Download Macbeth Study Guide

Macbeth Study Guide
Name_____________________________
English 12
Ms. Reilly
AS YOU READ
Images of light contrast with the overwhelming images of darkness and blood that pervade Macbeth.
As you read the play, record the frequent occurrences of each of these images.
Light
Darkness
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
1
Blood
ACT I
VOCABULARY
Put the letter of the correct definition on the line next to the word it matches. Then use the words to
fill in the blanks in the quotations below.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
_____ blasted
_____ furbished
_____ repentance
_____ harbinger
_____ hurly-burly
_____ rapt
_____ surmise
_____ beguile
A. brightly polished
B. forerunner
C. deceive
D. deep sorrow for a past sin
E. preoccupied, deeply absorbed
F. noisy confusion, tumult
G. diseased and withered, blighted
H. conjecture, guess
...............................................................................
1. When shall we three meet again/ In thunder, lightening, or in rain?/ When the
_______________’s done,/ When the battle’s lost and won.
2. But the Norweyan lord, . . ./ With _______________ arms and new supplies of men,/ Began
a fresh assault.
3. Say from whence/ You owe this strange intelligence, or why/ Upon this ______________
heath you stop our way/ With such prophetic greeting.
4. My thought . . ./ Is smothered in _______________ and nothing is/ But what is not.
5. I’ll be myself the _______________, and make joyful/ The hearing of my wife with your
approach.
6. Whiles I stood _______________ in the wonder of it, came missives from the King, who allhailed me Thane of Cawdor.
7. That very frankly he confessed his treasons,/ Implored your Highness’ pardon, and set forth/
A deep _______________.
8. To _______________ the time,/ Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,/ Your hand,
your tongue; look like th’ innocent flower,/ But be the serpent under’t.
2
QUESTIONS
1. Why do the three witches plan to meet again? What does this meeting suggest about the fate
of the main character?
2. What does the Captain reveal about Macbeth? Why do you think this is revealed before
Macbeth appears in the play?
3. What are Macbeth’s first words and what do they echo? Why does he say this day was both
foul and fair?
4. How does the number three, linked with magic, play an important part in the witches’
prophecy?
5. What is the first indication that all three parts of the witches’ prophecy may come true?
3
6. What is Banquo’s warning to Macbeth, and what does it reveal about Banquo?
7. In scene iv, Duncan called the traitorous Cawdor “a gentleman on whom I built an absolute
trust.” What does Duncan’s assessment of Cawdor reveal about Duncan himself?
8. What is made clear about Macbeth’s relationship with his wife from the moment she comes
on stage reading her husband’s letter? Why does she claim to fear her husband’s nature after
reading the letter? What sense of purpose does this arouse in her?
9. How willing is Macbeth to go along with Lady Macbeth’s plans for him to attain the throne?
10. How does Lady Macbeth convince her husband to murder the King?
LITERARY ELEMENTS
I.
Setting – The setting is the time and place of the action in a literary work. As well as
providing a physical location for the action, the setting of Macbeth also establishes the
mood of the play.
Describe the setting of the first scene:
What mood does this setting create?
4
II.
Characterization – Characterization refers to the process of creating a believable character
in a literary work. A novelist or short story writer can use direct characterization to
describe a character’s traits explicitly to the reader. A playwright, however, must use
indirect characterization. Character traits are revealed indirectly by what a character says
and does, by a character’s appearance, or by what other characters say about him or her.
List the adjectives other characters use to describe Macbeth in Act I:
Based on what other characters say about him, what is the predominant opinion of Macbeth in
this act?
DRAMATIC CONVENTIONS
I.
Soliloquy – A soliloquy is an extended speech made by one character who expresses his or
her thoughts while alone on the stage. Shakespeare often used soliloquies to show the
audience the inner thoughts and true feelings of a character.
For example, Act I, scene vii begins with a long soliloquy spoken by Macbeth. What do these
words reveal about Macbeth?
Why do you think this was presented as a soliloquy instead of as part of the dialogue?
II.
Aside – An aside is a shorter speech made by one character when there are several actors
on stage; it assumes that the other characters are unable to hear what is said. Notice
Macbeth’s asides in Act I, scene iii.
What do these words reveal about Macbeth?
5
Why do you think this was revealed as an aside?
LITERARY DEVICES
I.
Antithesis – Antithesis is a figure of speech in which paradoxical or contrasting ideas are
presented in balanced or parallel form. Underline the parallel ideas in these examples of
antithesis, using a single underline for the first example in each pair and a double
underline for the second.



Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.
[Thou] wouldst not play false,/ And yet wouldst wrongly win.
Why do you think Shakespeare used this device?
II.
Foreshadowing – Foreshadowing is a literary device in which an author provides clues or
hints to suggest what may happen later in the work. What could these lines from scene ii
foreshadow?
Norway… assisted by that most disloyal traitor the Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict …
III.
Personification – Personification is a literary device in which an author grants lifelike
qualities to nonhuman objects. For example:
Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
To cry, ‘Hold, hold!’
What three elements are personified in this passage?
Why is Lady Macbeth’s language in this passage more effective than saying:
6
Let the night be so dark that no one can see what we do.
IV.
Allusion – Allusion is a reference in literature to a familiar person, place, or event. Why
does Shakespeare allude to Golgotha, the place of Christ’s death in the New Testament, in
Act I, scene ii?
ACT II
VOCABULARY
Use the words in the Word Box and the clues below to complete this crossword puzzle. Then read
the letters in the vertical box to discover the hidden word.
7
QUESTIONS
1. How do Banquo and Macbeth differ in their responses to the witches’ prophecies?
2. Is the dagger that Macbeth refers to in his soliloquy visible to the audience? How is the
audience expected to react to this?
3. While waiting for her husband to murder the King, Lady Macbeth says, “Had he not
resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.” What does this reveal about Lady Macbeth?
4. What realization does his inability to say “Amen” force upon Macbeth?
5. Why does Lady Macbeth accuse her husband of being “infirm of purpose”?
8
6. What reason does Macbeth give for killing the grooms?
7. Why do Duncan’s sons decide to flee? Is this a wise plan? Why or why not?
LITERARY ANALYSIS
I.
Verse and Prose – Following the established theatrical convention of the time, most of
Shakespeare’s plays were written in verse with only occasional passages of prose. Verse is
the usual mode of expression of the ruling class, while prose is reserved for the lower
classes. When speaking to a servant, however, a member of the ruling class will also speak
in prose. In addition, prose is used for correspondence and to indicate an unbalanced
mind. Locate a prose passage in each of the first two Acts of Macbeth and explain the
rationale for it.
Act I:
Act II:
9
LITERARY DEVICES
I.
Hyperbole – A hyperbole is a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used deliberately for
dramatic or comic effect. For example:
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
What has been exaggerated in this passage?
II.
Puns – A pun is a play on one word with two meanings, or on two words with similar
sounds but different meanings. For example:
If he do bleed,
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt.
Underline the two similar words in this passage. Tell how this pun heightens the horror of the
scene.
III.
Comic Relief – Comic relief is a humorous scene or speech that follows an intensely serious
scene. Although the term implies that such a comic scene is necessary to relieve the
tension of the drama, it is more often used to emphasize or intensify the seriousness of the
action that preceded it.
Identify the comic relief in Act II and tell how it serves both to relieve and to intensify dramatic
tension:
IV.
Dramatic Irony – Dramatic irony is the contrast between what a character says and does
and a deeper significance grasped by the audience or other characters.
10
What is ironic about the moment in Act II, scene iii when Macbeth accompanies Macduff to the
King’s bed chamber?
What effect does this have upon the audience?
ACT III
VOCABULARY
Use the context to figure out the meaning of the underlined word or phrase in each line from the
play. Circle the letter of the meaning you choose.
1. My duties are with a most indissoluable tie for ever knit.
a. loyal
b. disloyal
c. permanent
d. knotted
2. For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered; put rancors in the vessel of my peace.
a. bitterness
b. sadness
c. cracks
d. joyousness
3. We … make our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are.
a. traitors
b. masks
c. cowards
d. windows
c. slowly
d. rapidly
4. Now spurs the lated traveler apace.
a. on foot
b. quietly
5. Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me.
a. violent
b. bloody
c. glorious
6. Charnel houses and our graves must send those that we bury back.
11
d. hairy
a. burial vaults
b. witches’ homes
c. funeral parlors
d. cemeteries
7. More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know by the worst means the worst.
a. certain
b. hopeful
c. curious
d. determined
8. The son of Duncan lives with such grace that the malevolence of fortune nothing takes from
