Macbeth: Literary terms and quotes
Multiple choice questions. Choose the best answer.
1. A "device" Shakespeare uses to reveal a character's innermost thoughts is the
a) prologue.
b) soliloquy.
c) intervention of nature.
d) supernatural.
2. A brief speech not heard by others on the stage is called
a) an epilogue.
b) a soliloquy.
c) an aside.
d) an exposition.
3. "Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters"
a) This is an example of simile.
b) This is an example of metaphor.
c) This is an example of alliteration.
d) This is an example of hyperbole.
4. "For the blood bolted Banquo smiles upon us."
a) This is an example of personification.
b) This is an example of metaphor.
c) This is an example of alliteration.
d) This is an example of hyperbole.
5. "Life's but a walking shadow .."
a) This is an example of hyperbole.
b) This is an example of irony.
c) This is an example of alliteration.
d) This is an example of personification.
6. "Here lay Duncan, his silver skin laced with his golden blood."
a) This is an example of simile.
b) This is an example of onomatopoeia.
c) This is an example of alliteration.
d) This is an example of allegory.
7. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No.
This my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnating making the
green one red."
a) This is an example of personification.
b) This is an example of metaphor.
c) This is an example of alliteration.
d) This is an example of hyperbole.
8. The sleeping and the dead are as pictures .."
a) This is an example of simile.
b) This is an example of metaphor.
c) This is an example of alliteration.
d) This is an example of hyperbole.
9. "She should have died hereafter; There would have been time for such a
word."
a) These words are said by Macbeth.
b) These words are said by the doctor.
c) These words are said by Lady Macbeth.
d) These words are said by Macduff.
10. "A little water clears us of these deeds."
a) These words are said by Macbeth.
b) These words are said by the doctor.
c) These words are said by Lady Macbeth.
d) These words are said by King Duncan.
11. "Double, double, toil and trouble."
a) These words are said by Macbeth.
b) These words are said by the witches.
c) These words are said by Hecate.
d) These words are said by Lady Macbeth.
12. "It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I
have known her to continue in this for a quarter of an hour."
a) These words are said by Macbeth.
b) These words are said by the doctor.
c) These words are said by Lady Macbeth.
d) These words are said by the gentlewoman.
13. "Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them a fairer death."
a) These words are said by Macbeth.
b) These words are said by old Siward.
c) These words are said by Macduff.
d) These words are said by Banquo.
14. "More needs she the divine than the physician."
a) These words are said by Macbeth.
b) These words are said by the doctor.
c) These words are said by Lady Macbeth.
d) These words are said by the gentlewoman.
15. ".. let the angel whom thou still hast served tell thee .. was from his
mother's womb untimely ripp'd"
a) These words are said by Macduff.
b) These words are said by Malcolm.
c) These words are said by Hecate.
d) These words are said by the witches.
16. "Ring the alarum bell! Blow, wind! Come, wrack! At least we'll die with
harness on our back."
a) These words are said by Macbeth.
b) These words are said by Malcolm.
c) These words are said by Macduff.
d) These words are said by old Siward.
17. "Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here."
a) These words are said by the witches
b) These words are said by Hecate.
c) These words are said by Lady Macbeth.
d) These words are said by Macbeth.
18. "Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; Within my sword's length set
him"
a) These words are said by King Duncan.
b) These words are said by old Siward.
c) These words are said by Lady Macbeth.
d) These words are said by Macduff.
19. Although Shakespeare borrowed ideas widely, for Macbeth, he consulted
only
a) Cobbett's Rural Rides.
b) Classical Greek mythology.
c) Plutarch's Fall of the Roman Republic.
d) Holinshed's Chronicles.
20. Shakespeare probably wrote Macbeth for initial presentation
a) at the court of Elizabeth I.
b) at the court of James I.
c) at the National Theatre in Scotland.
d) at a play-writing contest organized by the Thane of Cawdor.