Yang/Briggs- FNDN I
Unit Handout
Name ___________________________
Review of Key Passages from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
In preparation for your quote analysis for the finals period, be sure you understand each of the following passages—
how are they important to the play? What does each passage reveal about its speaker? Specifically, how does the
language of each passage reveal the speaker’s attitude and character, and build the mood and meaning of the play?
1.3.140-155
Macbeth
Aside.
Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme. – I thank you, gentlemen.
Aside.
This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.
1. What is an aside? What is a soliloquy?
2. What two truths have been told?
3. What do you think is “the swelling act of the imperial theme”?
4. (a) What are the signs in this soliloquy of Macbeth’s ambition?
(b) What is the decision that he now faces?
5. (a) Quote a line which suggests that Macbeth is attracted to the idea of becoming king.
(b) Quote a line which suggests that this idea disturbs him.
(c) Explain this apparent contradiction.
6. “and nothing is / But what is not”.
(a) What earlier image in the play does this line recall?
(b) Explain how appearances can be deceiving
7. Discuss the significance of the passage in relation to the play as a whole.
1.5.45-61
Lady Macbeth:
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! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry ‘Hold, hold!’
1. “The raven himself is hoarse / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / Under my battlements. How do we
know that Lady Macbeth will never allow Duncan to leave her castle alive?
2. In place of the feminine tenderness she forswears, what characteristic does Lady Macbeth demand?
3. Explain the meaning of “make thick my blood”.
4. What kind of emotional and moral change is Lady Macbeth asking for when she says: “Stop up the access
and passage to remorse, / That no compunctious visitings of nature / Shake my fell purpose…”?
5. Why does Lady Macbeth require the presence of “thick night”?
6. Explain the image that is created for the audience’s imagination in the last two lines of this passage.
7. Discuss the significance of the passage in relation to the play as a whole.
1.7.1-29
Macbeth:
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust;
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
And falls on the other –
1.
What pictures surface in Macbeth’s imagination which cause him to hesitate about murdering the king?
Which image do you think has the strongest effect on his attitude?
2.
Explain Macbeth’s contemplation of Duncan and his duties as a king.
3.
Explain the meaning of “he’s here in double trust”.
4.
Macbeth’s soliloquy reveals that he still possesses several redeemable qualities. What are they?
5.
What are the five insights that sway him towards sparing the king’s life?
6.
Consider the context of the phrase “the banks and shoal of time”, and the imagery surrounding it. How
would you interpret this phrase?
7.
Explain the effect of the images in lines 21 – 25.
8.
Explain the metaphor used in lines 25 – 28 from “I have no spur”.
9.
Discuss the significance of the passage in relation to the play as a whole.
2.1.44-77
Macbeth
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
[A bell rings.]
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
1. What image taunts Macbeth’s senses? Why is this appropriate?
2. Why does Macbeth call the image a “fatal vision”?
3. How does the vision change in appearance? What might this signify?
4. How does Macbeth perceive the night?
5. What does Macbeth’s procrastination about the assassination reveal about his character?
6. How does Macbeth convince himself to commit the murder?
7. Discuss the significance of the passage in relation to the play as a whole.
2.2.58-95
Lady Macbeth
Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brainsickly of things. Go get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hands.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.
Macbeth
I'll go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on't again I dare not.
Lady Macbeth
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their guilt.
[Exit. Knocking within.]
Macbeth
Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
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.
[Re-enter Lady Macbeth.]
Lady Macbeth
My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
1. How does Macbeth react when his wife orders him to return the daggers to the drugged grooms and to smear
them with blood?
2. Contrast Macbeth's attitude towards blood with that of Lady Macbeth.
3. Explain the meaning of “a heart so white”.
4. “A little water clears us of this deed. . . .” What does this tell us about Lady Macbeth's nature and feelings?
5. How does Lady Macbeth react to her husband's look of being lost 'so poorly' in his thoughts?
6. Discuss the significance of the passage in relation to the play as a whole.
5.1.26-59
Doctor
You see, her eyes are open.
Gentlewoman
Ay, but their sense is shut.
Doctor
What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.
Gentlewoman
It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus
washing her hands: I have known her continue in
this a quarter of an hour.
Lady Macbeth
Yet here's a spot.
Doctor
Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from
her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
Lady Macbeth
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.
Doctor
Do you mark that?
Lady Macbeth
The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? –
What, will these hands ne'er be clean? – No more o'
that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with
this starting.
Doctor
Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
Gentlewoman
She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of
that: heaven knows what she has known.
Lady Macbeth
Here's the smell of the blood still: all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh, oh, oh!
Doctor
What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.
I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the
dignity of the whole body.
1. “You see, her eyes are open.” “Ay, but their sense are shut.” Explain the meaning of these words.
2. Why is Lady Macbeth continually 'washing her hands'?
3. “Out, damned spot! out, I say!” What is preying on Lady Macbeth's mind here?
4. What change in her attitude to the murder of Duncan is revealed by Lady Macbeth's remark about “the old
man”?
5. How do the doctor and the gentlewoman react to Lady Macbeth's compulsive rubbing of her hands?
6. “Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” Of what
earlier utterance by her husband does this remind you?
7. How do we know that the gentlewoman has grasped the enormity of Lady Macbeth’s crimes?
8. Discuss the significance of the passage in relation to the play as a whole.
5.5.22-31
Macbeth:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
1. (a) When does Macbeth speak these lines?
(b) What is the effect of the repetition of “tomorrow”?
(c) What other words are repeated in the first two lines?
(d) What is the total effect of the repetition?
2. Comment on the use of the word “creeps”.
3. What does “petty pace” mean here? What is the effect of the alliteration?
4. (a) What earlier word has already suggested “candle”?
(b) Explain the use of the metaphor “Out, out brief candle”.
5. Identify the language devices used and explain what Macbeth means by each:
(a) “Life’s but a walking shadow”
(b) “It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / Signifying nothing.”
6. How is the idea of death extended and given additional weight in this soliloquy?
7. Discuss the significance of the passage in relation to the play as a whole.
Writing Requirements:
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Thesis that argues how Shakespeare’s techniques reveals the speaker’s attitude in the passage and
builds meaning in the play.
Context identifying the speaker and the situation (What’s happening in the passage? Who’s
speaking and why?).
Evidence smoothly integrated into clear, well-developed analysis that proves your thesis. Use 2
pieces of evidence and employ proper MLA citation : Act.scene.line or (3.2.43-56).
Analysis that explains how Shakespeare’s techniques are effective in revealing the speaker’s
attitude and building the meaning of the play
Conclusion that draws attention back to the main purpose of the paragraph and leaves the reader
with a larger understanding of the play’s meaning
Requirements: At least 7-12 sentences, typed and double-spaced (MLA format), 12 pt. font.