Macbeth Act 3

Question 1

• Banquo soliloquy
• Building dramatic tension
• Suspects Macbeth because of witches predictions

Answer 1

“Thou played’st most foully for’t”

Question 2

Fate, Macbeth is trying to control his own destiny

let every…

Answer 2

“Let every man be master of his time”

Question 3

• Seemingly wishing Banquo and Fleance well, irony
• Not being a good Christian
• hiding behind face

Answer 3

“God be with you”

Question 4

• Soliloquy, Macbeth’s justification of why Banquo will be killed
• Losing grip on what is reasonable

Answer 4

“To be thus is nothing,/but to be safely thus.”

Question 5

• No heirs
• Witches’ influence
• Personification of crown?

Answer 5

“Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown”

Question 6

• Proverb
• LM still is resolute, strong

Answer 6

“what’s done, is done.”

Question 7

• Nature imagery
• Snake = satan?
• Macbeth is not satisfied with power

Answer 7

“We have scorched the snake, not killed it.”

Question 8

• Murdering King to be King won’t make you happy
• Macbeth is envious that Duncan is at peace and free of mental torture
• Alliteration, sleep motif

Answer 8

“After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well”

Question 9

• Face masks feelings of heart
• Foul and fair

Answer 9

“And make our faces vizards to our hearts”

Question 10

• Psychological decline
• Imagery
• Metaphor

Answer 10

“Full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!”

Question 11

• Shift in husband and wife dynamic
• Keeping secrets from wife
• Difference in Macbeth’s character - stronger and more resolute

Answer 11

“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck”

Question 12

• Light and dark imagery
• Darkness covers bad deeds

Answer 12

“Come, seeling night,/Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day”

Question 13

• Light and dark imagery
• Shakespeare’s stage directions
• Bad things happen in darkness
• Darkness = evil

Answer 13

“First Murderer strikes out the light”

Question 14

• Alliteration
• Paranoia
• Macbeth upset that Fleance got away

Answer 14

“Cabined, cribbed, confined”

Question 15

• Witches prophecy coming true
• Banquo is referred to as serpent - dramatic irony as snakes are related to Satan but Banquo was a good person

Answer 15

“There the grown serpent lies; the worm that’s fled/Hath nature that in time will venom breed”

Question 16

• Dramatic irony
• Macbeth is keeping up appearances
• I hope he’s not out of unkindness rather than an accident

Answer 16

“Who may I rather challenge for unkindness/Than pity for mischance”

Question 17

• Shakespeare’s stage directions
• Rift between husband and wife
• Characterisation of Lady Macbeth - still strong and able to keep up appearances

Answer 17

“Lady Macbeth joins the Lords”

Question 18

• Rhetoric
• Macbeth’s mind is weakened
• Play does not endorse regicide

Answer 18

“Are you a man?”

Question 19

• Visual imagery
• Macbeth is this time not aware that Banquo’s ghost is not real
• LM telling him it isn’t real

Answer 19

“The air-drawn dagger which you said/Led you to Duncan”
“The very painting of your fear”

Question 20

• Rhetoric
• Speaking to an empty chair
• Psychological decline

Answer 20

“Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.”

Question 21

• Confession
• Visual imagery
• Knows what he’s done is wrong
• Guilt

Answer 21

“Murders have been performed/Too terrible for the ear.”
“The brains were out, the man would die.”

Question 22

• Tragic irony
• Macbeth trying to keep up appearances

Answer 22

“And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.”

Question 23

• No life, go away
• You should be buried
• Nature imagery

Answer 23

“Let the earth hide thee!/Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold.”

Question 24

• Not masculine to show fear
• To be strong and to be a good host is to be a man

Answer 24

“Why so, being gone,/I am a man again.”

Question 25

• Lashing out at LM
• Why could she not see what he could see?
• Colour imagery

Answer 25

“And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,/when mine is blanched with fear.”

Question 26

• Turning point in Macbeth’s character
• Characterisation
• No turning back, will kill anyone standing in his way

Answer 26

“It will have blood they say: blood will have blood”

Question 27

• Foreshadowing Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane
• Personification

Answer 27

“Stones have been known to move and trees to speak.”

Question 28

• Macbeths cannot tell good from evil anymore
• Have gone too far
• light and dark imagery

Answer 28

“What is the night?/Almost at odds with morning, which is which.”

Question 29

• No turning back
• Only way to go is through
• Blood imagery

Answer 29

“I am in blood/stepped in so far that should I wade no more,/returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

Question 30

• Not thinking actions through
• Acting on any thought
• Cognitive decline, contrast in character

Answer 30

“Strange things I have in head that will to hand”

Question 31

• LM is against this change
• Fear?
• dramatic irony as she ends up lacking sleep

Answer 31

“You lack the season of all natures, sleep.”

Question 32

• Ambition
• No rhyming couplet at end of scene therefore unsettling feeling
• Building dramatic tension

Answer 32

“We are yet but young in deed.”

Question 33

Darkness, Lennox becoming suspicious

Answer 33

“Men must not walk too late.”

Question 34

• Lord has hope in Macduff
• No-one murdering each other
• Visual imagery
• Scotland craves peace and order

Answer 34

“Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,/Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives.”