MACBETH STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
Act I
1. What is the point of the first scene literally and in reference to the whole play?______
______
What figurative element is “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”?______
2. Explain the Captain’s remark, “So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come/Discomfort
swells.”______
______
3. What does Duncan call Macbeth when he hears Macbeth has defeated Macdonwald?______
4. Who is “Bellona’s bridegroom”?______What literary element is used?______
5. Who is Sweno?______
6. Who is sentenced to death?______What does Duncan decide?______
______
7. What do the witches predict in I.iii for Macbeth?______
For Banquo?______
8. Who is Sinel?______
9. List two more references to foul and fair.
a.______
b.______
10. What news does Ross bring Macbeth?______
11. Who says, “Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?” Why?______
______
12. 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"? ______
______
13. What does Macbeth mean when he says , “This supernatural soliciting/Cannot be ill, cannot be
good.”?
“Cannot be ill”because______
“Cannot be good” because______
14. What does Macbeth mean when he says, ”If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir.”?
______
______
15. Malcolm describes Cawdor's last moments before execution. What is Duncan's reply?______
______
16. Macbeth says, "Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires." What are
Macbeth's desires? ______
______
17. After Lady Macbeth reads the letter, what does she tell us is her opinion of Macbeth, and how does
she plan to help him?______
______
18. What is Lady Macbeth's "prayer" to the spirits after she learns Duncan is coming?______
______
19. What advice does Lady Macbeth give Macbeth when he arrives home?______
______
20. List three examples of irony in Act 1, sc. vi:
a.______
b.______
c.______
21. What are Macbeth's arguments to himself against killing Duncan? (Soliloquy-Act 1, sc.vii)
a.______b.______
c.______d.______
22. What is meant by “double trust”?______
23. What tragic flaw is revealed in Macbeth’s soliloquy?______
24. What arguments does Lady Macbeth use to convince Macbeth to commit the murder?
a. ______
b.______
c.______
25. What is Lady Macbeth's plan?______
______
26. What other quote parallels “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”?______
______
Act II
1. What gift did King Duncan give to Lady Macbeth?______
2. What is Macbeth's lie to Banquo about the witches' predictions?______
______
3. During his soliloquy, Macbeth thinks he sees ______
4. What is Lady Macbeth’s signal to Macbeth?______He calls the signal a______
How come?______
5. What excuse does Lady Macbeth give for not killing Duncan herself?______
______
6. After Macbeth kills Duncan, he goes to Lady Macbeth and is concerned about not being able to say
"Amen." What is her advice to him?______
______
7. Then, Macbeth is worried about hearing a voice saying, "Macbeth does murdersleep." What does Lady
Macbeth tell him to do?______
______
8. What does Macbeth mean when he asks, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from
myhand?”______
______
9. What does Lady Macbeth say about water?______
10. Who was knocking?______
11. The porter thinks he is at ______
12. How does Lennox describe the night, and what is Macbeth's response?______
______
13. What did Macduff discover?______
14. What is “death’s counterfeit ”?______
15. Macduff says, "Oh, gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. Therepetition, in a woman's
ear, Would murder as it fell." What is ironic about this statement?______
______
16. Macbeth says, “The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood is stopped; the very source of it is
stopped.” Who is the “fountain”? ______What figurative element is used?______
17. What excuse or explanation did Macbeth give for killing the guards (grooms)? What is his real
reason?______
18. Why do Malcolm and Donalbain leave?______
Malcolm flees to______Donalbain to______
19. Who says, ”There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood, The nearer bloody.”______
What does the quotation mean?______
What figurative element is “dagger”?______
20. Why does Ross not believe Malcolm and Donalbain were responsible for Duncan's murder?______
______
21. What is Scone?______
Act III
1. Who says, “…and I fear /Thou play’dst most foully for ‘t.”?______What is “’t” (it)?
______
2. What are Macbeth’s fears concerning Banquo?
a.______b.______
What are Macbeth’s resentments?
a.______b.______
3. What is Macbeth's plan for killing Banquo and Fleance?______
______
Does it work?______Why/Why not?______
4. Macbeth says, “We have scorched (scotched) the snake, not killed it” Who is the snake?______
What does the quotation mean?______
5. The quotation “And make our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are” is similar to what
other quotations?______
______
6. Whose mind is “full of scorpions”?______What are the “scorpions”?______
7. Macbeth says, "The worm that's fled/Hath nature that in time will venom breed, Noteeth for the
present." What does that mean?______
______
8. Whose “gory locks” are shaking at Macbeth?______
9. What literary element is used when Macbeth says at the banquet, “And to our dear friend Banquo,
whom we miss;/Would he were here!”?______
10. How does Lady Macbeth cover for Macbeth at the banquet? What excuses does she give for his wild
talk?______
______
11. Who else was missing from the banquet table (besides Banquo)?______
12. Macbeth says, "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?______
______
13. What does Hecate want the witches to do?______
______
14. What does Lennox think about Macbeth, Fleance, and Duncan's sons?______
______
Act IV
1. Witch 2 says, "By the pricking of my thumbs,/ Something wicked this way comes." Who comes?_____
2. What is Macbeth's attitude towards the witches this time?______
3. What four things did the witches show Macbeth? What does each show/say? What is Macbeth's
reaction?
a.______
b.______
c.______
d.______
4. What does Macbeth mean when he says, “But yet I’ll make assurance double sure,/And take a bond of
fate.”?______
5. Macbeth says (about the witches), "Infected be the air whereon they ride, Anddamned all those that
trust them!" What is Macbeth, in effect, saying about himself?______
6. Where is Macduff?______
7. Why does Macbeth have Macduff’'s family and servants killed?______
8. Why does Lady Macduff's son say “liars and swearersare fools”?______
______
9. Malcolm says, "Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. Though all things foul would wear the
brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so." What does that mean?______
______
10. Macduff says, "Oh, Scotland, Scotland!" Why?______
11. What news does Ross bring to Macduff?______
12. Who has no children?______Who says, “All my pretty ones?/ Did you say all? O hell-kite!
All?/ What, all my pretty chickens and their dam/ At one fell swoop?”____________
What are the “pretty chickens”?______
What figurative element is used?______
Act V
1. What do the doctor and gentlewoman see Lady Macbeth doing/saying?
a.______b.______
c.______d.______
What do they decide to do about it?______
2. What does Macbeth say about his life in this Act?______
3. What does Macbeth want the doctor to do for his wife?______
4. What trick does Malcolm use to hide the number of men in his army?______
What does this trick imply? ______
5. Malcolm says, "And none serve with him but constrained things Whose hearts areabsent, too." What
does this quotation mean?______
______
6. What is Macbeth's reaction to Lady Macbeth's death?______
7. List the four metaphors for life in Macbeth’s famous soliloquy, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and …”
a.______b.______
c.______d.______
8. What is Macbeth's reaction to the news that Birnam Wood is moving?______
______
9. Who first fights Macbeth? What happens?______
10. Macbeth says to Macduff, "But get thee back! My soul is too much charged/ Withblood of thine
already." To what is he referring?______
______
11. When does Macbeth recognize that he is about to suffer a downfall?______
______
12. Who are the “juggling fiends” that Macbeth says should not be believed?______
13. What happens to Macbeth at the end of Act V ? ______
14. Explain the irony when Macduff re-enters the scene at the end of Act V.______
______
15. Who will be King of Scotland?______
16. What are Malcolm’s plans ?______