Act 1

Question 1

‘So fair and foul a day I have not seen’

Answer 1

Macbeth echoes Witches’ spell showing how he is already beginning to be under their control.

Question 2

‘Brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution.’

Answer 2

Emphasis on the hard ‘b’ sound shows how bloody but skilled a soldier Macbeth is.

Question 3

‘Yet I do fear thy nature, thee is too full of the milk of human kindness.’

Answer 3

Lady Macbeth expressing her concerns about Macbeth being unable to commit murder using an elaborate metaphor.

Question 4

‘Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it.’

Answer 4

Lady Macbeth telling Macbeth to cover up what he is really feeling, a common theme throughout the play.

Question 5

‘Brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name’

Answer 5

Emphasis on Macbeth being a great soldier foreshadows for later in the play when he will use his fighting skills for evil.

Question 6

‘Vaulting ambition, which o’er’leaps itself’

Answer 6

Personification of Macbeth’s ambition emphasise the sheer strength of it in helping him decide to murder Duncan.