Macbeth Study questions – Act 4 to the end
Act 4, Scene 1
Macbeth greets the witches and demands to be shown what the future holds for him. Three apparitions make
prophecies:
Questions:
1. What do the apparitions symbolize?
2. What are the three prophecies?
3. How does this make Macbeth feel about the future?
Finally Macbeth is shown a line of eight kings, symbolizing the line of kings that will come from Banquo.
Macbeth intends to act now without thinking about the consequences. He will have the family of Macduff
killed:
From this moment,
The very firstlings of my heart shall be
The firstlings of my hand. (4, 1, 146-8)
Read the whole soliloquy (4, 1, 144-56). Is Macbeth now purely evil?
Scene 2: the murder of the Macduffs
At Macduff's castle Lady Macduff and her son are talking about the absent husband and father. They are
murdered, as are the whole household. It is a pitiful scene showing how the innocent are victims of the
violence and brutality of Macbeth.
Question:
Do you think this is the worst of Macbeth's actions?
Scene 3
Macduff and Malcolm speak in England about the terror Macbeth is creating in Scotland. 'Bleed, bleed, poor
country.' (4, 3, 32) Malcolm tests Macduff by stating that he would be a worse king than Macbeth. Malcolm
outlines his faults - lechery, greed, deceitfulness - and Macduff finally says that he is a man not fit to live, let
alone govern. When Macduff shows that he was loyal to Duncan, Malcolm tells Macduff that he had been
lying as a test of Macduff. A Doctor enters, telling the two men about the miracles of the English king, Edward.
This scene shows the audience what a good king should be like.
Ross comes with bad news for Macduff: his family has been murdered.
Question:
How does Macduff respond to this terrible news?
Act 5, Scene 1
Back at Macbeth's castle a Doctor and a Gentlewoman discuss Lady Macbeth's illness. She is acting strangely.
'unnatural deeds/ Do breed unnatural troubles.' (5, 1, 63-4).
Questions:
1. What are Lady Macbeth's symptoms?
2. Why is she acting this way?
Scene 2
The battle against Macbeth is about to begin. The English force, with Malcolm, his uncle Siward, and Macduff
will meet with the rebel Scottish lords to fight against Macbeth. Macbeth has made his castle Dunsinane
strong to withstand the attack but many Scottish people think he is mad. Only those who are afraid of him still
support him. The others can see that he is not the right man to be king:
Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief. (5, 2, 20-22)
Scene 3
Question:
What mood is Macbeth in at the beginning of this scene?
Macbeth can see that what he expected to have as king and as an older man: 'honor, love, obedience, troops
of friends' (5, 3, 25) he cannot have. He has 'Curses (not loud, but deep), mouth-honor,' (5, 3, 27) instead.
Questions:
1. Does Macbeth deserve friends or honor?
2. Does the audience feel any sympathy for Macbeth?
Macbeth intends to battle on, saying 'I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked' (5, 3, 32). He asks the
Doctor how Lady Macbeth is and tells him to cure her. The Doctor replies that Lady Macbeth must cure
herself, she has a guilty conscience and medicine can do no good.
Questions:
1. How concerned is Macbeth about his wife?
2. What does this reveal about their relationship now?
Scene 4
Malcolm orders the soldiers to disguise themselves by cutting down a branch from Birnam Wood to disguise
their approach to Macbeth's castle. (camoflage in the movie)
Scene 5
Macbeth is ready for the oncoming battle. He hears a noise, 'the cry of women' (5, 5, 8) and is surprised that it
does not worry him. This shows how much Macbeth has changed from the beginning of the play when after
the murder of Duncan any noise appalled him. During the course of the play Macbeth has 'supped full with
horrors' (5, 5, 13). He hears another cry and is told that Lady Macbeth is dead.
Questions:
1. How does Macbeth react to his wife's death?
2. What philosophy or idea about the value of life does Macbeth espouse (put forward) in his speech:
'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...Signifying nothing.' (5, 5, 19-28)
3. Does the audience feel anything for Macbeth at this point in the play?
There is another change of pace as a messenger brings word that Birnam Wood seems to be moving toward
Dunsinane. Macbeth will fight on but he begins 'to be a-weary of the sun,/ And wish the estate o' the world
were now undone.'(5, 5, 50). But he will die as a soldier.
Scene 6
The forces against Macbeth have arrived at the castle.
Scene 7-8
Macbeth taunts the soldiers with the witches' second prophecy: that 'none of woman born/ Shall harm
Macbeth' (4, 1, 80-81). Young Siward fights Macbeth but is killed. Macduff finds Macbeth and in dramatic
moment destroys Macbeth's confidence as he reveals that he was 'from his mother's womb/ Untimely ripped.'
(5, 8, 15-16) Macduff was born, probably, by Caesarean section.
Macbeth now understands that the witches tricked him. They led him to believe that he was invincible, their
prophecies were fulfilled but not in the way Macbeth expected. Macbeth knows that he will be defeated but
he will 'try the last' and will die a warrior.
Macbeth is killed by Macduff and his head carried around as a trophy.
Malcolm becomes the next king of Scotland. Order is restored.
Questions:
1. Does Macbeth get what he deserves?
2. What about Lady Macbeth?
Overall Macbeth Study Questions
1. Is Macbeth a tragedy? In the end, Macbeth appears too evil to be a proper tragic hero, but he does not
begin the play as an evil character. Note statements concerning Macbeth's reputation prior to the beginning
of the play. What has he accomplished, and how is he rewarded? What is King Duncan's opinion of him? Is it
justified? How fundamentally does Macbeth change in the course of the play? Identify key moments in his
evolution from war hero to tyrant.
2) One of the elements of a tragedy is that the hero's downfall is caused by a moral weakness or flaw that
inexorably leads him to his tragic destiny. In this respect, can Macbeth be seen as a tragedy? What basic
human flaws or weaknesses does Macbeth display? How do they contribute to his downfall?
3) To what extent do the predictions of the witches dictate events in the play? Are their prophecies binding?
Is Macbeth trapped by destiny, a victim of fate, or does he have free will? How do we know? Note specific
scenes and speeches that justify your point of view.
4) Banquo and Macbeth are the subject of prophecies concerning the future kingship of Scotland, but they
react to these prophecies differently. How does each respond to his encounter with the witches? Are there
key differences? Why does Shakespeare include two sets of prophecies?
5) Macbeth begins with three witches chanting "fair is foul and foul is fair" (1, 1, 10), a line which evokes a
world upside down, the reversal of the natural order. Look for other indications of nature gone awry within
the play. Where does natural imagery - references to weather, vegetation, animals and birds, sterility and
fertility, disease and health – occur? What is the connection between this imagery and events in the play?
6) Macbeth displays high regard for his wife, Lady Macbeth, who is a surprisingly equal partner in their
marriage. Overall, do Macbeth and Lady Macbeth appear to have a good marriage? Are they well matched?
Do they feel real affection for each other? To what extent is Lady Macbeth responsible for Duncan's murder?
Are she and Macbeth equal partners in crime? Does their relationship and their collaboration shift over time?
At what point does Macbeth start to act alone, without her help or knowledge? Read carefully Lady
Macbeth's words in the sleep-walking scene. What do you think caused her breakdown? What prior events
does she allude to, and what does she have to say about them? How does Macbeth react to the news of his
wife's death? How does her death change him as a character?
7) At the end of the play, Macduff kills Macbeth in a scene easily read as the victory of Good over Evil. But
would that be an accurate characterization? Is Macbeth wholly evil? Is Macduff wholly good? we dealing here
with entirely with good and evil?