Download Macbeth Final

The Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare
Study Guide for Final Unit Exam, English III (CP, Level 2)
Literary Terms
playwright: The author of a drama, or play. For The Tragedy of Macbeth, the playwright is
William Shakespeare.
acts and scenes: These are divisions within a play that divide the action into sections. The
Tragedy of Macbeth, considered Shakespeare’s shortest play, contains five acts, and each
act is further broken up into different scenes. Acts and scenes are represented as Roman
numerals; for example, III iv 10-14 is shorthand for Act 3, Scene 4, Lines 10 through 14.
protagonist: The main character in a play, novel, short story, or other literary work.
tragedy: A play that leads to the downfall or death of the protagonist.
tragic hero: Another name for the protagonist, or main character, in a tragedy. A tragic
hero is an outstanding person of high rank whose downfall and/or death by the end of the
play is caused by his (or her) own flawed behavior. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, the tragic
hero is the character Macbeth.
tragic flaw: Part of the hero’s character that leads him, or her, to make a fatal mistake.
Macbeth’s tragic flaw is his unrestrained ambition.
comic relief: A humorous scene or character that a playwright adds to his (or her) play to
relieve the audience’s tension. An example in The Tragedy of Macbeth is the porter, who is
a character that makes an appearance at the start of Act II Scene iii.
soliloquy: A long speech expressing private thoughts, delivered by a character who is alone
on the stage.
monologue: A long speech delivered by one character to another character or to a group of
characters.
aside: A private remark to one character or to the audience that is understood not to be
heard by other characters on the stage.
Main Characters
Macbeth: main character and a general in King Duncan’s army who ends up murdering the
king and many others. His ambition leads him to destruction and death.
Lady Macbeth: wife of Macbeth; near the end of the play, she sleepwalks too much and
talks about the murders that she has been involved in.
Banquo: Macbeth’s fellow general and friend; the witches predict that his children will be
kings.
Malcolm: Duncan’s oldest son who is named king at the end of the play.
Donalbain: King Duncan’s other son who flees with Malcolm after Macbeth murders their
father.
Fleance: Banquo’s son who escapes the murderers hired by King Macbeth.
Macduff: A Scottish nobleman not born of woman who kills Macbeth at the end of the
play.
Lady Macduff: Wife of Macduff who is murdered, along with her entire family, by order
of Macbeth.
The Weird Sisters (Witches): Evil women with beards (according to Banquo); they
predict that Macbeth will be king.
Ross: nobleman of Scotland, tells Macbeth he is Thane of Cawdor
Duncan: King of Scotland at the beginning of the play; guards were blamed for his murder.
Siward: The English general who helps Malcolm and Macduff defeat Macbeth.
Information About the Play
The Tragedy of Macbeth was first performed in the early 1600s, during playwright William
Shakespeare’s lifetime. The main setting of the play is in Scotland. When referring to a
specific place in a play by William Shakespeare, numbers like “III.i.12-20” mean Act Three,
Scene One, Lines 12 through 20. These are Roman numerals. The first number is the number
of the act, the second number is the number of the scene within the act. The third number is the
number of the lines in the dialogue.
In Act I of the play, the witches tell Macbeth that he will become Thane of Cawdor and King
of Scotland, and that Banquo will have children who become kings. After expressing his
gratitude for Macbeth’s help in a recent battle, King Duncan names his son, Malcolm, the
Prince of Cumberland, which means Malcolm will become the King of Scotland when his
father dies. This action upsets Macbeth. When we first meet Lady Macbeth, she is at the
Macbeth castle, Inverness, reading Macbeth’s letter. At this point, she thinks her husband
should murder Malcolm in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy that he will become king of
Scotland. Lady Macbeth’s motive for urging Macbeth on is that she wants to be queen, is an
evil criminal at heart, and is ambitious for her husband to become king. When King Duncan
visits the Macbeth castle, Lady Macbeth acts as if she is glad to see him, but she is actually
plotting to murder the king.
