Macbeth Acts 4 & 5

Question 1

Who are the witches referring to when they say “Something wicked this way comes” (45)?

Answer 1

Macbeth

Question 2

What are the three apparitions the witches show Macbeth?

Answer 2

A head with a helmet, a newborn baby, and a crowned child with a tree

Question 3

What does the armed head prophesise?

Answer 3

Be careful of Macduff (Thane of Fife)

Question 4

What does the bloody child prophesies?

Answer 4

No baby born from a woman can harm Macbeth
*This gives him confidence

Question 5

What does the crowned child with a tree prophesies?

Answer 5

Macbeth can never be vanquished until Birman wood comes to Dunsinane Hill

Question 6

What is the last vision Macbeth sees?

Answer 6

Eight kings with the last king holding a mirror with the reflection of Banquo inside it

Question 7

What does Macbeth decide to do in response to the first apparition?

Answer 7

To kill Macduff and his wife and child
*Lines 145-147: Macbeth is now condiment in all decisions he makes

Question 8

Why does Lady Macbeth tell her son his father is dead?

Answer 8

She is preparing him for when he truly dies

Question 9

Lady Macduff knows that she has “done no harm”, but she also knows that in this world it doesn’t always matter what you have actually done. What world does she mean?

Answer 9

She means Macbeth’s new world (Scotland). Good people are punished and bad people are rewarded. This further shows the significance of “Fair is foul, foul is fair”

Question 10

How many people has Macbeth killed thus far? (Act 4, scene 2)

Answer 10

He has killed Duncan and his guards, Banquo, and Macduff’s family

Question 11

Define nemesis

Answer 11

Nemesis: agent of retributive justice

Question 12

What part of Macduff’s interaction with Malcolm is ironic?

Answer 12

Malcolm was accused of being a traitor and Macduff is a traitor for going to England

Question 13

How does Macduff characterize Macbeth?

Answer 13

“An untitled tyrant, bloody sceptred” (4,3,104)
He is a a cruel ruler who is guilty of many murders

Question 14

“I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a haha is added to her wounds” (39-41) What kind of imagery is this?

Answer 14

Blood imagery

Question 15

Is this the same blood imagery from earlier in the play?

Answer 15

No, this is Scotland personified as a woman bleeding to death

Question 16

Malcolm’s self-assigned sins:

Answer 16

Lust and greed

Question 17

What is Malcolm’s rhetorical strategy in this scene?

Answer 17

Malcolm is testing Macduff’s true intentions by making himself look like a worse leader than Macbeth. When Macduff rejects his idea, it shows that he has good intentions

Question 18

“The tyrant has not catered at their peace?” “No, they were well at peace when I did leave them”
What kind of irony is this?

Answer 18

Dramatic irony: the audience knows that Lady Macduff and her son are dead

Question 19

When the messenger tells Macduff and Malcolm about the death of Lady Macduff and her son, how do they react?

Answer 19

Macduff= sensitive to the news, very emotional, crying

Malcolm= cold, uses the murders as motive to take back Scotland

Question 20

List three odd behaviour by Lady Macbeth

Answer 20

1. Sleepwalking
2. She always has light by her
3. She’s “washing” her hands and imagines blood

Question 21

Who are the people Lady Macbeth mentions will sleepwalking?

Answer 21

Duncan, Lady Macduff, and Banquo

Question 22

What three events is she reliving?

Answer 22

Duncan- “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him”
Banquo- “He cannot come out on’s grave”
Lady Macduff- “The thane of fife had a wife. Where is she now?”

Question 23

“Now does he feel his title hand loose about him, like a giants robe upon a dwarfish thief” What does this metaphor mean?

Answer 23

The Thanes are comparing a robe to the title of the king. Macbeth wrongfully took the title so he doesn’t fit the title as king.

Question 24

Define Hubris

Answer 24

Pride or ego which leads to one’s downfall

Question 25

What is an example of hubris in act 5?

Answer 25

Macbeth is overconfident and believe he will win the war because of the witches. The prophesies suggest he will lose

Question 26

“I have lived long enough: my way of life is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf” Explain this metaphor

Answer 26

Macbeth is comparing himself to a dead leaf, he feels he is dying because everyone has abandoned him

Question 27

Who has the cure for Lady Macbeth’s sickness?

Answer 27

Herself

Question 28

Scene 5 begins won’t be sad news that ______ is dead. How did they die?

Answer 28

Lady Macbeth died and she killed herself

Question 29

Explain the metaphor for “brief candle” in Macbeths soliloquy

Answer 29

Brief candle=Lady Macbeth’s life cut to short, like a candle being snuffed out

Question 30

Explain the metaphor for “poor player” in Macbeth’s soliloquy

Answer 30

Poor player = Life is like an actor playing a role

Question 31

Explain the metaphor for “tail” in Macbeth’s soliloquy

Answer 31

Tale = Life is a nonsensical story

Question 32

Who leads the army that is attacking Macbeths castle?

Answer 32

Siward and his son

Question 33

The death of Lady Macduff serves what dramatic function?

Answer 33

Pathos: sympathy
It provides sympathy from the audience to justify Macduff’s righteous anger

Question 34

Macbeth believes that no one “borne a woman” can kill him. how did the witches trick him?

Answer 34

Macduff was born by c-section, not naturally. This means the witches used specific language to trick Macbeth

Question 35

Macbeth realizes that the witches are “juggling fiends” who speak in “double sense”. What does this mean?

Answer 35

The witches are like clowns playing with the truth and everything that they say has two meanings

Question 36

Who wins the war?

Answer 36

Malcolm

Question 37

What is the evidence of the victory?

Answer 37

Macbeth’s head