor is repeating the word "well" here to emphasize his concern for Lady Macbeth's obvious sickness and also to express surprise at the incriminating remarks she is making about her involvement in King Duncan's murder.

Metaphor

He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule.

In Scene 2, Caithness is using a comparison between a belt and Macbeth's destructive belief by saying that the tyrant's evil cannot be tied down as with a belt, which limits or ties an object down. The destruction that Macbeth has initiated cannot now be contained, even though he is king. 

Simile

Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

Angus uses a comparison between the power that Macbeth has gained and a large cloak worn by a dwarf. The garment is ill-fitting and uncomfortable. He comments, in Scene 2, that Macbeth has now realized that the power and authority he had so malevolently gained has become too overwhelming for him. He cannot control it and is uncomfortable with it. Such power does not suit him. 

Alliteration

The time approaches
That will with due decision make us know
What we shall say we have and what we owe.

In Scene 4, Siward uses the repetition of the 'w' in these two lines to indicate a positive wish and to emphasize the fact that they have now reached a point where they are ready to go to war against the malevolent tyrant Macbeth.

In Act V, Scene 3 of Macbeth there are also the following:

Metonymy

Macbeth asks the doctor, "Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff/Which weights upon the heart?" (heart represents the soul)

Alliteration

Macbeth says,

"And with some sweet oblivous antitdote..." (repetition of /s/)

"Thou lily-livered boy..." (repetition of /l/)

Parallelism

Macbeth:  "Go prick thy face and over red thy fear"

Assonance

Macbeth:  "As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,/I must not look to have; but, in their stead,/Curses not loud byt deep, mouth -honor, breath..."  (repetition of vowel /o/)

Personification

Macbeth: "Curses not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath,/Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not." (the heart denies, but only a person can deny)

Macbeth Act V, iii contains the following literary devices:

Nature Imagery: "Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear."

Alliteration: "Then fly, false thanes,"

Hell Imagery: "The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!"

Verbal Irony (understatement): "Geese, villain?"

Metaphor: "Those linen cheeks of thine Are counselors to fear."

Natural Imagery / Metaphor: My way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf,"

Verbal Irony (sarcasm): "Therein the patient Must minister to himself."

Disease Imagery: "The water of my land, find her disease And purge it to a sound and pristine health,"

Situational Irony: "Come, put mine armor on;" and then "Pull't off, I say."

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air (1.1.11-12).

These famous lines of Shakespeare's Macbeth appear very early in the play, and Shakespeare uses these lines to set the tone and mood for the entire play.

What makes these lines so memorable is that Shakespeare uses a remarkable number of literary devices and techniques in just these two short lines.

Consonance is the recurrence of the same or similar consonant sounds within a sentence or line.

Fair ... foul ... foul ... fair.
Hover ... fog ... filthy ...

Consonance is also a type of alliteration, which is the repetition of an initial sound or group of sounds in a phrase or line.

Shakespeare not only repeats sounds, but he uses repetition for entire words (fair and foul).

A paradox is an apparent contradiction, or something that seems like it can't be true.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

How can something be both "fair" and "foul"?

Line 11 employs antimetabole, in which words or phrases from the first part of a sentence (or line in a play) are repeated in reverse order in the second half of the sentence.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Line 11 also uses juxtaposition by contrasting the dissimilar concepts of "fair" with "foul" and by repeating the words in reverse for emphasis.

This line also foreshadows uncertainty and disruption. Things are not as they seem, and things can be "foul" or "fair" depending on the circumstances and situation. This also means that things that seem "fair" now, might seem "foul" at some later time in the play.

This applies to characters in the play as well. Macbeth might seem "fair" and heroic early in the play, but he turns "foul," deceitful, and murderous as the play progresses.

Shakespeare also uses a type of symbolism, in which the witches symbolize the archetype of what is generally considered "foul," and Macbeth symbolizes the "fair," even though Macbeth himself later comes to symbolize the "foul."

