English Macbeth Flashcards

Question

What is ‘the Great Chain of Being’ and how was it broken?

Answer 1

• Hierarchal system from the peasants to God at top • Macbeth commits regicide to break it which brought about chaos mentally and in nature

Answer 2

• She sleepwalks and washes her hands in obsession, eventually committing suicide • This demonstrates how guilt and unchecked ambition has consumed her

Answer 3

Malcom & Macduff

Answer 4

• The guilt that remains • Stain of blood

Answer 5

• Lady Macbeth has a candle light by her side • Denotes her fear of darkness and consciousness of her immorality • Highlights peripeteia (fortune reversal) and downfall

Answer 6

His ambition

Answer 7

Macbeth describes Duncan as **‘his silver skin laced with his golden blood’** • This implicates Duncan’s divinity and appointment by God • Also emphasises how Macbeth isn’t suitable for the throne

Answer 8

• The devil - ‘Who’s there in the name of Beelzebub?’ (Act 2) • He imagines the Macbeth’s castle to be gates of hell reflecting the moral chaos Macbeth has unleashed

Answer 9

• O valiant cousin! (by Duncan) • Brandished steel which smoked with bloody execution • As cannons overcharged with double cracks

Answer 10

• ‘hell-hound’ • ‘tyrant’ (by himself too) • ‘dead butcher’ (dehumanised) by Malcolm and Macduff (A5 S8)

Answer 11

Macbeth commits infanticide to try intimidate Macduff

Answer 12

‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ • The chiasmus introduces the theme of duplicity • Establishes a world where moral certainties are blurred • Equivocate suggests the witches are characters that can’t be trusted • Audience questions the witches intent

Answer 13

The goddess of witches who views Macbeth as a ‘wayward son’

Answer 14

She drugged the guards and smears blood on their faces to frame them

Answer 15

• He says his anger was to blame • Also feigns loyalty to the king when he lies ‘*the expedition my violent love outran the pauser*’ (A1 S7) • Stating that his devotion drove him to act impulsively

Answer 16

**Macbeth:** • ‘a dagger of the mind, a false creation’ (*hallucinates before the murder*) (A2 S1) • ‘I could not say Amen’ (A2 S2) • ‘sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep’ (*after killing the king*) (A2 S2) **Lady Macbeth:** • ‘all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’ (A5 S1) • ‘Out, damned spot!’ (*sleepwalking*) (A5 S1)

Answer 17

**Macbeth** - ‘stars hide your fires let not light see my black and deep desires’ (A1 S4) (soliloquy of guilt) - ‘Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown’ (A3 S1) (dissatisfaction) - ‘We have scorched the snake not killed it’ (A3 S2) (megalomaniacal & paranoia) **Lady Macbeth** - ‘Too full of the milk of human kindness’ (A1 S5) (emasculate) - ‘Look like the innocent flower, but the serpent under it’ (A1 S5) (duplicity)

Answer 18

**Witches** - ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ **Banquo** - ‘The instruments of darkness tell us truth’

Answer 19

• The witches symbolise moral corruption • Contribute to the tension between fate and free will • Engineered to be disliked - majority of Jacobean England were Christian therefore the supernatural would’ve been viewed as evil • Outward manifestations of characters’ inner turmoil

Answer 20

• A loyal and honourable soldier • Acts as moral compass of the play and a foil to Macbeth • Skeptical of the witches (*’Can the devil speak true?’* Act 1) • A perceptive character - (understands that Macbeth is rapt from prophecies) • Used as political propaganda - King James believes he’s a descendant of Banquo

Answer 21

**Macbeth:** • ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow’ • *Refers to life as*: ‘a walking shadow’ and ‘a tale told by an idiot signifying nothing’ (A5 S5) • (**Futility of life and demoralisation**)

