Burnett’s Honors English IV: MacBeth Study Guide
Identify the following characters:
Duncan
Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
Banquo
Macduff
Malcolm
Donalbain
Lennox
Ross
Hecate
Fleance
MacDonwald
The Weird Sisters
Explain the significance of the following:
Sleep (refer to the Macbeths)
Daggers
Desires
Bells
Scotland
England
Kings (refer to the apparitions)
Visions (refer to the Weird Sisters and Hecate)
Glamis
Cousins
Predictions (ACT I and ACT IV)
Body (MacDuff’s discovery)
Outline the following – explain each one SPECIFICALLY:
Lady MacBeth’s plot to kill Duncan
MacBeth’s reasons for not killing Duncan
MacBeth’s reasons for killing Banquo, Fleance and MacDuff’s family
Hecate’s dislike for MacBeth and disapproval of the Weird Sisters actions
The events of the banquet
Lady MacBeth’s guilt and MacBeth’s reaction to her death.
Quotations: Who said it? Why did they say it? How is it significant to the play as a whole?
1. Fair is foul, and foul is fair. (Act 1)
2. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater./Not so happy, yet much happier./Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. (Act 1)
3. Stars, hide your fires,/Let not light see my black and deep desires. (Act 1)
4. To beguile the time, look like the time/Bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tounge;/Look like the innocent flower/But be the serpent under't. (Act 1)
5. Things without all remedy/Should be without regard. What's done is done. (Act 3)
6. Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men/ May read strange matters. (Act 1)
7. I am in blood/Stepped in so far that should I wade no more,/Returning were as tedious as go o'er. (Act 3)
8. Oh, Scotland, Scotland! (Act 4)
9. She should have died hereafter,/ There would have been a time for such a word./ 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. (Act 5)
10. Out, out, brief candle!/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. (Act 5)
11. There’s daggers in men’s smiles. (Act 2)
12. The night is long that never finds the day. (Act 4)

13. Double, double toil and trouble. (Act 4)
14. Why do you dress me in borrowed robes? (Act 1)
15. It is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing. (Act 5)
16. The time is free. (Act 5)
17. But tis strange:And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,/The instruments of darkness tell us truths,/Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s/In deepest consequence. (Act 1)
Macbeth’s Many Moods
Macbeth experiences many different emotional states during the play. As the audience, we hear his soliloquies and can understand his state of mind. Match each scene below to his emotional state of mind.
________ 1. (I.3) Macbeth hears the witches’ first set of prophesies.
________ 2. (I.7) Macbeth considers murdering Duncan.
________ 3. (II.1) Macbeth goes off to kill Duncan.
________ 4. (II.2) Macbeth talks to Lady Macbeth after murdering Duncan.
________ 5. (IV.1) Macbeth visits the witches for more prophesies.
________ 6. (V.3) Macbeth prepares for Macduff’s advancing army.
Comprehension Questions – You will need to be able to answer
A. demanding and desperate
B. excited
C. empty; bleak, but resolved
D. filling himself with “dark” courage
E. conflicted
F. hiding from his sense of guilt
1. What a paradox is and an example from the play.
2. What “the battle’s lost and won” means.
3. What two predictions the witches make for Macbeth.
4. What three predictions the witches make for Banquo.
5. Why Duncan makes Macbeth Thane of Cawdor.
6. How Macbeth initially feels about the witches’ prophecies/the possibility of murdering Duncan.
7. Macbeth’s tragic flaw.
8. What a soliloquy is.
9. The dagger Macbeth sees in his Act II soliloquy … is it real or a hallucination?
10. Why Malcolm and Donalbain flee Scotland after the murder.
11. Examples of weird things that happened in nature when Duncan was murdered.
12. The possible purposes of the Porter’s scene in Act II.
13. Why Macbeth tells the murderers to be secretive about killing Banquo.
14. How Lady Macbeth explains Macbeth’s “freak out” at the banquet when he sees Banquo’s ghost.
15. Who the unexpected guest is at the banquet scene and why he was there.
16. How Hecate intends to ensure Macbeth’s downfall.
17. What the first, second, and third apparitions tell Macbeth (Act IV).
18. Why Macduff isn’t killed with his family.
19. Why Malcolm pretends to be evil when Macduff talks to him about being king of Scotland.
20. Examples at the beginning of Act V of Lady Macbeth going insane.
21. How Macbeth reacts to his wife’s death.
22. How Macbeth knows/understands the third prophecy is fulfilled.
23. Who is named king of Scotland at the end of the play.
Find examples in the play of the following themes:
1.
Blind ambition can drive a man to commit atrocious acts in an effort to move ahead in life.
2.
Appearances can be deceiving.
3.
Power can have strong influence.
4.
Superstitious beliefs can influence human behavior.
5.
A guilty conscience can be disruptive and self-destructive.