MACBETH ACT I
TAKE HOME TEST
I. Reading Comprehension
1. Who was almost taken captive during the battle? Why is this important to King Duncan?
2. What two countries are mentioned as fighting against Duncan’s kingship?
3. In what country does Macbeth take place?
4. How much money did Duncan receive as a peace offering from the invading country?
5. Why does Banquo wonder whether the witches are even women?
6. List the three titles that the witches use to greet Macbeth.
7. List the three paradoxical prophecies that the witches tell Banquo.
8. What happens when Macbeth demands even more information from the witches? Why is this
significant?
9. What is the name of Duncan’s castle? What does it symbolize? What is the name of Macbeth’s
castle? What does it symbolize?
10. To where does Duncan travel at the end of Act 1? Why is this important, and to what literary
element does this event relate?
11. Explain four of the five reasons Macbeth provides as to why he should not murder Duncan
II. Analysis
12. How does Macbeth react to the witches’ prophecies? List all stages of his reaction.
13. Explain Banquo’s reaction to the witches’ prophecies for Macbeth.
14. Explain how Banquo’s and Macbeth’s reactions to the witches’ prophecies juxtapose each other.
15. Explain two examples of the “order vs. disorder” motif in Act 1.
16. Explain two examples of the “power of evil” motif in Act 1.
17. Explain two examples of the “appearance vs. reality” motif in Act 1.
18. Explain the difference in how Lady Macbeth and Duncan view Forres. Why is this significant?
19. Define “paradox”.
20. Explain what a witch’s “familiar” is.
21. Explain the significance of the fact that Banquo knows of the prophecies given to Macbeth.
22. Explain the significance of the first information we learn about Macbeth as he fought in the battle
(1:2).
23. Explain the main technique that Lady Macbeth uses to persuade her husband to murder Duncan.
24. Explain the character of King Duncan. How will these characteristics lead to his downfall?
25. Explain the role of the Three Witches – what purpose do they serve? How powerful are they
during Act I? Why are the Three Witches written this way?
III. Significant Quotations
a. Identify the Speaker
b. Explain the quotation’s significance (what does this quotation show about
conflict, motif, characterization, foreshadowing, plot, etc…?)
26. “The Prince of Cumblerland! / That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap / For in my
way it lies. Stars, hid your fires! / Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
27. “I have given suck, and know / How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me. / I would, while it
was smiling in my face, / Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums / And dashed the brains out,
had I so sworn as you / Have done to this.”
28. “No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive / Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death
/ And with his former title greet Macbeth.”
29. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air”
30. “Such a fair and foul day I have not seen.”
31. “Your face is a book where men may read strange matters…”
32. “This horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs…murder is yet
fantastical…it shakes so my single state…”
33. “…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…”
34. “There’s no art / To find the mind’s construction in the face. / He was a gentleman on whom I built
/ An absolute trust.”
35. “This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air / Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself / Unto our gentle
senses.”
36. “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps
itself / And falls on the other.”
37. “I am settled, and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat…False face must hide what the
false heart doth know.”
38. “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.” / “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of
Cawdor.” / “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”
39. “Come you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me Of direst cruelty.
Make thick my blood, Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visiting of
nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th’ effect and it.”
40. “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place…”
41. “Two truths are told as happy prologues to the swelling act of the imperial theme.”
42. “He’s that coming must be provided for: and you shall put this night’s great business into my
dispatch…”