Act 4

Question 1

(I, i, 43-44)
Second witch

Answer 1

“By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.”

• signposts macbeth’s decent into evil, rhyming couplets, trochaic tetrameter, assonance signified supernatural wickedness

Question 2

(IV, i, 69-70)
First Apparition

Answer 2

“Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; / Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.”

Question 3

(IV, i, 77-79)
Second Apparitions

Answer 3

“Be bloody, bold, and resolute; lugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth.”

Question 4

(IV, i, 87-92)
Third Apparition

Answer 4

“Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are, Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him.”

Question 5

(IV, ii, 3-4)
Lady Macduff

Answer 5

“His flight was madness. When our actions do not Our fears do make us traitors.”

• paralleled to early scenes, hinting that the thought of doubt and distrust alone can be treacherous

Question 6

(IV, iii, 102-113)
Macduff

Answer 6

“Fit to govern! No, not to live. O nation miserable! Thy royal father Was a most sainted king!”

• macbeth isnot fit to rule
• duncan’s lineage was the sanctifed royal bloodline

Question 7

(IV, iii, 123-131)
Malcolm

Answer 7

“my first false speaking Was this upon myself: what I am truly, Is thine and my poor country’s to command.”

• selflessness to dedicate oneself fully to the whim of scotland

Question 8

(IV, iii, 159-170)
Macduff

Answer 8

“Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot be call’d our mother, but our grave: where violent sorrow seems a modern ecstacy.”

• decayed state indicates even slight depletion in turmoil is esctacy

Question 9

(IV, iii, 228-229)
Malcolm

Answer 9

“Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.”

• the even will sharpen their sword and turn grief to anger, to feel the emotion and carry ou the revengeful acts

Question 10

(IV, iii, 237-239)
Malcolm

Answer 10

“Macbeth Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on their
instruments. Receive what cheer you may; The night is long that never finds the day.”

-metaphor for vulnerability and ready for upheaval
- personification, personifies divine forces, suggesting they grant clemency to intervene inhuman affaires, divine justice, fate
- imagery between dark night and holy entity brings sense of hope through hardship