Macbeth review
1. Who is the Thane of Fife?
2. Who is Donalbain?
3. Who is the Prince of Cumberland?
4. Who is Hecate?
5. Who is Fleance?
6. Describe the first apparition.
7. Why is Macduff able to kill Macbeth?
8. Give one of the mysteries of Macbeth.
9. Give another.
10. Explain why Lady Macduff is angry at Macduff.
11. Give one of the recurring images or themes of Macbeth.
12. Give another.
13. Give another.
14. What is the significance of Dunsinane?
15. What is the significance of Inverness?
16. What is the significance of Forres?
17. How do the witches intend to deceive Macbeth?
18. Who is symbolized by the third apparition, the crowned child carrying a tree?
19. Give an example of Lady Macbeth’s fierceness.
20. Give proof that Macbeth has changed by the end of this play.
21. Who said it? “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be/ What thou art promised.
Yet I do fear thy nature;/ It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness/ To catch the
nearest way.”
22. “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!”
23. “Thou hast it now-- King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,/ As the weird women promised; and
I fear/ Thou play’dst most foully for’t.”
24. “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as
tedious as go o’er.”
25. “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.”
26. “Infirm of purpose!/ Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead/ Are but as
pictures.”
27. “My hands are of your color; but I shame/ To wear a heart so white..../ Retire we to
our chamber./ A little water clears us of this deed;/ How easy is it then!”
28. “I’ll to Fife.... Well, may you see things well done there. Adieu!/ Lest our old robes
sit easier than our new!”
29. “He has no children.-- All my pretty ones?/ Did you say all?-- O hell-kite!-- All?/
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam/ At one fell swoop?”
30. “From this moment/ the very firstlings of my heart shall be/ The firstlings of my
hand.”
31. “By the pricking of my thumbs,/ Something wicked this way comes.”
32. “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 afeared? What need we fear who knows it, when none
can call our power to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have so
much blood in him?”
32. “I have lived long enough. My way of life/ Is fallen into the sere, the yellow leaf;/
And that which should accompany old age..../ I must not look to have.”
33. “Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this
little hand. Oh! oh! oh!”
34. “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.”
35.“No more the Thane of Cawdor shall deceive/ Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his
present death,/ And with his former title greet Macbeth.”
36. “Oftentimes, to win us to our harm,/ The instruments of Darkness tell us truths.”
37. “If it were done when ‘tis done,/ then ‘twere well it were done quickly.”
38. “We fail?/ But screw your courage to the sticking place/ And we’ll not fail.”
39. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me/ Without my stir.”
40.“Away, and mock the time with fairest show:/ False face must hide what the false
heart doth know.”
41. “Fair is foul and foul is fair./ Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
42. “The Prince of Cumberland? That is a step/ On which I must fall down, or else
o’erleap.”
43. 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.
44. I laid their daggers ready--/ He could not miss ‘em. Had he not resembled/
My father as he slept, I had done’t.
45. A little water clears us of this deed;/ How easy is it, then!
46. 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.
47. What is the purpose of the porter’s scene?
48. What is the final question that Macbeth asks the three witches?
49. Why doesn’t the play end at the moment Macbeth is killed?
50. Who is Siward?
51. Describe the second apparition.
52. Who is symbolized by the second apparition?
53. Why might Shakespeare have included the digression about English King Edward
having the ability to heal the sick?
54. Give an example of dramatic irony in this play.
55. What does the porter imagine as he opens the gates?
56. What does the first apparition tell Macbeth?
57. Why is Hecate angry at the three witches?
58. Give one example of a way Macduff insults Macbeth.
59. Why does Macbeth tell lady Macbeth she should bring forth men-children only?
60. Give an example of an event in nature that symbolizes Duncan’s assassination.
61. Who is the Thane of Glamis?
62. Which scene do scholars believe was written by someone other than Shakespeare?
63. Why does Lady Macbeth ask to be unsexed?
64. Why does Macbeth choose to fortify himself at Dunsinane Castle?
65. Whom is Malcolm describing when he says “nothing in his life/ Became him like the
leaving it”?
66. What Elizabethan value is shown in Malcolm’s remark?
67. How will the first witch get revenge on the sailor’s wife who insulted her?
68. What does Macbeth believe he heard when he murdered Duncan?
69. What does Donalbain mean by “where we are/ There’s daggers in men’s smiles”?
70. Why does Malcolm lie to Macduff about what kind of person he is?
71. How has Lady Macbeth changed by Act 5?
72. How does Banquo feel about Macbeth after Duncan’s death?
73. Give an example of Lady Macbeth’s weakness, other than her suicide.
74. Name three Scottish thanes.
75. According to Lady Macduff’s son, why are traitors fools?
76. What critical mistakes does Macbeth make in the banquet scene?
77. Why do both Macbeth and lady Macbeth envy Duncan after the murder?
78. How does Macbeth motivate the murderers to kill Banquo?
79. Who discovers Duncan’s body?
80. Why is the porter scene often left out of high school texts?