Answer 22

Lady Macbeth says that a *’raven croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan’* (Act 1) • Ravens connote with death • Used as an omen foreshadowing Duncan’s death • Reveals that evil deeds will take effect as a byproduct of their ambition

Answer 23

• Macbeth’s foil • Symbolises justice, loyalty and patriotism to Scotland • Heroic figure who restores the Great Chain of Being by killing Macbeth • Thane of Fife

Answer 24

Thane of Glamis

Answer 25

• Macbeth will be thane of Cawdor • Macbeth will be king • Banquos sons will be king

Answer 26

• Beware Macduff • No man of woman born shall hurt Macbeth • Macbeth will be vanquished when Birman Wood moved to Dunsinane Hill

Answer 27

He beheads Macbeth and was able to kill him because he was untimely ripped from mother’s womb

Answer 28

• Regicide will result in your downfall • The psychological consequences of wrongdoing are inescapable • Uncontrolled desires can destroy your moral compass • Do not trust the supernatural and their manipulative nature • The pursuit of power is futile

Answer 29

• **Lady Macbeth** - ‘Come, thick night’ • **Macbeth** - ‘Stars hide your fires’ (A1 S4) • Both on the stage alone giving a soliloquy • Both characters are aware of the immorality of their decisions • Macbeth echoes LM’s words to suggest the close relationship • Could also signify how Macbeth is currently controlled by LM’s thinking

Answer 30

• Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches who give them prophecies • Duncan makes Macbeth thane of Cawdor who starts to wonder if the witches' prophecy about him being king will come true too. • Macbeth tells lady Macbeth about the prophecy and plans to persuade him to murder Duncan. • Duncan comes to stay with the Macbeths • Macbeth is reluctant to kill him but eventually agrees to the plan

Answer 31

• Macbeth murders King Duncan and Lady Macbeth frames his servants • Macduff arrives and discovers the King’s body. The kings sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, leave Scotland because they fear for their lives • Ross and an old man discuss the unnatural things that have been happening • Macbeth is crowned king

Answer 32

• Despite Macbeth being king he's worried by the witches' prophecy about Banquo's descendants being kings. He orders some murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. • The murderers kill Banquo, but Fleance escapes. Macbeth hosts a feast and sees Banquo's ghost. He decides to visit the witches again. • Lennox and a lord suspects Macbeth of murdering Duncan and Banquo. They say that Macduff is getting an army together to attack Macbeth and put Malcom on the throne

Answer 33

• Macbeth visits the witches again and they summon three apparitions. • The first warns Macbeth about Macduff, the second tells him that no one born from a woman can harm him and the third tells him that he can't be beaten until Birnam wood moves to Dunsinane hill. • The witches also show him Banquo's ghost and a line of kings who seem to be Banquo's descendants. • Macduff has fled to England and Macbeth also sends his murderers to kill Macduff's wife and children • In England, Macduff proves his loyalty to Malcolm

Answer 34

• Lady Macbeth becomes paranoid. She sleepwalks and keeps washing invisible blood from her hands • Malcolm tells the soldiers to cut down branches from birnam wood and hide behind them as they march towards Macbeths castle. • Macbeth prepares for battle and finds out that lady Macbeth has killed herself. • Macbeth and Macduff meet on the battlefield and he finds out that Macduff was born by caesarean • They fight and Macbeth is killed. • Malcolm is made king of Scotland

Answer 35

He looked too much like her father

Answer 36

• Ambition • Guilt • The Supernatural • Fate vs Free will • Masculinity

Answer 37

*Macbeth:* • ‘Stars hide your fires let not light see my black and deep desires’ (soliloquy of guilt) • ‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, only vaulting ambition’ • ‘Supernatural soliciting cannot be good cannot be ill’ *Lady Macbeth:* • ‘Too full of the milk of human kindness’ (emasculate) • ‘Look like the innocent flower, but the serpent under it’ (duplicity) • ‘Unsex me here’

English Macbeth Flashcards

(65 cards)