his high respect.
a. magnificence
b. maliciousness
c. uncertainty
d. whims
QUESTIONS
1. What concern does Banquo voice at the beginning of scene i?
2. Why does Macbeth fear Banquo?
3. What does the following line from Macbeth’s soliloquy in scene I indicate about his state of
mind? How would you complete this unfinished thought?
“To be thus us nothing, but to be safely thus —.”
12
4. How does Macbeth’s method of persuading the murderers resemble the method used on him
by Lady Macbeth? Does this technique work as well for Macbeth?
5. Why does Macbeth wait until the very end of his discussion with the murderers to mention
Fleance? Is Fleance’s death less important to Macbeth’s plan? Why?
6. How does Lady Macbeth explain her husband’s strange behavior at the banquet? Do you
think her explanation reassures the guests/
7. What does the following line reveal about Macbeth’s reign?
“There’s not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant fee’d.”
8. Whom does Macbeth plan to see the next day, and why?
9. Scene v is generally thought to be a later addition by another playwright. Does this scene add
anything to the action of the play?
13
10. Why has Macduff gone to England?
LITERARY DEVICES
I.
Parallelism – In literature, parallelism refers to the use of similar or identical arrangements
of words, sentences, paragraphs, or ideas for emphasis. For example, compare these two
passages from scene ii:
LADY MACBETH:
MACBETH:
‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy.
How are these two passages parallel?
What fact does this use of parallelism emphasize?
II.
Metaphor – A metaphor is a figure of speech that imaginatively identifies one thing with
another in order to imply a comparison. For example:
There the grown serpent lies; the worm that’s fled
Hath nature in time will venom breed,
No teeth for th’ present.
With whom is the “grown serpent” identified?
With whom is “the worm” identified?
What reason does Macbeth have to fear the worm?
14
LITERARY ANALYSIS
Plot Structure – Crisis
The plot of the play is the planned series of events that occur during the course of the play to move it
to its conclusion. In the first few acts, a conflict is exposed and developed. The moment that this
conflict reaches the point of greatest suspense is called the crisis or turning point (the climax).
In Macbeth, as in most dramas of the time, the crisis occurs in the middle of the play – Act III.
Scholars agree that the crisis centers on the failure of Macbeth’s plans to do away with both Banquo
and his son, Fleance.
In what way does this crisis represent a turning point for Macbeth?
ACT IV
VOCABULARY
Use the words in the Word Box and the clues below to complete the crossword puzzle.
15
QUESTIONS
1. In scene i, one of the witches says, “Open locks, whoever knocks!” What other scene features
knocking? What are the parallels between the two scenes?
2. What is Macbeth’s reaction to the words of the second and third apparitions? Why doesn’t
he suspect a hidden meaning?
16
3. What effect does his meeting with the witches have on Macbeth?
4. What does Macbeth’s decision to kill Macduff’s wife and children reveal about his character?
In what way are these murders worse than those of Duncan and Banquo?
5. How does Lady Macduff’s conversation with her son reflect the unsettled conditions of the
kingdom? What is her state of mind at this time?
6. How does Malcolm feel about Macduff when he realizes that he left his wide and children
alone and unprotected in Scotland?
7. Why does Malcolm tell Macduff that he will be an even worse king than Macbeth?
8. How does Macduff prove to Malcolm that he is trustworthy?
17
9. How does Shakespeare reveal Macduff’s state of mind when he learns the fate of his family?
LITERARY DEVICES
I.
Dramatic Irony – Describe the dramatic irony contained in this line:
[Your wife and children] were well at peace when I did leave ‘em.
How does the pun on the word “peace” intensify the irony?
Locate other examples of dramatic irony in Act IV, scene vi:
II.
Foreshadowing – What do you think the first apparition foreshadows?
III.
Metaphor – What is the implied comparison in the following lines spoken by Malcolm to
Macduff after they learn of the murders of Macduff’s family?
Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
SPECIAL ACTIVITY: RECOGNIZING INTERPOLATION
An interpolation is the insertion of material by a writer into another writer’s work. The addition of
Hecate in Act III, scene v and Act IV, scene i is generally thought to be the work of Thomas
Middleton, a playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare’s, who wrote the song ‘Black Spirits”
mentioned in the stage directions. Since Macbeth was not printed until almost twenty years after its
first performance, it is impossible to know exactly when these lines were inserted into the play, but it
isn’t too difficult to determine which lines were not written by Shakespeare.
