Macbeth

Question 1

What quote establishes the theme of ambition and Macbeth’s position in the great chain of being?

Answer 1

‘The thane of Cawdor has lost what the noble Macbeth has won’

Question 2

What are Macbeth’s first words in the play and who do they mirror?

Answer 2

‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’ this mirrors the witches line ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ - shows witches have already started to influence Macbeth

Question 3

What quote suggests Macbeth didn’t have the best moral values even before the witches met him?

Answer 3

‘My thought, whose murder yet is but fanciful’ - the witches didn’t mention murder, Macbeth assumed it

Question 4

What quote shows the internal battle for Macbeth?

Answer 4

‘Let not light see my black and deep desires’ - juxtaposing light and black shows his fight between good and bad

Question 5

What quote shows Lady Macbeth’s power and weakness?

Answer 5

‘The fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements’ - women could firstly not own property, secondly she is placing herself above the king. However, these are the same battlements that she throws herself over.

Question 6

What quote shows Lady Macbeth’s feelings towards Macbeth’s nature

Answer 6

‘Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall’ - this could link to Macbeth’s ‘milk of human kindness’ and how she wants to poison this

Question 7

What quote shows Banquo’s awareness to the supernatural?

Answer 7

‘Look, how our partner’s rapt’ - rapt meant to be transfixed by something, Banquo is aware of this danger

Question 8

What quote shows Banquo’s desires

Answer 8

‘Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear your favors nor your hate’ - although Banquo is largely a good character, he still has desires - HOWEVER he has the ability to be reasonable

Question 9

What quote shows Banquo’s ambition?

Answer 9

‘I fear, thou played’st most foully for it’ and then telling himself to ‘hush, no more’

Question 10

What quote separates the ambitions of Banquo and Macbeth?

Answer 10

‘restrain in me the cursed thoughts’ - he asks for help

Question 11

What quote shows the ambiguity of the witches?

Answer 11

‘When the hurlyburly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won’ - ambiguous because it doesn’t tell us who lost and who won.

Question 12

What quote from the witches shows the ideas about Macbeth’s reign?

Answer 12

‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ - Macbeth’s reign is foul because of his murders but fair because at the end he meets his demise, perhaps Shakespeare is showing the witches are fair as well as foul

Question 13

What quote shows how the witches may not be supernatural at all?

Answer 13

‘Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tost’ - A tempest is a natural event, so it would be hard for the witches to cause that, also it didn’t even lose the boat. Shakespeare is questioning the reality of witches.

Question 14

What quote shows Shakespeare’s view on women and witches?

Answer 14

‘The weird sisters, hand in hand’ - shows how women need to stick together to get power, this is a direct criticism of society

Question 15

What quote shows an alternative interpretation of the witches intentions?

Answer 15

‘Peace! the charms wound up’ - perhaps the witches were just trying to restore peace. They got involved which lead to Banquo’s son being kind and therefore king James being king

Question 16

What quote shows Macbeth’s ambition and his longing for motivation?

Answer 16

‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erlaps itself and falls on the other side’

Question 17

What quote shows the ambition of the witches?

Answer 17

Hecate says Macbeth ‘Loves for his own ends, not for you’ - this shows their ambition is to be loved

Question 18

What quote shows Lady Macbeth’s masculinity?

Answer 18

‘Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here’

Question 19

What quote shows Malcolm as ‘manly’ and how does Macduff respond?

Answer 19

‘Dispute it like a man’ to which Macduff replies ‘I shall do so. But first i must feel it as a man’

Question 20

How does Malcolm’s masculinity change?

Answer 20

At the end when Siwards son has died, Siward tries to contain his emotions but Malcolm says ‘He’s worth more sorry and that I’ll spend for him’

Question 21

What quote about Banquo could be a message to James?

Answer 21

‘He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour to act in safety’ - Suggesting perhaps sometimes the best reaction is to do nothing, Shakespeare thinks James shouldn’t punish all Catholics after the gun powder plot

Question 22

How does the idea of fate become absurd as the play develops?

Answer 22

The idea that ‘none of women born shall harm Macbeth’, even though Macduff was ‘untimely ripped’ he was still born of woman

Question 23

What is the importance of Macduff’s silence in act 1?

Answer 23

When Macduff does speak, the audience and characters will listen carefully
Also it suggests that he had some suspicions about Macbeth

Question 24

What quote shows the dramatic irony after Duncan’s death?

Answer 24

‘Gentle lady’

Question 25

What quote questions Macbeth’s killing of the king?

Answer 25

‘Wherefore did you so’

Question 26

What quote shows Macduff’s emotion when finding Duncan’s body?

Answer 26

‘O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nope heart can not conceive not name thee’

Question 27

What quote shows Macduff’s belief in the great chain of being?

Answer 27

‘Lord’s anointed temple’

Question 28

What quote shows Macduff’s feelings about Macbeth?

Answer 28

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned’