Macbeth

Question 1

In Macbeth’s great speech about “If it were done when tis done” what is pity compared to?

Answer 1

A naked newborn babe

Question 2

What does Lady Macbeth say to her husband she would do had she “so sworn as you / Have done to this”?

Answer 2

She would dash her own infant child’s brains against a rock

Question 3

The Captain informs Duncan that “Doubtful it stood like two spent swimmers that do cling together and choke their art.” What is the “it” he refers to?

Answer 3

The outcome of the battle

Question 4

Lady Macbeth urges her husband to do what while they plan to kill the king?

Answer 4

“look like th’ innocent flower / but be the serpent under’t”

Question 5

What happens to the text between when Lady Macbeth is reading and when she is speaking?

Answer 5

The text switches from prose to poetry

Question 6

When he finds out about the Prince of Cumberland appointment Macbeth says “stars hide your fires / Let not light see my black and deep desires.” This means what?

Answer 6

He wants the sky totally black so no one can see the horrible deeds he intends to do

Question 7

What do the witches claim at the beginning of the play, “Macbeth”?

Answer 7

“Fair is foul and foul fair”

Question 8

The porter claims that drink is a promoter of three things. What are they?

Answer 8

Sleep, nose-painting, and urine

Question 9

Macbeth claims that he could not say what after murdering Duncan?

Answer 9

“Amen”

Question 10

Right before he kills Duncan, Macbeth sees what object?

Answer 10

A dagger floating in front of him

Question 11

What does Donalbain mean that “Where we are there are daggers in men’s smiles”?

Answer 11

People here are all smiling but one of them is a murderer and intends to kill us

Question 12

Act 2 of Macbeth begins where?

Answer 12

Macbeth’s castle, Dunsinane

Question 13

What does Lady Macbeth do to draw the attention of the thanes away from Macbeth?

Answer 13

She faints

Question 14

When asked if he will go to Scone, MacDuff responds “No, cousin, I’ll to Fife”. Why does he say this?

Answer 14

He doesn’t want to see Macbeth made king at Scone, so he’s going home

Question 15

After killing Duncan Macbeth says that “to know my deed ‘twere better not to know” what?

Answer 15

Myself

Question 16

Macbeth claims aloud to the other thanes, “Oh I do repent me that I did kill them so.” Whom is saying he has killed?

Answer 16

The grooms

Question 17

Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he has murdered not only Duncan but also what?

Answer 17

Sleep

Question 18

“Hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, / Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept / All by the name of” what?

Answer 18

They are clept by the name of dogs.

Question 19

What does Macbeth mean when he says, “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus”?

Answer 19

My power as king is threatened by Banquo so I’m not safe

Question 20

What guides Banquo’s “valour to act in safety”?

Answer 20

Wisdom

Question 21

Where does Act 3 begin?

Answer 21

Forres, the palace

Question 22

What does Macbeth tell the murderers to make them want to kill Banquo?

Answer 22

Banquo was your enemy

Question 23

Act 3 begins with which character speaking?

Answer 23

Banquo

Question 24

What TONE does Lennox use when he says in Act III.6, “The gracious Duncan / Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead: / And the right-valiant Banquo walk’d too late; / Whom, you may say, if’t please you, Fleance kill’d, / For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late.”?

Answer 24

Sarcastic

Question 25

What does Macbeth mean when he says, “For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind”?

Answer 25

I have made my mind dirty for the sake of Banquo’s kids

Question 26

What kind of nature does Macbeth say Banquo has?

Answer 26

Royal

Question 27

What term of affection does Macbeth call Lady Macbeth when he says “be innocent of the knowledge”?

Answer 27

Dearest chuck

Question 28

Who says that, “I have lived long enough: my way of life Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf…” ?

Answer 28

Macbeth

Question 29

The lines, “Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, Those calmorous harbingers of blood and death” are a good example of what poetic form?

Answer 29

The rhymed couplet

Question 30

Who says, “Out, damned spot! out, I say! – One: two: why, then, ‘tis time to do’t. – Hell is murky!” ?

Answer 30

Lady Macbeth

Question 31

How does Macbeth die at the end of the play?

Answer 31

He has his head cut off

Question 32

What does Macduff claim will happen if he does not kill Macbeth?

Answer 32

He will be haunted by the ghosts of his wife and children

Question 33

Who says that Lady Macbeth suffers, “A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching!” ?

Answer 33

The doctor

Question 34

What prompts Macbeth to say, “I gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish the estate o’ the world were now undone” ?

Answer 34

The approach of the British army

Question 35

What does Macbeth mean when he says, “I have almost forgot the taste of fears; The time has been, my sense would have cool’d To hear a night-shriek…” ?

Answer 35

He is surprised at how little moved he is by the sound of shrieking

Question 36

Who says, “…all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!” ?

Answer 36

Macbeth

Question 37

What three things does Macbeth compare life to in Act 5, Scene 5?

Answer 37

A walking shadow, a poor player, a tale told by an idiot

Question 38

Why does Malcolm command his men to carry a branch from Birnam wood?

Answer 38

To fulfill the prophecy

Question 39

What does Angus mean when he says about Macbeth that, “Those he commands move only in command, Nothing in love: Now does he feel his title Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe Upon a dwarfish thief.” ?

Answer 39

Macbeth’s men only follow him because they are afraid

Question 40

At the beginning of Act 5 what is Lady Macbeth doing?

Answer 40

Sleepwalking

Question 41

Whom does Macbeth kill first in Act 5, Scene 7?

Answer 41

Young Siward

Question 42

What does Macduff reveal to Macbeth in Act 5, Scene 8?

Answer 42

He (Macduff) was untimely ripped from his mother