Macbeth Quote

Macbeth kills Duncan, but realizes what he has gotten into after and has to kill more people. He says, "Things bad begun make strong themselves ill" (95). This means that when you do bad things, doing other bad things make them worse. Macbeth realizes this when he kills Duncan, but then he realizes that he has to Banquo also. Before all of the killing started he though all he had to do was kill Duncan to be king, but then he has to kill Banquo. After he kills Banquo, he has to try and kill Banquo's children. He realizes that the cycle of killing will never end if he keeps on going.

Along with the thought of the endless cycle of murder, Macbeth also says, "I am in blood. Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more," (109). This means that Macbeth has already killed so many people, but if he stops killing people he will not succeed, but in order to succeed he would have to kill many more people. He realizes that there is no going back, and he does not know what to do. From both of these quotes, Macbeth is realizing that trying to fix a bad thing with another bad thing only makes the situation worse.