There's also imagery in these lines. Audience members use their imaginations to "see" what might be hovering "through the fog and filthy air." This helps to create the atmosphere for the play.

Consonance, alliteration, repetition, paradox, antimetabole, juxtaposition, foreshadowing, symbolism,archetypes, and imagery are all used within just two lines.

Shakespeare uses these literary devices and techniques and many others throughout the play, which is what gives depth and meaning to the individuals lines in the play and to the play as a whole.

These words are uttered by the sergeant who returns from the battlefield to inform King Duncan of the outcome of the battle between his army and the invading Norwegian army. The sergeant compares the two sides by employing an image of two fatigued swimmers. Each swimmer struggles to prevent himself from drowning. They are both exhausted, and they attempt to defeat each other in order to save themselves from death. The adjective "spent" means that both of them are drained, and their "art" refers to their swimming skills. However, neither of them can prevail, and they are faced with the threat of death. The literary device utilized by Shakespeare in this part of the sergeant's speech is a simile. This is how the sergeant describes the battle and the unpredictability of it until Macbeth arrives. The sergeant then talks about Macbeth's valor and states how he killed the rebel Macdonwald:

Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

As a result, Macbeth is promoted.

Shakespeare's use of dramatic techniques creates a meaningful play for audiences because he uses those techniques to effectively build tension and convey themes to the audience.  

Creative uses of entrances and exits is a dramatic technique.  In Macbeth Shakespeare builds tension early in the play by having the witches mysteriously appear and vanish. For example in act 1 scene 3, the witches vanish after speaking with Macbeth and Banquo. It add a sense of mysticism to an already strange scene with great rhyming and prophecies of the future. 

I think asides and soliloquies are closely related, because both of them are used to indicate the inner thought processes of a character. Macbeth uses both of those dramatic techniques to highlight the evil, plotting thoughts of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. 

"[Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies."

It's clear from this aside that Macbeth has already begun plotting how he will achieve the throne. In act 1 scene 5, Lady Macbeth's soliloquy is unnerving. It very effectively shows the audience how far she is willing to go to make her husband king.  

Later in the play though, those same asides and soliloquies are used to show the guilt that Lady Macbeth feels. "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" She is talking about the blood she imagines on her clothing. Macbeth says something similar: 

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand?"

Both asides show how deeply both characters are struggling with their inner guilt. 

Speaking of all this blood, Shakespeare uses symbolism to make the play more meaningful. One of the most common and repeated symbols in the entire play is blood. As the two previous quotes indicate, the blood is symbolic of the guilt that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel.  

A fourth dramatic technique that Shakespeare uses is the off-stage technique. When events happen off-stage, an audience is forced to use imagination to fill in the gaps. Often an audience's imagination will make everything more extreme and scarier or more brutal. Duncan's murder happens off-stage. It helps to build tension, because the audience doesn't know if Macbeth is going to go through with the murder, or if Duncan woke up, or exactly how Macbeth did it. It's a very effective technique to really involve an audience.  

The literary devices that Shakespeare uses in the "dagger speech" in act 2, scene 1, of Macbeth, aren't limited to the devices that Shakespeare employs within the speech—alliteration, apostrophe, paradox, and allusions to Hecate and Tarquin, for example—but apply to the overall structure of the soliloquy as well:

MACBETH. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

Exit Servant.

Macbeth has arranged with Lady Macbeth that she will ring a bell as a signal that she's completed her part of the plan to murder King Duncan, which is to get Duncan's guards so drunk that they fall asleep, then put their daggers where Macbeth can find them so he can use the guard's daggers to kill Duncan.

The servant exits, leaving Macbeth alone, anxiously waiting for the bell to sound.

The following "dagger speech" is structured in iambic pentameter, but Shakespeare molds the flow of the words to fit the content, tone, and mood of the speech, and, incidentally, to suggest how the actor portraying Macbeth should say the lines, and to provide stage directions for the actor as well:

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?

