What literary devices does this quote from Macbeth contain? "I am in this earthly world, where to do harm / Is often laudable, to do good sometime...

This quote from Macbeth is an example of PARADOX. A paradox is a contradictory statement that places two opposite ideas next to one another. The effect is often to draw the audience's attention to a major theme of the work.

This quote, "I am in this earthly world, where to do harm / Is often laudable, to do good sometime / Accounted dangerous folly" means that the speaker, Lady Macduff, has just discovered from...

This quote from Macbeth is an example of PARADOX. A paradox is a contradictory statement that places two opposite ideas next to one another. The effect is often to draw the audience's attention to a major theme of the work.

This quote, "I am in this earthly world, where to do harm / Is often laudable, to do good sometime / Accounted dangerous folly" means that the speaker, Lady Macduff, has just discovered from a messenger that she is the target of a murderer, and she feels she did nothing wrong to deserve to be murdered. She remembers she is on this earth (not heaven or hell), and here in the real world, sometimes people are rewarded (lauded) for doing bad things (harm) and punished for doing good things ("do good...accounted dangerous folly").

This quote juxtaposes good and evil, and punishment and reward. Normally we expect to be punished for doing evil and rewarded for doing good. This quote reminds us that the opposite is sometimes the case. Sometimes people who do evil, like Macbeth, end up with rewards, like being crowned king, while people who do nothing wrong, like Lady Macduff, have bad things happen to them. This powerful paradox about the injustice in the world also echoes the play's theme of good vs. evil. You can explore the themes of Macbeth further by reading about them , and read the quote in context in text of Macbeth Act IV scene II , with modern English translations and annotations to help you understand it.