Act 1

Question 1

In thunder lightning or in rain

Answer 1

Fog and rain not possible simultaneously
Pathetic fallacy (eerier, gloomy, anger, fear)
Creates confusion at a time when it was believed witches controlled the weather

Question 2

When the battle’s lost and won

Answer 2

Foreshadowing future events, “won” = territory/land, “lost” = morality/innocence
Oxymoron creates confusion, may be their aim as moral confusion leads to evil acts
Witches can predict the future, setting Macbeth up for failure

Question 3

Fair is foul and foul is fair

Answer 3

Creates confusion, reversal of normal values leads to moral disorder
Oxymoron - “fair” = pleasant and kind, “foul” = horrific and evil
Juxtaposition, displays theme of duality - suggests kindness and evil are linked and humans have the capacity for both
Macbeth begins kind but becomes ultimately evil - possibly the witches’ intention

Question 4

When is blank verse used?

Answer 4

For all characters but the witches, 10 syllable lines, non-rhyming, iambic pentameter

Question 5

When and why is Trochaic tetrameter used?

Answer 5

For the witches, 7/8 syllable lines, rhyming = incantation/spell, sets them apart as exiles from the norm

Question 6

Context - witches

Answer 6

Usually old widowed women, cut off from society and blamed for bad things
Witchcraft punishable by death and believed to be servants of the devil
Interacting with them is a sin yet Macbeth is easily captured by their power and prophecies

Question 7

Brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name

Answer 7

“Brave” = courageous soldier, this courage is also a flaw as it leads him to kill the king
“Deserves” = noble, honourable, earned his current position, liked and respected for fighting
“Brandished steel” = sword, weapon of nobility, vs dagger, common weapon

Question 8

Like valour’s minion carved out his passage

Answer 8

“Valour” = courage, bravery, ambition
“Minion” = suggests he is not in control of his courage and ambition and is instead subservient to it and it controls him
“Carved” = an art to his fighting, skill needed
Foreshadows vaulting ambition overtaking him by the end, introduces us to Macbeth’s hamartia which is his hubris

Question 9

He unseamed him from the nave to the chaps

Answer 9

“Unseamed” = a violent and graphic term, metaphorical of how his body is ripped open
Uses excessive violence and goes aganst code of chivalry
Displays extremely violent tendencies and foreshadows more later on

Question 10

Context - code of chivalry

Answer 10

A moral system/code of conduct for medieval knights, important part of society
Bravery, courtesy, honour, respect for women, faith, justice, balance aggression with chivalry
Macbeth doesn’t honour the code through excessive violence but is still honoured - showing protecting king and country is the most important thing

Question 11

So withered and wild in their attire, that they look not like the inhabitants of the earth

Answer 11

Banquo mocks their appearance and questions their existence
“You should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so”
Shows type of women accused of witchcraft - old, facial hair, poor, vulnerable - therefore easily accused

Question 12

He seems rapt withal

Answer 12

Banquo knows that Macbeth fears what seems great (Oxymoron)
“Rapt” = enraptured, bewitched, enthralled by the prophecies
Unlike Macbeth, Banquo may be more virtuous and less easily influenced by evil
Macbeth: “stay…tell me more” - he opens himself up to corruption and further influence by the witches as well as punishment for consulting with them

Question 13

Horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature

Answer 13

“horrid image” = utterly terrified by murderous thoughts, so much so he has a physical reaction
“unfix my hair” = hair stands on end and his heart rate quickens immensely “knock against my ribs”
“against the use of nature” 1. his heart rate is so fast it is almost unnatural - extreme reaction, 2. context - chain of being

Question 14

nothing is but what is not

Answer 14

For Macbeth the present is not enough, nothing is really of value except for the kingship
He prefers illusions of grandeur rather than real honour that he has earned (thane of cawdor)
This reveals his vaulting ambition won’t be satisfied unless he reaches the very top, no matter what he has to do to get there

Question 15

Context - chain of being

Answer 15

Order/hierarchy of power given by God
God - angels - prices - thanes - etc
For Macbeth to go from thane to king would be against the way God intended
In a deeply religious Jacobean society going against God would shock the audience and portray Macbeth as a man of sin

Question 16

I fear thy nature, it it too full of the milk of human kindness

Answer 16

To be human = sympathetic, empathetic, kind vs inhumane = ruthless, cruel, unfeeling
“Milk” - metaphorical, 1. associated with femininity (breast milk) and society’s view of a woman as passive and kind, too emotionally weak for a task of this magnitude, 2. white = purity, innocence, nurturing
“too” = a criticism, Macbeth is too feminine and this prevents him from being able to commit to murder, vs Lady Macbeth who wishes to be more masculine