Shakespeare creates an image in the mind of the audience (and in the mind of the actor playing Macbeth) that draws the audience instantly into the speech. The audience "sees" the dagger, perhaps at arm's length in front of Macbeth, the handle pointing in Macbeth's direction.

Shakespeare also imparts a sense of uncertainty with the feminine ending (the unstressed syllable) at the end of the first line:

Come let me clutch thee.

Here, Shakespeare uses single-syllable words to slow down the flow of the speech (a technique that Shakespeare uses quite often in his plays), as Macbeth slowly reaches for the dagger, as the words themselves imply. Another feminine ending ("thee") implies some uncertainty in Macbeth's thoughts and action:

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Macbeth is confused. He reaches out for the dagger, but it isn't really there, and he stops to think about it in single-syllable words as he looks at his hand—"I have thee not"—and then looks back at the dagger—"and yet I see thee still."

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

The words flow quickly, with the use of enjambment, as Macbeth considers what he thinks he's seeing. Shakespeare poses the same question to the audience.

He also poses a question to the actor playing Macbeth. Is the soliloquy projected inward, or does the motivation for the speech come from outside Macbeth? In other words, does Macbeth see the dagger only in his mind, or is it a hallucination, a phantom dagger, placed in front of him by a supernatural force—the witches, perhaps?

I see thee yet

Single-syllable words to slow down the speech as Macbeth looks up at the dagger again.

...in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.

Macbeth slowly pulls out his own dagger. The line has only three feet (iambic trimeter), which draws attention to it.

The line also draws Macbeth from "a dagger of the mind" back to reality (the real dagger in his hand) and back to the reality of his situation:

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going,(50)
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest.

Macbeth is thinking to himself, his mind wandering a little until he's drawn back to the vision of the dagger yet again, the image of which has become prophetic:

I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.

There's no such thing.

A definitive, declarative sentence of four, single-syllable words. Macbeth takes charge of his overactive imagination:

It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes.

He puts the dagger out of his mind. It's an illusion. It doesn't exist. He can't think about it anymore.

For the rest of the speech, until the bell rings, Macbeth engages in loose word and image association related to the task that very shortly will be at hand.

A bell rings.

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.

The time has come. Macbeth has made up his mind to go through with it, with only a slight hesitation at the feminine ending of the first line.

As Shakespeare often does, he ends the scene with a rhymed couplet, here slightly altered in the meter of the first line of the couplet to give a sense of incompleteness to the scene and to lead the audience, and Macbeth, to what happens next.

The unease Macbeth has as he sees a vision of a bloody dagger on the eve of killing Duncan foreshadows Macbeth's bloody future. He will be haunted now by the need for violence, which the bloody dagger symbolizes. The bloody dagger is a literary device: a concrete and memorable symbol or representation of the violent path on which Macbeth is embarking.

Near the end of this soliloquy, a literary device in which an actor who is alone speaks his thoughts aloud to the audience, Macbeth grows more poetic. The passage is below:

..wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost.

The repeated "w" sounds at the beginning of words in close proximity are alliterative: they put the emphasis on words with evil connotations: wicked, witchcraft, wither'd, wolf . . . showing Macbeth's darkened state of mind.

Hecate is an allusion or reference to the head of the witches. Although Macbeth will never know it, she will play a strong role in his demise. All in all, this speech creates a mood of anxiety and foreboding, communicating Macbeth's uneasy and frightened emotional state.

This quotation comes from the final act of Shakespeare's Macbeth, and the title character refuses to yield to Macduff, saying so forcefully with a round of metaphors, hyperbole, symbolism, and irony. Let's look at these.

Macbeth refuses to “kiss the ground before young Malcom's feet.” This is hyperbole, exaggeration, for Macbeth would likely not be expected to actually kiss the ground. Yet this image is symbolic of his surrender, and he refuses to give up his fight. Macbeth also says he will not be “baited with the rabble's curse.” He refuses to be led into a trap simply because the people hate him. The idea of being baited like prey is a metaphor.

