Macbeth Acts 4 & 5 Flashcards
Who are the witches referring to when they say “Something wicked this way comes” (45)?
Macbeth
What are the three apparitions the witches show Macbeth?
A head with a helmet, a newborn baby, and a crowned child with a tree
What does the armed head prophesise?
Be careful of Macduff (Thane of Fife)
What does the bloody child prophesies?
No baby born from a woman can harm Macbeth
*This gives him confidence
What does the crowned child with a tree prophesies?
Macbeth can never be vanquished until Birman wood comes to Dunsinane Hill
What is the last vision Macbeth sees?
Eight kings with the last king holding a mirror with the reflection of Banquo inside it
What does Macbeth decide to do in response to the first apparition?
To kill Macduff and his wife and child
*Lines 145-147: Macbeth is now condiment in all decisions he makes
Why does Lady Macbeth tell her son his father is dead?
She is preparing him for when he truly dies
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?
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”
How many people has Macbeth killed thus far? (Act 4, scene 2)
He has killed Duncan and his guards, Banquo, and Macduff’s family
Define nemesis
Nemesis: agent of retributive justice
What part of Macduff’s interaction with Malcolm is ironic?
Malcolm was accused of being a traitor and Macduff is a traitor for going to England
How does Macduff characterize Macbeth?
“An untitled tyrant, bloody sceptred” (4,3,104)
He is a a cruel ruler who is guilty of many murders
“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?
Blood imagery
Is this the same blood imagery from earlier in the play?
No, this is Scotland personified as a woman bleeding to death
Malcolm’s self-assigned sins:
Lust and greed
What is Malcolm’s rhetorical strategy in this scene?
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
“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?
Dramatic irony: the audience knows that Lady Macduff and her son are dead
When the messenger tells Macduff and Malcolm about the death of Lady Macduff and her son, how do they react?
Macduff= sensitive to the news, very emotional, crying
Malcolm= cold, uses the murders as motive to take back Scotland
List three odd behaviour by Lady Macbeth
- Sleepwalking
- She always has light by her
- She’s “washing” her hands and imagines blood
Who are the people Lady Macbeth mentions will sleepwalking?
Duncan, Lady Macduff, and Banquo
What three events is she reliving?
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?”
“Now does he feel his title hand loose about him, like a giants robe upon a dwarfish thief” What does this metaphor mean?
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.
Define Hubris
Pride or ego which leads to one’s downfall
