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English IV
Mrs. McHale
“The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Act V
Study Guide
1.
How do you feel about what happens to Macbeth’s body after he is dead?
Why?
2.
What does Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking reveal about her?
To which of Macbeth’s remarks in Act II, Scene 2 is this related? List the
quote below.
3.
In the sleepwalking scene, Lady Macbeth refers to many of her waking
experiences. For example, the words “One: two” may refer to the moment in
Act II, Scene 1 when she struck the bell signaling Macbeth to kill Duncan.
List three quotes from Lady Macbeth as she sleepwalks that refer to three
different waking experiences:
a.
b.
c.
4.
Shakespeare gave most of his tragic heroes an impressive dying speech in
which he says something significant about his own life and death. Although
he did not write such a speech for Macbeth, which speech do you think serves
in the play as his dying speech?
Why do you select this speech rather than some other one?
5.
What are your reactions to the idea expressed by Macbeth that life “is a tale /
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing?” Explain your
response in at least 4 sentences.
6.
“Nothing in his life / Became him like the leaving it,” says Malcolm in Act I,
referring to the traitorous Thane of Cawdor. Malcolm also says that this
Thane of Cawdor threw away the dearest thing he owned.
How might these two statement s also apply to Macbeth?
7.
The philosopher Aristotle argued that a bad man cannot be the principal
character of a tragedy. Does Shakespeare keep you from losing all sympathy
for Macbeth in spite of Macbeth’s increasing viciousness?
Why?
Was there a point at which you lost all sympathy for Macbeth?
If not, why? And if so, where?
8.
Part of Macbeth’s tragedy is the fact that many of his strengths are also his
weaknesses.
What are his strengths?
Which ones work against him?
For each of the following quotations, please identify:
a. Who is speaking
b. Who is being spoken to
c. Who or what is being spoken about
d. What the quote means
9.
“The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?—What will these hands
ne’er be clean?—No more o’that my lord, no more o’that; you mar all with
this starting.”
a.
b.
c.
d.
10.
“Not so sick, my lord, / As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, / That
keep her from her rest.”
a.
b.
c.
d.
11.
“Of all men else I have avoided thee; / But get thee back; my soul is too much
charged / With blood of thine already.”
a.
b.
c.
d.
12.
“She should have died hereafter; / There would have been a time for such a
word.”
a.
b.
c.
d.