Further, the prophecies that have first seemed to indicate Macbeth's invincibility have now ironically turned against him. Birnam wood has indeed come to Dunsinane as the soldiers disguise their movements with tree branches, and Macduff was not technically “born” of his mother but rather taken from her womb.

Still Macbeth will fight on with his shield before him. He meets Macduff in hand-to-hand combat and refuses to surrender.

1. A motif is an object or idea that continually reappears throughout the work, which has symbolic significance and contributes to the development of a theme. In the first scene of the play, the Three Witches say, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (Shakespeare, 1.1.12). This motif essentially means that appearances can be deceiving, and it is repeated throughout the play.

2. Personification is when an idea, animal, or animate object is given human attributes. In Act One, Scene 4, Lady Macbeth utilizes personification by saying,

"Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires" (Shakespeare, 1.4.52-53).

Light is given the human attribute of sight in this example of personification.

3. Hyperbole is an exaggeration, which is used to add emphasis to a given topic. In Act Two, Scene 2, Macbeth utilizes a hyperbole after murdering King Duncan by saying,

"Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red" (Shakespeare, 2.2.60-64).

Macbeth is exaggerating the extent of blood on his hands by saying that all of the oceans in the world could not clean his hands.

4. A simile is a direct comparison between two different things using the words "like" or "as." In Act Two, Scene 2, Lady Macbeth uses a simile to compare Duncan's dead chamberlains to harmless pictures. Lady Macbeth says, "The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures" (Shakespeare, 2.2.53-54).

5. A metaphor makes a hidden or indirect comparison between two seemingly unrelated things, which share some common characteristics. In Act Five, Scene 5, Macbeth is informed about his wife's death and uses a metaphor to describe his negative view of life by saying,

"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more" (Shakespeare, 5.5.24-26).

Macbeth is filled with imagery: visually descriptive figurative language.  There are many types:

Heaven vs. Hell: "I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knellThat summons thee to heaven or to hell."

Sound: (as above); "...full of sound and fury signifying nothing..."

Bestial / animal: (Duncan's horses eating each other); ("the raven himself is hoarse...")

Bodily fluids (namely blood): "Can Neptune's great ocean wash the blood from these hands?"

Weather: "So foul and fair a day I have not seen"

Nature (unnatural): "I have drugg'd their possets, That death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die."

Equivocations (riddles, paradoxes): "Foul is fair and fair is foul."

Light vs. dark (fire): “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o’erleap, for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires”

Time (past vs. present): "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day."

Appearance vs. reality: "Look like the flower but be the serpent under't..."

Sickness / disease: (Lady M's sleepwalking); "Cure her of that..."

Gender (female vs. male): "Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between / The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, / And take my milk for gall"

Clothing (crown, robes): "Why do you dress me is borrowed robes...?"

William Shakespeare uses many different literary devices in his tragic play Macbeth.

1. In the very first line of the play alliteration is found. Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound within a single line.

When shall we three meet again.

In this line, the "w" sound in "when" and "we" is repeated. This is alliteration.

2. In the very same line assonance is used. Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound within a single line.

When shall we three meet again.

In this example, the "e" sound is repeated in the words "we" and "three."

3. The play is known for its paradoxes. A paradox is

a statement that is apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really contains a possible truth.

There are multiple examples of paradoxes throughout the play. The most popular are "Fair is foul and foul is fair" and "Lesser than Macbeth, and greater." The first paradox refers to the fact that not all things are as they seem. The second paradox refers to the fact that Banquo may not have a title like Macbeth (which makes him "lesser"), he is a better man than Macbeth (which makes him "greater").

4. Imagery is another literary device used in Macbeth. Imagery is "the forming of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things." Therefore, the opening of the play provides a distinct image for readers, or watchers, of the play:

[Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.]

5. Foreshadowing is where the author provides clues, or hints, as to what is to come in the future of the text (or play). Macbeth's hallucination of the dagger provides foreshadowing that a dagger will be used, by Macbeth, to kill Duncan.

