Macbeth Exam
Questions
2009
1.
(a) Describe what happens when
Macbeth and Banquo first meet the
witches in the early part of the play. (10)
Candidates are asked to recall the
events/happenings at the
encounter….the witches’
appearance…shock…prophesies
directed towards Macbeth and
Banquo…their responses… the
disappearance of the witches etc.
Sample Answer
When Macbeth and Banquo come across the witches or
‘weird sisters’ Banquo is immediately shocked by their
appearance as they have beards and they don’t look
human. Macbeth is curious and commands them to speak.
The witches greet Macbeth three times as Thane of Glamis,
Thane of Cawdor and ‘king hereafter’. Macbeth is almost
hypnotised by this news and he cannot take his eyes off
them. Banquo says he looks like he is in a trance. It is as if
Macbeth is already under their spell, whereas Banquo is
suspicious and warns Macbeth against the dangers of
trusting witches or ‘instruments of darkness’.
When Banquo asks them to predict his future, they say he
will ‘get kings’ but he will never be a king. This is very
important information, which will obsess Macbeth later in
the play.
Macbeth orders the witches to stay and tell him more. He
wants them to explain the prophecy. He thinks the Thane of
Cawdor is still alive, so he cannot be called Cawdor. At this
point, the witches vanish mysteriously.
(b) Did you feel sympathy for Lady Macbeth at any time
during the play? Give reasons for your answer, based on
your knowledge of the text. (10)
I did not feel much sympathy for Lady Macbeth until the sleep-walking scene
when we saw how troubled and isolated she had become. Once Macbeth
became king, he had less need of her and she became very isolated as
their marriage started to break down.
In the sleep-walking scene, we see that Lady Macbeth was not as tough
as she seemed at the beginning. When Macbeth killed Duncan, he could
talk to Lady Macbeth and she could counsel him. However, she had noone to turn to, so when Macbeth started making decisions without her and
excluding her from his plans, she could not cope.
When we see Lady Macbeth sleep-walking, we see a tortured soul. A
woman who used to be fearless and strong is now afraid of the dark,
insisting that she has light by her all the time. I thought she was very sad
and pathetic when she kept trying to wash the imagined blood off her
hands. This showed she could never wash away the guilt and the horror of
what Macbeth had done with her help.
Her words reveal that her mind is tortured with memories; she is living in
a hell of the mind. The doctor can do nothing for her and she has lost her
mind and her marriage.
In conclusion, I felt sympathy for Lady Macbeth because this scene
showed a broken, doomed human being.
2009
(c) From the following statements, choose one
which in, your opinion, best describes what the
play is about. Give reasons for your choice.
- It is a play about power
- It is a play about evil
- It is a play about love (10)
Power – personal and political, etc.
Evil – Witches, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, etc.
Love – Love of country, Macbeth & Lady Macbeth,
Macduff and family, etc.
Candidates will choose one of the options. In
explaining their choice they will refer to the text
to assist them in making their case etc.
‘It is a play about evil’
I choose the above statement because the play’s atmosphere is dominated by
evil and darkness.
The witches play a huge part in this atmosphere of evil. Their spells and rhymes
are full of images of evil and horror. In the Apparitions scene, the imagery of
their spell is grotesque, as they add ‘liver of blaspheming Jew... finger of birthstrangled babe’ and ‘baboon’s blood’ to the cauldron. These images create a
disturbing, evil atmosphere.
As well as using the language of evil, the witches have a strong connection with
all the bad things that happen in the play. They don’t make Macbeth do evil, but
they control nature, causing storms and making the stars disappear. Duncan’s
horses eat themselves and we see that the universe is becoming an evil and
unnatural place.
Macbeth is the hero of the play and while he starts out as a great man, his
actions are unspeakably evil. When he kills the king, Duncan, he kills God’s
representative on earth, and this shows that he is capable of anything. Once he
has done this, there is no stopping him and he has turned into a brutal killing
machine.
The play shows evil as an infectious disease, which takes over and destroys. He
quickly hires assassins to kill Banquo and Fleance. When Macbeth orders the
deaths of Macduff’s wife, children and everyone in his castle, we see that his
evil knows no limits. This is another reason why I think the play is about evil,
because it shows evil as something which is almost impossible to contain and
which can destroy a whole society. The play deals with power and love, but evil is
a much stronger force than these in ‘Macbeth’.
Why is Macbeth still a popular play?
‘Macbeth’ continues to be a very popular play today for a number of reasons - action
and excitement, horror, the supernatural, a classic battle between good and evil,
and fascinating characters.
Modern audiences today have an appetite for violence and suspense. We are less
shocked by assassinations and treason, so when Macbeth kills Duncan we can’t
wait to find out what happens next. There is lots of suspense as we wonder if
Macbeth will get away with it. This makes it very like a crime drama. Audiences
also love seeing Macbeth fighting his enemies at the end, especially the final
showdown with Macduff.
The imagery of the play is full of horror, particularly whenever the witches are
around. In modern films, we see horror and brutality all the time, but with
‘Macbeth’ we have to imagine a lot of it ourselves and sometimes this is more
compelling than a ‘blood and guts’ type of film. Stories about the supernatural
never go out of fashion and the supernatural element really adds to our enjoyment
of the play.
The characters in this play are intriguing because Shakespeare had such a modern
understanding of human psychology. There will always be people who are overambitious, greedy, obsessed with power, violent, ruthless. There will be others, like
Banquo, who can resist temptation and keep evil at a distance. And then there are
those who crack under pressure and never recover from trauma - Lady Macbeth.
Amidst so much evil and corruption, some individuals will be brave and heroic, like
Macduff. These are all characters, which continue to fascinate audiences today.
The battle of good against evil is all the more rewarding when good triumphs over
evil and this is what we get when Macduff kills Macbeth, getting revenge for his
family, and saving Scotland from a tyrant. For all of the above reasons, ‘Macbeth’ is
a thrilling play, which deserves its popularity among modern audiences today.