Shakespeare Exam Study Guide
MACBETH Act by Act Study Questions
ACT 1
1. What do the witches predict in Act I, Scene 3 for Macbeth? For Banquo?
Macbeth
Banquo
2. What news does Ross bring Macbeth?
3. Banquo, like Macbeth, is surprised that the witches have predicted Macbeth’s new title. He is, however, leery. What does he say about the motives of the “instruments of darkness” ?
4. Macbeth says, “Stars, hide your fires. Let not light see my black and deep desires.” What are Macbeth’s desires?
5. After Lady Macbeth reads the letter, what does she tell us is her opinion of Macbeth, and how does she plan to help him?
6. What are Macbeth’s arguments to himself against killing Duncan ?
7. What arguments does Lady Macbeth use to convince Macbeth to commit the murder?
ACT 2
1. What is the signal Lady Macbeth is to give Macbeth to let him know that she has taken care of the guards (grooms) ?
2. What excuse does Lady Macbeth give for not killing Duncan herself?
3. Why won’t Macbeth take the daggers back to the scene of the crime?
4. Who was knocking?
5. What three things does drinking provoke?
6. What excuse or explanation does Macbeth give for killing the guards (grooms)? What is his real reason?
7. Why do Malcolm and Donalbain leave?
8. Why does Ross not believe Malcolm and Donalbain were responsible for Duncan ’s death?
ACT 3
1. Why does Macbeth want Banquo and Fleance dead?
2. What is Macbeth’s plan for killing Banquo and Feance? Does it work?
3. Who (what) does Macbeth see at the banquet table?
6. How does Lady Macbeth cover for Macbeth at the banquet? What excuses does she give for Macbeth’s wild talk?
7. Who else is missing from the banquet table, besides Banquo?
8. What does Hecate want the witches to do?
ACT 4
1. Witch 2 says “By the pricking of my thumb, Something wicked this way comes.” Who arrives?
2. What is Macbeth’s attitude towards the witches this time?
3. What 4 things do the witches show Macbeth? What does each show/say? What is Macbeth’s reaction?
a.
b.
c.
d.
4. Macbeth says (about the witches), “Infected be the air wheron they ride, And damned all those that trust them!” What is Macbeth, in effect, saying about himself?
5. Where is Macduff? Why isn’t he with his family?
6. What is Lady Macduff’s attitude at the moment about her husband Macduff?
7. Why does Macbeth have Macduff’s family and servants killed?
8. Why is Malcolm in England ?
9. Why does Macduff travel to England ?
10. Why and how does Malcolm test Macduff?
11. What news does Ross bring to Macduff?
12. What does Malcolm tell Macduff to do with his grief?
13. What does Malcolm resolve to do by the end of Act 4
ACT 5
1. What do the doctor and the gentlewoman sees Lady Macbeth doing? What do they decide to do?
2. What does Macbeth want the doctor to do for his wife?
3. What trick does Malcolm use to hide the number of men in his army?
4. What does Malcolm explain about the state of Macbeth’s armies?
5. What is Macbeth’s reaction to Lady Macbeth’s death?
6. What is Macbeth’s reaction to the news that Birnam Wood is moving?
7. Who first fights Macbeth? What happens?
8. Why is it important that Young Siward died with wounds to the front chest?
9. What excuse does Macbeth give Macduff for not wanting to fight him?
10. When does Macbeth know he is in trouble?
11. How does Macbeth die?
12. Who will be the new king of Scotland ?
Midsummer Night’s Dream Act by Act Study Questions
ACT 1
1. What event are we waiting for as the play begins?
2.What complaint does Egeus bring before Theseus?
3. What, according to the law, will happen to Hermia if she refuses the marriage to Demetrius? Why is she willing to take the risk?
4. What has been said against Demetrius, the man Egeus wants Hermia to marry? Other than that, how much difference is there between the two young men?
5.What do Hermia and Lysander plan to do? Where do they intend to go, and why will they be safe there? To whom do they tell their plans? Why?
6. The actors are the "rude mechanicals" (3.2.9) who want to perform a play for Theseus's marriage. What is the subject of their play?
7. Which actor is going to cause Peter Quince the most problems?
8. When and where will they all meet to rehearse? Why can't they rehearse in town?
ACT 2
1. Why, according to Puck, are Oberon and Titania fighting?
2.Who is Puck/Robin Goodfellow? What sorts of things does he do, both according to the fairy he meets and according to himself?
4. What effect is the fairies’ dispute having on the weather?
5.What does Oberon intend to do with the pansy juice (love-in-idleness is the pansy)?
6. What does Oberon tell Puck to do while Oberon goes to anoint Titania's eyes with the pansy juice?
7. What does Shakespeare do in the language of the fairies (as in Titania's speech 2.2.1-7) to make us feel that the fairies are tiny, even if they are actually played by normal-sized children?
8. Notice that once Titania falls asleep, she remains on stage until she awakens. All the intervening action takes place around her. (Of course, she's probably not in the middle of the stage.) What effect might her presence have on other action?
3.How successful are Lysander and Hermia in getting to Lysander's aunt? Why don't they sleep close to each other?
4.What mistake does Puck make when he finds Lysander and Hermia, especially since they are sleeping far apart? Is the mistake his fault?
5.Demetrius and Helena enter, but Helena is too tired to follow when Demetrius leaves. What happens when Lysander wakes up and sees her?
ACT 3
1.What problems do Bottom and the others find with the play? How do they intend to solve those problems and meet what they consider to be the expectations of their audience?
2.Who comes to watch the play?