6. Symbolism is the use of an object or image to represent something else (this typically alludes to a deeper meaning than on the surface). In Macbeth, the "damned spot" on Lady Macbeth's hand symbolizes her guilt.

7. Personification is the giving of human characteristics to non-human/non-living things. An example of personification in Macbeth is: "Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak." Here, stones can move on their own and trees can talk. Both of these characteristics are not typical of objects, only humans.

8. Rhyme is the repetition of sounds within or at the end of lines. The witches speak in rhyme, which adds to their "realness" in regards to spell casting. The following lines have end rhyme (the ends of the lines rhyme).

And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know.

9. Comic relief is used in the play with the addition of the Porter. The Porter, drunk from the celebrations preceding his scene, offers a comic relief "midst of a serious or tragic[ness]" of the action of the play.

10. A hyperbole is seen when Macbeth asks, and answers, the following question: "Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No." A hyperbole is an exaggerated statement.

Lady Macbeth is trying to bolster her husband's courage because he is hesitant to kill King Duncan. He asks, "If we should fail?" Her response is a pun because it offers two meanings. She is telling him to focus his attention ("screw your courage") on killing the king by her reference to the "sticking place," the place the knife will enter his body.

"Screw your courage" can also metaphorically mean to anchor his courage as if he were taking a screw or nail to hold it in place; this place can be a "sticking place" because it will hold his courage like a screw will hold something attached by it. "Screw" also means to force or contort something to a distorted shape, the shape his courage needs to stick (knife) Duncan.

Above all, Lady Macbeth does not want her husband to hesitate or question the plan further. Duncan will spend only one night at Inverness; they have only one opportunity to eliminate him. Macbeth must be brave. 

I'll outline some of the dramatic and literary techniques used in those scenes. Of course, there are many techniques used in these scenes, but I will highlight some of the most significant techniques. 

ACT 1, SCENE 5: This scene starts with Lady Macbeth reading a letter from Macbeth. Shakespeare has many scenes where characters read letters, and this is a dramatic device that allows exposition to be given to the audience while also showing the perspective of a character. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth also have many shared lines in this scene, meaning they split a line of iambic pentameter. These shared lines suggest the characters are anxious or in a hurry.

ACT 1, SCENE 7: Scene 7 has a lengthy monologue from Macbeth that describes his hesitation. There are more shared lines in this scene, with Lady Macbeth frequently jumping onto the end of Macbeth's line. This technique allows Lady Macbeth to be the dominant character in this scene. She is pushing Macbeth to murder King Duncan and telling him to have courage. 

ACT 2, SCENE 2: This scene occurs after the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth arrives with bloody daggers, and this is a dramatic device that occurs throughout the play. Blood becomes a symbol for many things, but perhaps most importantly it becomes a symbol of guilt. Later in the play, Lady Macbeth will attempt to scrub her hands clean of the blood (also seen as guilt). 

ACT 3, SCENE 2: Act 3, Scene 2 is another scene between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. In this scene, it becomes clear that the shared lines of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are examples of manipulation. When Macbeth talks of the dead Duncan, Lady Macbeth interrupts him with, "Come on, gentle my lord, / Sleek o'er your rugged looks. Be bright and jovial / Among your guests tonight" (III.ii.30-33). This literary device (shared lines) allows the pacing of the scene to shift. An audience hears the shift, although they may not be able to identify what the shift is exactly, and the audience notes how Lady Macbeth is attempting to manipulate Macbeth's feelings about the murder.

There are at least 7 literary devices used throughout Macbeth.  Here are 7 with an example of each.  There may be others, but these will suffice. 

Irony:  It's mostly ironic that Macbeth was named Thane of Cawdor to take place of a man who was treacherous--only Macbeth becomes even worse than treacherous.  He lives to the extent of treachery.

Foreshadowing:  When the reader finds that Macbeth will become "Thane of Cawdor," it foreshadows his future of being King.