Macbeth stabs to death King Duncan as the king sleeps in the Macbeth castle. Macbeth tells his
wife that while killing the king he thought he heard someone yell out that Macbeth had
“murdered” sleep and that he would sleep no more. Immediately after he murders King
Duncan, Macbeth is afraid and paranoid. The chief purpose of the scene with the porter
guarding the castle gate shortly after King Duncan’s murder is to relieve tension through comic
relief. Macbeth becomes jealous of Banquo because the witches said Banquo’s children would
be kings, which means that Macbeth’s children – if he ever gets around to having any – will
not be kings. Banquo is killed by murderers hired by King Macbeth, but Banquo’s son,
Fleance, gets away. Macbeth ordered Banquo’s murder without telling his wife, Lady Macbeth.
At a banquet with the great lords of Scotland, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth descends
further into madness and begins to plot more murders, including the murders of Macduff’s
entire family.
The three apparitions conjured by the witches give Macbeth three pieces of information:
Beware Macduff, no man born of woman shall harm Macbeth, and Macbeth shall never be
vanquished or lose his kingship until Birnam Wood walks up Dunsinane Hill toward
Macbeth’s castle.
Near the end of the play in Act V, Lady Macbeth loses her mind and dies. Macbeth dies while
fighting in combat against Macduff. Macbeth meets his final fate in Act V with desperate
bravery. Due to the witches’ apparitions stating that Macbeth cannot be harmed by a man
“born of woman,” Macbeth believes no man can slay him. He fails to realize that Macduff was
“ripped” from his mother when he was born, and the mother was already dead, so technically
Macduff was not “born of woman.” Macbeth’s death restores order in Scotland.
At least three of the following five questions will appear on the test as short-answer
questions:
(1) Explain the reasons for the flight of Donalbain and Malcolm after the murder of their
father, King Duncan.
ANSWER: Donalbain and Malcolm fled from Scotland because their father, King
Duncan, had been murdered. They did not know who committed the murder, so they
could not trust any of the Scottish noblemen. They thought it was possible that they
would be killed next because they were next in line to replace their murdered father as
King of Scotland. By running away from Scotland, however, it looked as if they were
guilty of killing their own father.
(2) Read the following lines. Identify who said these lines, and tell us why she said them.
“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!...
…Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him?” Act V.i.
ANSWER: These lines were spoken by Lady Macbeth in Act V, Scene i, of The Tragedy
of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is speaking these lines while sleepwalking in front of a female
attendant (a “gentlewoman”) and a doctor. Since she is asleep, she does not know that
anyone else is in the room. The gentlewoman and doctor hear her confess to helping her
husband murder King Duncan and others. Lady Macbeth thinks she sees and smells
blood on her hands, but it is only her conscience leading her to believe that the blood is
there. She wants to get rid of the blood on her hands. She says not even all of the perfume
in Arabia could get rid of the smell of blood.
(3) How does the opening scene with the witches set a mood for the play?
ANSWER: The opening scene of The Tragedy of Macbeth leaves a mood of dread. The
witches appear to be evil, so opening a play with them offers a mood of evil. This dark
mood runs throughout the play. We expect evil and supernatural activities to pop up
every now and then. We later learn that the witches, indeed, are evil and not nice witches
sometimes portrayed on television shows.
(4) Explain how the messages from the Apparitions came true.
ANSWER: The apparitions warn Macbeth to beware Macduff. Macduff ends up killing
Macbeth. The apparitions tell Macbeth that no man “born of woman” can harm him, but
it turns out that Macduff was “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped” (a C-section
that killed his mother) and therefore Macduff technically was not born of woman. This
seems like Shakespeare was cheating, but the witches were tricky, so they were the ones
who were really cheating. The apparitions also noted that Birnam Wood would walk up
Dunsinane Hill before Macbeth would lose his kingship. But Macduff has the soldiers cut
down boughs from Birnam Wood to disguise themselves when they march against
Macbeth’s castle, so it looks as if Birnam Wood is actually walking up the hill.
(5) Read the following line. Identify who said it, and tell us why he said it:
“It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood.” Act III.iv.
ANSWER: Macbeth says these lines. He has just seen Banquo’s ghost and has a guilty
conscience. He fears he may die a bloody death.
Essay Question: Be prepared to answer the following question in a well-thought-out,
thorough essay.
In three paragraphs or more, on a separate sheet of paper, discuss the relationship between
Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Who is the stronger, or better, person in the relationship? Is this
always true? Explain how things between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth change throughout the
course of the play, and why.