Download Macbeth Review Guide

Macbeth 2016 Review Guide
AP English Literature and Composition
Important Quotes/Questions by Act
Know the speaker, context, and significance of each passage.
Act I
I.i.10 Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
I.iii.38 So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
I.iii.48-50 Witches’ predictions for Macbeth
I.iii.122-126 But ‘tis strange: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of
darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s in deepest consequence.
I.iv.13-15 He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.
I.iv.37 We will establish our estate upon our eldest, Malcolm…
I.iv.48 The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else
o’erleap…Stars hide your fires/Let not light see my deep and dark desires…
I.v.15-30 Lady Macbeth’s first soliloquy: Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
what thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature…
I.v.38-54 Lady Macbeth’s second soliloquy
I.v.62-65 Your face, my thane is as a book where men may read strange matters. To
beguile the time, Look like the time…
I.vi. 1-3 This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
unto our gentle senses.
I.vii.1-28 Macbeth’s first soliloquy
I.vii.31 We will proceed no further in this business.
I.vii.39-41 Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in
desire?
I.vii.72 Bring forth men-children only…
Act II
II. i.27-29 So I lose none (honor) in seeking to augment it, but still keep my bosom
franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counseled.
II.i.33-62 Macbeth’s dagger speech: Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle towards
my hand. Come let me clutch thee…
II.ii.13-14 Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.
II.ii.30 But wherefore could I not pronounce amen?
II.ii.66 A little water clears us of this deed.
II.iii.48-55 The night has been unruly. Where we lay, our chimneys were blown down,
and, as they say, lamentings heard I’ the air…
II.iii.85-90 Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time; for from
this instant there’s nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys. Renown and grace is
dead. The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of. Is there a
double meaning?
II. iii.100-101 O, yet do I repent me of my fury, that I did kill them.
II.iii.132-134 There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood, the nearer bloody.
II.iv.1-19 supernatural omens, including the horses eating one another
II.iv.36-38 No, cousin. I’ll to Fife…Adieu, lest our old robes sit easier than our new.
Act III
III.i.1-3 Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, as the weird women promised,
and I fear thou playd’st most foully for it.
III.i.48-72 To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus… (Macbeth’s third soliloquy)
III.i.92-108 Macbeth’s “Aye in the catalogue ye go for men…” speech
II.,ii.19-22 …better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
than on the torture of the mind to dwell in restless ecstasy.
III.ii.36-37 O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know’st that Banquo, and
his Fleance, lives.
III.iii.21 We have lost best half of our affair.
III.iv.29-31 There the grown serpent lies; the worm that’s fled hath nature that in time
will venom breed, no teeth for the present.
III.iv.50-51 Never shake thy gory locks at me.
III.iv.99-107 What man dare, I dare. Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear…
III.iv.122 It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood.
III.iv.144 We are yet but young in deed.
III.v.32-33 And you all know security is mortals’ chiefest enemy.
Act IV
IV.i What are the three apparitions? What do they tell Macbeth?
IV.i.112-124 What fourth vision does he see? How does it flatter King James?
IV.i.146-148 From this moment the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of
my hand.
IV.ii.72-75 But I remember now, I am in this earthly world, where to do harm is often
laudable, to do good sometime accounted dangerous folly.
IV.iii What is happening between Malcolm and Macduff? What are Malcolm’s stated
vices? What is the king’s evil?
Act V
V.i.31 Out damned spot! Out, I say! One, two: why then, ‘tis time to do’t…
V.i.61-62 Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles.
V.ii.15b-20a Now does he feel his secret murders sticking on his hands; now minutely
revolts upbraid his faith-breach. Those he commands move only in command, nothing in
love.
V.iii.1-3 Bring me no more reports; let them fly all! Till Birnam Wood remove to
Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear.
V.iii.22b-28 My way of life is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf, and that which should
accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have,
but in their stead, curses not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath, which the poor heart
would fain deny, and dare not!
V.iv.4-5 Let every soldier hew him down a bough and bear’t before him.
V.v.9-13 I have almost forgot the taste of fears: the time has been my senses would have
cooled to hear a nights shriek, and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
as life were in’t. I have supped full with horrors.
V.v.19-28 Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…Memory Passage!
V.viii.4-6 Of all men else I have avoided thee. But get thee back! My soul is too much
charged with blood of thine already.
V.viii.13b-16a Despair thy charm, and let the angel whom thou still hast served tell thee,
Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped.
Key Terms:
Aside
Blank verse
Iambic Pentameter
Imagery
Historic Rhyme
Soliloquy
Tragic Structure
Pun
Questions to Consider:
Explain the possible influences of James I on the play.
How accurate is the play historically? What changes does Shakespeare make?
What role does the supernatural play in the work?
How is the Elizabethan idea of the order of the universe revealed in the play?
What happens to Macbeth as the play progresses? Lady Macbeth?
How responsible is Macbeth for his actions?
Is Macbeth a tragic hero?
What images dominate the play?