The DU Lounge

"I dare do all that may become a man"
- Uses "become" in two senses: that of actually becoming a manly man, and the other in the sense of, that outfit is becoming on you; i.e., the brave soldier Macbeth has shown the courage to do everything that a manly man should do – remember, he just came from a battle in which he valiantly defeated rebels against the good King Duncan.

"who dares do more is none"
- i.e., anyone man who does more, i.e. by committing the kind of violence urged by Lady Macbeth, not in service of a good leader but to murder him – is not a man but something else – a predatory beast, or one who is betraying and abjuring his "higher" nature as a human being.

"What beast was it then, that made you break this enterprise to me?"
– This turning of Macbeth's implication against him back-handedly underlines the idea that murdering Duncan would be beastly and also confirms that Macbeth had previously discussed with Lady M. his ambitions to become king with Lady M., even via murder. But since Duncan just that day had rewarded Macbeth's valor by awarding him the title of the lead traitor whom Macbeth had defeated, Macbeth is now feeling like he might not need to murder anyone in order to advance his career (as he mused before Lady M.'s entrance, "If chance will have be king, then chance may crown me without my stir&quot ; plus at this point in the play, he hasn't fully suppressed his humanity – that comes later (at which point for him, life has become "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" – because through the Macbeths' own actions, they have robbed their lives of everything that most humans experience as most meaningful).

"When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you."
- Lady M.'s words confirm that they had in fact previously discussed the possibility of murdering Duncan and Macbeth had spoken as if he were ready and willing, but now, since Duncan's decided to overnight in the Macbeths' castle (and who knows when that might happen again), the perfect opportunity has presented itself without Macbeth's having to make it – the time and place have made themselves, and they are here and now – but she's telling him that his courage and will have evaporated and in her eyes and he's in danger of unmaking himself as a manly man.

Note, earlier in the same scene, Lady M. had said:
"From this time/ Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard/ To be the same in thine own act and valour/ As thou art in desire?"
- Lady M.'s basically saying she'll consider him a dickless wonder if he doesn't kill Duncan that night.

A number of the words and images presented in these lines tie directly and importantly to other passages and ideas in the play – e.g., about identity and how it is manifested, what it means to be a man, How Lady M.'s own political ambitions have little scope in her society other than via the use of her sex in order to make Macbeth her vehicle, what constitutes real generativity, etc.