Name_________________________
Per._______Date________________
MACBETH STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
Act I
1. What is the point of the first scene literally and in reference to the whole play?____________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
What figurative element is “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”?____________________________________
2. Explain the Captain’s remark, “So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come/Discomfort
swells.”___________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. What does Duncan call Macbeth when he hears Macbeth has defeated Macdonwald?______________
4. Who is “Bellona’s bridegroom”?_________________What literary element is used?_______________
5. Who is Sweno?____________________________________________________________________
6. Who is sentenced to death?_________________________ What does Duncan decide?____________
_________________________________________________________________________________
7. What do the witches predict in I.iii for Macbeth?____________________________________________
For Banquo?_______________________________________________________________________
8. Who is Sinel?______________________________________________________________________
9. List two more references to foul and fair.
a.________________________________________________________________________________
b.________________________________________________________________________________
10. What news does Ross bring Macbeth?__________________________________________________
11. Who says, “Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?” Why?________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
12. Banquo, like Macbeth, is surprised that the witches have predicted Macbeth's new title. He is,
however, leery. What does he say about the motives of the “instruments of darkness"? ___________
__________________________________________________________________________________
13. What does Macbeth mean when he says , “This supernatural soliciting/Cannot be ill, cannot be
good.”?
“Cannot be ill” because____________________________________________________________
“Cannot be good” because_________________________________________________________
14. What does Macbeth mean when he says, ”If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir.”?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
15. Malcolm describes Cawdor's last moments before execution. What is Duncan's reply?_____________
__________________________________________________________________________________
16. Macbeth says, "Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires." What are
Macbeth's desires? _________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
17. After Lady Macbeth reads the letter, what does she tell us is her opinion of Macbeth, and how does
she plan to help him?________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
18. What is Lady Macbeth's "prayer" to the spirits after she learns Duncan is coming?________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
19. What advice does Lady Macbeth give Macbeth when he arrives home?________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
20. List three examples of irony in Act 1, sc. vi:
a.______________________________________________________________________________
b.______________________________________________________________________________
c.______________________________________________________________________________
21. What are Macbeth's arguments to himself against killing Duncan? (Soliloquy-Act 1, sc.vii)
a.______________________________________b._______________________________________
c.______________________________________d._______________________________________
22. What is meant by “double trust”?______________________________________________________
23. What tragic flaw is revealed in Macbeth’s soliloquy?______________________________________
24. What arguments does Lady Macbeth use to convince Macbeth to commit the murder?
a. _______________________________________________________________________________
b._______________________________________________________________________________
c._______________________________________________________________________________
25. What is Lady Macbeth's plan?________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
26. What other quote parallels “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”?______________
________________________________________________________________________________
Act II
1. What gift did King Duncan give to Lady Macbeth?_________________________________________
2. What is Macbeth's lie to Banquo about the witches' predictions?_____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. During his soliloquy, Macbeth thinks he sees _____________________________________________
4. What is Lady Macbeth’s signal to Macbeth?__________ He calls the signal a____________________
How come?______________________________________________________________________
5. What excuse does Lady Macbeth give for not killing Duncan herself?___________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
6. After Macbeth kills Duncan, he goes to Lady Macbeth and is concerned about not being able to say
"Amen." What is her advice to him?_____________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
7. Then, Macbeth is worried about hearing a voice saying, "Macbeth does murder sleep." What does Lady
Macbeth tell him to do?_______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
8. What does Macbeth mean when he asks, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from
my hand?”________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
9. What does Lady Macbeth say about water?______________________________________________
10. Who was knocking?_________________________________________________________________
11. The porter thinks he is at ____________________________________________________________
12. How does Lennox describe the night, and what is Macbeth's response?________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
13. What did Macduff discover?__________________________________________________________
14. What is “death’s counterfeit ”?________________________________________________________
15. Macduff says, "Oh, gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition, in a woman's
ear, Would murder as it fell." What is ironic about this statement?____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
16. Macbeth says, “The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood is stopped; the very source of it is
stopped.” Who is the “fountain”? ________________What figurative element is used?___________
17. What excuse or explanation did Macbeth give for killing the guards (grooms)? What is his real
reason?__________________________________________________________________________
18. Why do Malcolm and Donalbain leave?_________________________________________________
Malcolm flees to____________________________Donalbain to_____________________________
19. Who says, ”There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood, The nearer bloody.”______________
What does the quotation mean?______________________________________________________
What figurative element is “dagger”?___________________________________________________
20. Why does Ross not believe Malcolm and Donalbain were responsible for Duncan's murder?_______
________________________________________________________________________________
21. What is Scone?___________________________________________________________________
Act III
1. Who says, “…and I fear /Thou play’dst most foully for ‘t.”?____________________What is “’t” (it)?
__________________________________________________________________________________
2. What are Macbeth’s fears concerning Banquo?
a.______________________________________ b._______________________________________
What are Macbeth’s resentments?