3.What happens to Bottom when he goes "backstage"? What reaction does he get from the others?
4.Bottom sings to prove he is not afraid. What does his singing cause?
5.Where does Titania take Bottom? What might we assume happens there?
6. As Demetrius woos Hermia, what does Hermia fear he has done to Lysander?
7. How does Puck expect to solve the problem once Demetrius sleeps? What happens instead?
8. What does Helena, still thinking they are all ganging up on her, say about the childhoods of the women?
9. From various descriptions in the arguments in 3.2, what can you say about the relative sizes and coloring of Helena and Hermia?
10. What two things does Puck do, on Oberon's orders, to keep Demetrius and Lysander from fighting?
11. What is Puck's attitude toward all the commotion he’s caused?
ACT 4
1. Is Bottom as an ass any different than Bottom as a man (except, of course, for his ass's head)? In what humorous ways is he obviously an ass?
2.What has happened to the changeling child?
3.Once her vision has been cleared, what is Titania's response to Bottom?
4. What happens now to Egeus's complaint against Hermia? How does Demetrius explain the return of his love to Helena?
5. The last sleeper to awake is, of course, Bottom. How does he describe his experience?
6. Why are the other actors so happy to see Bottom return?
ACT 5
1.The play of Pyramus and Thisbe is, of course, a mess. How do Theseus and Hippolyta respond to it? What is most funny about the play? How does it relate to the play by Shakespeare that we are watching or reading?
2. What is the function and effect of the fairies' blessing of the house? Why does it appear at the end of the play?
Epi. 1.
How does Puck, in his Epilogue, turn the ideas of the play back onto the audience?
Quotes – Who said it, who is he/she speaking to, what’s that context, and how is it important to the major themes
Macbeth
1. Lady Macbeth, ACT 1 “The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty.”
2. Macduff, Act 2 “Oh, gentle lady, ‘Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition in a woman’s ear, Would murder as it fell.” What is ironic about this?
3. Macbeth, Act 3 “The worm that’s fled Hath nature that in time will venom breed, No teeth for the present.” What does that mean?
4. Macbeth, Act 3 “I am in blood Stepped in so far that should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” What does he mean?
5. Lady Macbeth, Act 5“Out, damned spot; out, I say. One, two,—why, then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”
Midsummer
1. Lysander, Act 1 “Ay me, for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth. . . .”
2. Helena, Act 1
“Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so.
He will not know what all but he do know.
And as he errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.
Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
3. Puck, Act 3 “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
4. Bottom, Act 4 “I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this dream. Methought I was—there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had—but man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall be called ‘Bottom’s Dream’, because it hath no bottom.”
5. Puck, Epilogue
“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here,
While these visions did appear;
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend.”
Short Answer
Macbeth
- Characterize the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. If the main theme of Macbeth is ambition, whose ambition is the driving force of the play—Macbeth’s, Lady Macbeth’s, or both?
- One of the important themes in Macbeth is the idea of political legitimacy, of the moral authority that some kings possess and others lack. With particular attention to Malcolm’s questioning of Macduff in Act 4, scene 3, try to define some of the characteristics that grant or invalidate the moral legitimacy of absolute power. What makes Duncan a good king? What makes Macbeth a tyrant?
- An important theme in Macbeth is the relationship between gender and power, particularly Shakespeare’s exploration of the values that make up the idea of masculinity. What are these values, and how do various characters embody them? How does Shakespeare subvert his characters’ perception of gender roles?
4. What reasons can you think of as to why Macbeth is first introduced to us through the witches?
5. Explain what you think is meant by the paradoxical:
Fair is foul, foul is fair .
6. What does Macduff's decision not to attend the coronation suggest about his attitude to Macbeth?
7. In what ways do each of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth show that the crown has not brought peace of mind?
- How is symbolism important in this play? Cite 2 symbols as evidence.
Midsummer
1. How does the opening scene introduce the entire play?
2. Explain each of the three worlds in the play and how they are related.
3. Explain how the dream-like quality of the play is developed.
4. There are two distinct settings in the play. What are they and how is each used and developed effectively by Shakespeare?
5. How is irony and humor developed in the play?
6. The conflict in the play is not traditional conflict. Explain what the conflict is and how it is developed.
Essay:
Choose One
1. Is Macbeth a moral play? Is justice served at the end of the play? Defend your answer.
2. Discuss Shakespeare’s use of the technique of elision in Macbeth, in which certain key events take place offstage. Why do you think he uses this technique?
- Is Macbeth a tragic hero? Why or why not?
- Though Bottom often steals the show in performance, Puck is usually considered the most important character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Comparing Puck to Bottom, why might Puck be considered the protagonist? In what way does Puck’s spirit dominate the mood of the play? In what ways does the comedy surrounding Puck differ from that surrounding Bottom?
- Discuss the role of the play-within-a-play in Act V of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Does the Pyramus and Thisbe story have any relevance to the main story, or is it simply a comical interlude? What effect does the craftsmen’s production of their play have on the tone of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a whole?
- It has been argued that the characters of the Athenian lovers are not particularly differentiated from one another—that Hermia is quite like Helena (even down to her name) and that Demetrius resembles Lysander. Do you think that this is the case, or do you think that the lovers emerge as individuals? If you believe that these characters are quite similar to one another, what do you think Shakespeare’s intent was in making them so?
Sonnets
You need to be able to:
1. Summarize in 4 sentences. (1 sentence per stanza)
2. Identify each transition
3. Identify the metaphor or simile
4. Identify 2 other literary devices and explain their effects
5. Explain the theme
6. Explain the tone