Download Macbeth Guided Reading Questions: Act II Describe the vision that

Macbeth Guided Reading Questions: Act II
1. Describe the vision that Macbeth has at the end of Scene I. What details foreshadow the
action to come?
2. In Scene II, as Macbeth kills Duncan, what does Lady Macbeth hear?
What does Macbeth hear?
3. Why, according to Lady Macbeth, was she unable to kill Duncan herself?
4. In Scene II, Lady Macbeth sensibly suggests that Macbeth go was the “filthy witness”
from his hands after the murder. How does Macbeth respond?
5. In Scene III, what is the porter pretending as he goes to open the gate?
6. In Scene III, when Duncan’s Corpse is discovered, Macbeth utters a hypocritical lament
beginning, “Had I but died…” but is it really hypocritical? The critic A.C. Bradley
argued that, although the speech is meant to be a lie, it actually contains “Macbeth’s
profoundest feelings.” Explain this apparent contraction. How does Macbeth feel about
having murdered Duncan? What clues tell you how he feels?
7. Why has Macduff come?
8. What reason does Macbeth give for killing Duncan’s two guards?
9. Malcolm and Donalbain are little more than boys, yet they already know enough about
life to keep their mouths shut. What is in their minds, but left unsaid? How do they hint
about it to each other?
10. Where do Duncan’s sons decide to go?
11. In Scene IV, whom does Macduff suspect of Duncan’s murder?
12. Macduff is an important character in the three remaining acts. Describe how Shakespeare
characterizes Macduff in Scenes III and IV.
13. What would you say is the mood of Act II? What images and actions help to create this
mood?