18
First review the information about meter in the Background Information that we looked at at the
beginning of this unit, paying particular attention to the difference between Macbeth’s use of iambic
pentameter and the witches’ use of trochaic tetrameter. Then read the following passage from Act IV,
scene i, and mark the stressed and unstressed syllables.
ALL
Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
WITCH 2
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
HECATE
O, well done! I commend your pains,
And every one shall share i’ th’ gains
And now about the cauldron sing
Like elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.
WITCH 2
MACBETH
35
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open locks,
Whoever knocks!
40
45
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags,
What is’t you do?
Which speech does not follow the expected verse pattern?
Now compare the description of the witches in lines 41-43 with that in lines 48-49. Which image is
not consistent with the rest of the play?
Based on your analysis, which lines were added by another writer?
ACT V
VOCABULARY
Analogies are equations in which the first pair of words has the same relationship as the second pair
of words. For example, PROWESS is to WARRIOR as TREACHERY is to TRAITOR. The first
19
word in each pair is a characteristic of the second. Choose the best word from the Word Box to
complete each of the following analogies.
WORD BOX
antidote
brandish
censure
clamorous
gentry
pristine
1. DISORDER : PERTURBATION :: PURE : _______________
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
FOOT SOLDIERS : OFFICERS :: SERVANTS : _______________
PEACE : TRANQUIL :: BATTLE : _______________
APOLOGY : ARGUMENT :: _______________ : AGUE
FOURISH : BANNER :: _______________ : WEAPON
VULNERABLE : SECURE :: _______________ : APPROVE
QUESTIONS
1. Why is scene i written almost entirely in prose? (You may need to refer back to the
Background Information to help you answer this question.)
2. What fear does the doctor express when he advises the gentlewoman to remove “the means of
all annoyance”?
3. What does Macbeth really mean in Act V, scene iii when he asks the doctor to cure his wife by
ministering to a “mind diseased”?
4. What does Malcolm mean when he comments in Act V, scene iv that “none serve with him
[Macbeth] but constrained things/ Whose hearts are absent too”?
20
5. In Act V, scene iv Macbeth learns hoe Birnam Wood will come to Dunsinane. How have the
witches and apparitions misled him? What is his reaction to the news?
6. What does Malcolm mean when he says, “We have met with foes/ That strike beside us”?
7. What echo of his former self is reflected in Macbeth’s final speech?
8. How does Malcolm’s first act as king sharply contrast with Macbeth’s actions once he became
king?
LITERARY DEVICES
I.
Symbolism – A symbol in literature is an object, person, or action that represents an idea or
set of ideas.
What might Lady Macbeth’s hand-washing activity symbolize?
What might the light that Lady Macbeth requires to fall asleep symbolize?
21
II.
Simile – A simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike objects are compared using the
words “like” or “as.” For example:
Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
What is being compared?
What are the several layers of meaning that this comparison conveys?
III.
Metaphor – What is the implied comparison in the following passage:
[Life] is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
What is the meaning of this passage?
LITERARY ELEMENTS
I.
Theme – Theme refers to the author’s message or the central ideas in a work of fiction.
How does this play convey the theme that power corrupts?
II.
Characterization – In Act I, Macbeth was referred to in glowing terms such as “brave
Macbeth,” “valor’s minion,” “valiant cousin,” “worthy gentleman,” “noble Macbeth,”
“worthiest cousin,” and “my worthy Cawdor”.
Record the references to Macbeth in Act V:
How does this indirect characterization reflect the change in Macbeth from Act I to Act V?
22
THEMES
A theme is the author’s message or the central ideas in a work of fiction. You already looked at
the theme that power corrupts. Identify and explain, in your own words, at least three
occurrences of each theme. Be sure to include the location of the theme reference in shorthand
(i.e., Act I, scene 4, lines 7-10: I.iv.7-10).
1. GUILT AND FEAR



2. THE EVIL OF HUMAN AMBITION



3. THE SUPERNATURAL



23
MOTIFS
A motif is a recurring element (such as a type of incident, a device, a reference, or a verbal formula)
that appears frequently throughout a work of literature. Identify and explain, in your own words, at
least three occurrences of each motif. Be sure to include the location of the motif in shorthand.
1. APPEARANCE VS. REALITY



2. HALLUCINATIONS



3. VIOLENCE



4. PROPHECY



24
25