a.______________________________________b.________________________________________
3. What is Macbeth's plan for killing Banquo and Fleance?_____________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Does it work?________ Why/Why not?__________________________________________________
4. Macbeth says, “We have scorched (scotched) the snake, not killed it” Who is the snake?___________
What does the quotation mean?________________________________________________________
5. The quotation “And make our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are” is similar to what
other quotations?___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
6. Whose mind is “full of scorpions”?________________What are the “scorpions”?_________________
7. Macbeth says, "The worm that's fled/Hath nature that in time will venom breed, No teeth for the
present." What does that mean?________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
8. Whose “gory locks” are shaking at Macbeth?______________________________________________
9. What literary element is used when Macbeth says at the banquet, “And to our dear friend Banquo,
whom we miss;/Would he were here!”?__________________________________________________
10. How does Lady Macbeth cover for Macbeth at the banquet? What excuses does she give for his wild
talk?____________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
11. Who else was missing from the banquet table (besides Banquo)?_____________________________
12. Macbeth says, "I am in blood/Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as
tedious as go o'er." What does he mean?________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
13. What does Hecate want the witches to do?_______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
14. What does Lennox think about Macbeth, Fleance, and Duncan's sons?________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Act IV
1. Witch 2 says, "By the pricking of my thumbs,/ Something wicked this way comes." Who comes?_____
2. What is Macbeth's attitude towards the witches this time?____________________________________
3. What four things did the witches show Macbeth? What does each show/say? What is Macbeth's
reaction?
a.________________________________________________________________________________
b.________________________________________________________________________________
c.________________________________________________________________________________
d.________________________________________________________________________________
4. What does Macbeth mean when he says, “But yet I’ll make assurance double sure,/And take a bond of
fate.”?____________________________________________________________________________
5. Macbeth says (about the witches), "Infected be the air whereon they ride, And damned all those that
trust them!" What is Macbeth, in effect, saying about himself?________________________________
6. Where is Macduff?__________________________________________________________________
7. Why does Macbeth have Macduff’'s family and servants killed?_______________________________
8. Why does Lady Macduff's son say “liars and swearers are fools”?_____________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
9. Malcolm says, "Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. Though all things foul would wear the
brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so." What does that mean?___________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
10. Macduff says, "Oh, Scotland, Scotland!" Why?____________________________________________
11. What news does Ross bring to Macduff?________________________________________________
12. Who has no children?_______________Who says, “All my pretty ones?/ Did you say all? O hell-kite!
All?/ What, all my pretty chickens and their dam/ At one fell swoop?”__________________________
What are the “pretty chickens”?________________________________________________________
What figurative element is used?____________________________________________________
Act V
1. What do the doctor and gentlewoman see Lady Macbeth doing/saying?
a._____________________________________b.__________________________________________
c._____________________________________d.__________________________________________
What do they decide to do about it?_____________________________________________________
2. What does Macbeth say about his life in this Act?__________________________________________
3. What does Macbeth want the doctor to do for his wife?______________________________________
4. What trick does Malcolm use to hide the number of men in his army?__________________________
What does this trick imply? ___________________________________________________________
5. Malcolm says, "And none serve with him but constrained things Whose hearts are absent, too." What
does this quotation mean?_____________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
6. What is Macbeth's reaction to Lady Macbeth's death?_______________________________________
7. List the four metaphors for life in Macbeth’s famous soliloquy, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and …”
a.______________________________________b.________________________________________
c.______________________________________d.________________________________________
8. What is Macbeth's reaction to the news that Birnam Wood is moving?__________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
9. Who first fights Macbeth? What happens?________________________________________________
10. Macbeth says to Macduff, "But get thee back! My soul is too much charged/ With blood of thine
already." To what is he referring?_____________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
11. When does Macbeth recognize that he is about to suffer a downfall?__________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
12. Who are the “juggling fiends” that Macbeth says should not be believed?_______________________
13. What happens to Macbeth at the end of Act V ? _________________________________________
14. Explain the irony when Macduff re-enters the scene at the end of Act V._______________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
15. Who will be King of Scotland?________________________________________________________
16. What are Malcolm’s plans ?_________________________________________________________