Macbeth Act 2 Study Guide
Name____________________________________________________________Period______
Part I: Quotation Identification Practice. Guess the speaker of each quote, then check your answers.
Choose: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, Macduff, Malcolm, Donalbain, Ross
Scene 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
I dreamt last night of the three Weird sisters. / To you they have showed
some truth. (2.1.25-26)
Is this a dagger which I see before me, / the handle toward my hand?
(2.1.44.45)
Art thou but / a dagger of the mind, a false creation / proceeding from the
heat-oppressed brain? (2.1.49-51)
The bell invites me. / Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell / that summons
thee to heaven or to hell. (2.1.75-77)
Scene 2
5.
That which hath made them drunk hath made me / bold. / What hath
quenched them, hath given me fire. (2.2.1-3)
6.
Had he not resembled / my father as he slept, I had done ’t. (2.2.16-17)
7.
I have done the deed. (2.2.19)
8.
9.
But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”? / I had most need of blessing,
and “amen” / stuck in my throat. (2.2.42-44)
These deeds must not be thought / after these ways; so, it will make us mad.
(2.2.45-46).
10.
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. (2.2.78-81)
11.
A little water clears us of this deed. / How easy it is, then! (2.2.86-87)
12.
To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself. / Wake Duncan with thy
knocking. I would thou / couldst. (2.2.93-95)
Scene 3
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Oh horror, horror, horror! /… Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. /
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope / the Lord’s anointed temple and
stole thence / the life o’ th’ building. (2.3.73-79)
O gentle lady, / ‘tis not for you to hear what I can speak. / The repetition in a
woman’s ear / would murder as it fell. (2.3.96-99)
O, yet I do repent me of my fury, / that I did kill them. (2.3.124-125)
(Also, who is “them”?)
Let’s away. Our tears are not yet brewed. (2.3.145)
Let’s not consort with them. / To show an unfelt sorrow is an office / which
the false man does easy. (2.3.160-163)
Where we are, / there’s daggers in men’s smiles. The near in blood, / the
nearer bloody. (2.3.164-166)
Scene 4
19.
Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, / threatens his bloody
stage. (2.4.7-8)
20.
Then ‘tis most like / the sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. (2.4.41-42)
Page 1 of 2
Macbeth Act 2 Study Guide
Part II: Quotation and Plot Analysis Answer each question thoroughly. Make sure to use
specific details and examples.
21. Explain how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth each respond to the blood on their hands
differently. What does this reveal about each of them?
22. Why do Donalbain and Malcom flee after Duncan’s murder? Why does Macduff think they
left?
23. What does quote #6 reveal about the character who said it? “Had he not resembled my
father as he slept, I had done ’t.”
24. Why is quote #14 ironic? “O gentle lady, ‘tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The
repetition in a woman’s ear would murder as it fell.”
25. Explain quote # 19. “Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, threatens his
bloody stage.” How are the heavens troubled (what is the evidence)? Why are the heavens
troubled?
Page 2 of 2