Act 3

Question 1

(III, I, 1-4)
Banquo

Answer 1

“Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promised, and I fear Thou play’dst most foully for’t:’

• anaphora, thou indicates direct adress, B suspicion and concern
• allusion reference ‘weid women’ connecting prophecies to Ms accension - supernatual influence

Question 2

(III, I, 48-54)
Macbeth

Answer 2

“To be thus is nothing; But to be safely thus:”

• antithesis, diff between mere existence and secure power
• to be indicate existential crisis and concern of identity
• foreshadowing safety indicates impending threats to Ms rule

Question 3

. (III, ii, 4-6)
Lady Macbeth

Answer 3

“Naught’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content:
‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.”

• rhyming - mimicking spellcasting of witches

Question 4

(III, ii, 36)
Macbeth

Answer 4

“O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!”

• metaphor, insinuating thoughts are painful, dangerous and toxic, paranoia and guilt
• imagery evokes uncomfortable and painful feelings, mental anguish

Question 5

(III, ii, 62)
Macbeth

Answer 5

“Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.”

• moral corruption, initial wrongdoing creates acompouding effect, cycle of wrongdoing, evil begets more evil

Question 6

(III, iv, 75-79)
Macbeth

Answer 6

“the time has been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again.”

• paradox, can ‘rise again’ troubling and unnatural reversal of fate, themes of supernatural
• guilt resurrects the dead, keeping their ghosts to haunt the consciousness of the murderer

Question 7

(III, iv, 122)
Macbeth

Answer 7

“It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood.”

• repetition, vengence and the inescapable cycle of violence
• metaphor of violence as blood, violence leads to more violence
• foreshadows inevitability of further bloodshed as consequence of M actions

Question 8

(III, iv, 136-137)
Macbeth

Answer 8

“All causes shall give way: I am in blood Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

• blood metaphor for deep entanglment in violence and guilt
• theme of irreversibility, actions have irrevocable consequences, feels trapped by the bloodshed he has caused

Question 9

(III, v, 32-33)
Witches

Answer 9

“And you all know security Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.”

• insecurity is a driving force for actions
• paradox of security, usually seens in a protective state but is the enemy, complexity between safety and vulnerability

Question 10

Macbeth

Answer 10

“Do not shake thy gory locks at me”

• assonance and
• monosyllabic words
• imagery of gory locks as death encompassing, wishes to be distanced from the action