Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! / Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; / Thou hast no speculation in those eyes / Which thou dost glare with!
Act III, Scene 4 · Macbeth
Context
The ghost reappears, and Macbeth commands it to leave, describing its physical impossibility—lifeless bones, cold blood, and unseeing eyes.
Analysis
Macbeth catalogs the ghost's negations—'marrowless,' 'cold,' 'no speculation'—piling up what it lacks as if rational description could banish it. The word 'speculation' (meaning both sight and reflective thought) is key: Macbeth denies the ghost cognitive presence even as he engages it in dialogue. His rhetoric tries to un-animate what his guilt has animated, but the imperative 'Avaunt!' admits that words alone can't control what he sees.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Macbeth's speeches attempt to deny reality through language—his obsessive listing of the ghost's physical impossibilities shows a mind trying to reason away what guilt has made undeniably present.