Theme:  The overall theme of the play is about ambition and what extreme the characters go to in order to achieve what they want.

Symbol :  The blood on Lady Macbeth's hands represents her guilt in Act III.

Soliloquy: Macbeth's famous soliloquy occurs in Act II when he sees the floating dagger before him and says, "Is this a dagger I see before me?"

Personification:  When the (Act I, Scene 1) scene gives human qualities to the sun in the quote:  "As whence the sun 'gins his reflection"

Aside:  (In Act I, Scene 3) when Ross tells Macbeth of his new title, Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth has an aside that says how he knows now that he will eventually become king because of the prophesies.

A major literary device used in Shakespeare's Macbeth is paradox.  A paradox is a situation that at first appears false but after some thought shows a significant truth.  In the first scene of Act 1, the witches end their meeting by saying, "Fair is foul and foul is fair."  At first, the statement seems false; however, as the events in the play unfold, it becomes clear that the statement is true:  those who appear good and honorable are really ill at heart.  King Duncan gives Macbeth much praise for fighting valiantly for Scotland--he calls him his "worthiest cousin" when he returns from battle.  However, after Macbeth hears the witches' prediction, he cannot abandon his "blackest desires" and plots with his wife to murder Duncan and take the throne.  So, Macbeth who appears to be good and honorable is really ill at heart as suggested by the paradox offered by the witches.

Dramatic and theatrical techniques refer to any devices that help to enhance the mood and tone of a play or other piece of literature.  Shakespeare takes steps in the first scene to let readers know that mood plays an important role.  When the witches come on stage in the first scene, the stage directions and the witches' dialogue indicate there should be sounds of a storm.  This creates a dark and ominous mood from the curtain rise, and Shakespeare carries that mood throughout.  Macbeth's first line is:

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Not only does that tell the audience that the day is still stormy, but it also a contradiction.  Use of contradictions help to make the audience feel unsettled, adding to a dark mood.  When Lady Macbeth arrives, she also uses contradiction by demanding that the gods "unsex" her.  She is immediately a character of contrasts, being a woman but being so murderous and strong-willed.

Shakespeare uses a storm again to surround the murder of Duncan.  Macduff arrives at the castle speaking about the storm that had been going the night before and how violent it was.  This is dramatic irony, because the audience knows that the night before was violent in other ways, even though Macduff doesn't yet know it.

One psychological device Shakespeare uses in Macbeth is the soliloquy. Macbeth's soliloquies reveal his inner deterioration as the play goes on. In an early soliloquy in act 1, scene 7, Macbeth shows he has a conscience. He notes that the bloody deeds he contemplates will come back to plague and poison him, but more importantly he is able to see how good Duncan has been to him and how good a ruler he is in general:

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

Macbeth, in other words, sees—and feels—clearly that he will be committing an abhorrent crime if he kills a good king. In fact, he talks himself out of the act until his wife pushes all his buttons, persuading him to act.

In his "tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy in act 5, scene 5, Shakespeare again shows us Macbeth's inner state of mind. At this point, he has become hardened, his life a misery. He hears of his wife's death but is so dead inside he can hardly react to it. Life has become, as he reveals, a burden to him, and he is simply waiting for death. Nothing about being king has lived up to his expectations. Without this soliloquy, his psychological state would not be so clear to us.

Lady Macbeth's early speech to Macbeth, implying she is more masculine than he is in her hard-hearted willingness to kill the king—and that Macbeth will be unmanned in her eyes if he does not go through with the murder—is another psychological device Shakespeare uses. He shows us clearly how Lady Macbeth, who is not nearly as tough as her speech, is able to manipulate her husband.

Shakespeare uses a metaphor to describe the guilt that haunts Lady Macbeth later in the play: he has her obsessively wash her hands while sleepwalking, trying to wash the blood or guilt from her soul. In fact, this metaphor is so powerful it has entered the common parlance, as when we talk about someone "having blood on their hands" as meaning they are guilty of a crime.