Question 17

Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear

Answer 17

“Hie thee hither” = an imperative commanding Macbeth to return home, Jacobean audience would be shocked at a woman instructing her husband like this
“Pour my spirits” = wants to manipulate Macbeth with her malevolent ways to spoil his kindness and convince him to kill King Duncan
“Pour” = verb, suggests continuous persuasion, shows her persistence, won’t stop until she succeeds
“Spirits” = suggests a connection to the supernatural and links to the corruption Macbeth has already succumbed to from exposure to the witches

Question 18

make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse

Answer 18

Wishes to stop her menstrual cycle, make her less feminine
It was believed the womb makes a woman more remorseful/emotional
Clear contrast between Macbeth - too emotionally weak but a man and Lady Macbeth - a woman but determined to kill King Duncan, role reversal

Question 19

Come, thick night, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes

Answer 19

“Thick night” = cloud, no moon or stars for light/visibility
She wants to do it but not see it - reveals inner weakness
Element of insecurity - cowardice as easier on the conscience to not see it - also why she called on the spirits
“Keen” = personification of the knife, won’t admit her weakness, keen but too weak to actually do it

Question 20

Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it

Answer 20

Wants Macbeth to appear innocent but be evil underneath
“Look” = an imperative verb, lady Macbeth is commanding and asserting power over Macbeth
“Innocent flower” = reference to the garden of eden
“Serpent” = Macbeth should be a malicious traitor and kill the king - biblical image connoting trickery
Juxtaposition contrasts inner immorality to outer innocent appearance - links to the witches’ oxymoron of fair and foul

Question 21

Context. - role of women

Answer 21

Elizabethan society was patriarchal - men were leaders and women their inferiors
Women were the weaker sex physically and emotionally and always needed someone to care for them
They were expected to stay home, care for children and couldn’t have professional jobs
Lady Macbeth is eventually punished by Shakespeare for overstepping women’s boundaries when she kills herself in Act 5

Question 22

Context - Original sin

Answer 22

Refers to Christian belief in the universal nature of sin
Sin began after Adam and Eve and since then all people are born sinful, the only way to be rid of sin is to live well-behaved lives
In the Jacobean era sin was the fault of women as EVen ate from the forbidden tree and convinced Adam to too

Question 23

Context - Appearance vs reality

Answer 23

Reference to the serpent is associated with the Jesuit treason and the gunpowder plot
On 4th November 1605 (1 year before Macbeth was written) Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the houses of Parliament
The plotters were unhappy Catholics who with increasing persecution in England plotted against the king and shocked the nation

Question 24

We’d jump the life to come

Answer 24

If the murder is the “be-all and end-all” they would not get into heaven
Macbeth has become immoral and doesn’t care, he strives for instant gratification and is prepared to sacrifice afterlife for the present
Shocking to a religious audience as they lived every day trying to get into heaven

Question 25

Bloody instructions return to plague the inventor

Answer 25

What goes around comes around, if you initiate and teach violence it will be reciprocated back to you
Hints at Macbeth’s downfall in Act 5, he recognises that this event may forebode his death but goes ahead anyway

Question 26

I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself and falls on the other

Answer 26

Macbeth has no motivation or desire to actually murder, only his ambition which drives him and overpowers all else - his hamartia
“Spur” is a metaphor, referring to spikes used by horse riders to speed up the horses
“Vaulting” = past participle, portrays the ambition as excessive and continuation, hubris is always present and driving him - links to jumping of chain of being
“Over leaps” = more powerful than any other quality in him e.g. logic/compassion

Question 27

We will proceed no further in this business

Answer 27

“We” = possessive pronoun, speaks for both himself and Lady Macbeth - he has taken his rightful power over the relationship, reinforces through modal “will”
Euphemism “business”, saying something in a more polite way, 1. because others are in earshot, secretive, 2. already feel guilty about it, can’t even admit to themselves what they are plotting
Foreshadows later guilt

Question 28

Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire?

Answer 28

“Afeard” = asking if he is a coward, scared to act on what he wants
Attacking his masculinity, men should have no emotion, strong, brave
“Coward” = may be highly esteemed in Scotland but if he doesn’t kill Duncan he will always be a coward in her eyes
Lady Macbeth breaks boundaries by questioning her husband like this, leading to her punishment in Act 5

Question 29

I would have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out”

Answer 29

Would have violently killed her baby while breastfeeding it
Reference to breastfeeding (nipple from gums) implies they had a child that died
Would rather kill the baby than break the promise they had, even after a miscarriage
Emotional manipulation of Macbeth as it would hurt him hugely