Macbeth
Study Guide
As we read Macbeth, use this study guide to examine the
moral qualities of the characters and to develop a theory about why such an
exemplary man as Macbeth would commit such a heinous crime as regicide and what
consequences he experiences. You may post your answers as you work. I will
check your answers at the end of the unit. You will be writing a critical essay
on this topic when we finish the play.
Act I:
First Witch – One of the three Weird
sisters.
Second Witch - One of the three Weird
sisters.
Third Witch - One of the three Weird
sisters.
Kind Duncan – King of
Malcom (king’s son) – Son of
Captain – Captain of the Scottish
army. Was wounded in scene 2.
Ross – He is Scottish nobleman.
Banquo – He is a good friend of Macbeth. Supposedly his sons will become kings.
Macbeth – Main character of the play. A very good fighter
and soldier who the witches say will become king of
Angus - He is Scottish nobleman.
Lady Macbeth – She is the wife of Macbeth. She urges Macbeth to murder the king because
she wants power.
Messenger – He tells Lady Macbeth that the king is coming
over to the castle for dinner.
In the space below each question write the page
number, the act number and the scene number of the quotation asked for. Then
copy the key lines of the quotation and write your own summary of the whole
quotation.
Theme:
If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me, Without my sir. Act 1 Scene 3 Line 144
Macbeth says why should he commit
murder when he will eventually become king anyway.
“The love that
follows us sometime is our trouble,” Act I Scene VI
Duncan says this without knowing that it will become true.
"When the battle's
lost and won." Act I Scene 1
Even if a battle is won, there are still many men lost.
"Cannot be ill, cannot be good" -
Act 1 Scene 3
This shows the contradiction of how something cant be
a good or bad thing.
"Fair is foul and foul is fair" - Act 1 Scene 1
This is a contradiction of how something could be both fair and foul.
Mabeth’s
Character
“For brave
Macbeth--well he deserves that name--Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.”
Macbeth is a brave fighter who
deserves praise.
This shows that Macbeth admits to having a large amount of
ambition.
“My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes
so my single state of man that function Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.” Act 1, Scene 3
He doesn’t want to have to murder
someone to become king.
“We’d jump the life to come. But
in these cases We still have judgment here: that we
but teach Blood instructions, which being taught return To plague th’inventor: this even-handed justice Commends the’ingredience of our poisoned chalice To our own lips.”
Macbeth sees that if the murders
are committed then there will be “even-handed” justice.
Banquo’s Character:
1.
Find the quotation
where Banquo warns Macbeth not to pay too much
attention to the Witches because they may intend to lead the men into evil.
. If
you can look into the seeds of time,
And say
which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak
then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.” Act I Scene 3
He
says the witches will make him try to make the predictions come true. They will make him evil
Lady Macbeth’s Character:
“Wouldst thou
have that Which thou esteem’st
the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own
esteem,” Act 1 Scene 7
She says that he would be a coward to not kill the king.
"That
croaks the fatal entrance of
Under my battlements. 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! make think my blood;
Stop up th'access and passage to remorse."
Act I Scene 5
She summons spirits to fill her
with cruelty.
Act 1 Scene 5 "False face must hide what the false hear doth
know".
She tells Macbeth to kill again.
Find the quotation showing that Lady Macbeth
is manipulative, where she goads Macbeth by challenging his manhood.
. “…live a coward in thine own
esteem letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ like the poor cat I’ th’ adage?”
She calls him a coward to
get him to do what she wants.
"I would, while it was smiling in my
face have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains
out..."
This graffic description
by Lady Macbeth shows how ruthless she is.
Act II
Banquo - He gives Macbeth a diamond.
Fleance – He is the son of Banquo and he talks with Banquo.
Macbeth – He gives a long soliloquy at the beginning of the act and is unsure about
the killing. He is haunted by the prophecies.
Lady Macbeth – She convinces Macbeth to murder
Porter – He has a sense of justice but is a drunk.
Macduff – He is very caring and sentimental with a good heart.
Donalbain (son of King Duncan) – He is sleeping when Macduff
says
Malcolm (son of King Duncan) – He leaves to
Old Man – He commentates on what happened.
Ross – He is a Scottish nobleman who talks with the old man.
Analysis:
In the space below each question, write the page number,
the act number, and the scene number of the quotation asked for. Then copy the key lines of the quotation and
write your own summary of the whole quotation.
Theme:
"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. Art
thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to
sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false
creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?" Act 2 Scene 1
Macbeth sees the dagger in his hand in his mind when it is in reality not in
his hand.
"Her's a knocking indeed!...knock,
knock, knock!...Is they master stirring? Our knocking has awakened him. Here he
comes." Act 2 Scene 3
Since Macbeth really was not sleeping in the first
place, the timing of them “waking him up” helped to show that he had not
committed the crime.
Macbeth’s Character:
"Thy very
stone prate of my whereabouts and take the present horror from the time, which
no suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives. Words to theheat
of deeds too cold breath gives. I go, and it is done. The bell invites me. Hear
it not
Macbeth is still not sure whether he should commit the
murder up to when he does.
"Methough I
heard a voice cry "Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep" - the
innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the raveled sleave
of care, the death of each day's life, sosre labor's
bath, balm of hurt minds..." Act 2 Scene 2
Macbeth says that he will
no longer be able to sleep now that he has committed murder.
Find Macbeth’s first public statement after the
discovery of the murder. What is he
feeling? Is he sincere?
“Had
I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time; for this
instant There’s nothing serious in mortality All is but toys: renown and grace
is dead, The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to
brag of”
He is not sincere and says
that he doesn’t think life is worth living now.
Lady Macbeth’s Character:
"That which had
made them drunk hath made me bold. What hath quenched them hath given me
fire."
"Had e not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't"
Act 2 Scene 2
In
the first she says she is powerful and in the second she says she is afraid.
"Go get some water And
wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from
the place? tThey must lie
there. Go, carry them and smear the sleepy grooms with blood." Act 2 Scene 2
She
says that Macbeth should frame the two guards.
"The sleeping and the dead Are but as
pictures. 'tis the eye of childhood That fears a
painted devil. If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of
the grooms withal." Act 2 Scene 2
She
regards the dead as unimportant.
Banquo’s Character:
"So I lose none in seeking to augment it, but still keep my bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counselled." Act 2 Scene 2
This shows that Banquo wants to remain loyal no matter what.
Macduff’s Character:
"He is already
named, and gone to
He already knew that
Macbeth would become king.
Banquo – He suspects Macbeth murdered
Macbeth – He realizes that Banquo knows he killed
Lady Macbeth – She consoles Macbeth with his worries about Banquo.
Attendant – He tells Macbeth that are men waiting for him.
First Murderer – He is in charge of the killing and dislikes Banquo.
Second Murderer – He helps in the murder.
Third Murderer – He helps in the murder, knows a lot about Banquo, and is mysterious.
Servant – He arranges the meeting with the murderers.
Lords – They had a good time at the party but worry about Macbeth seeing things.
Ross – He has a good time at the party but worries about Macbeth.
First Witch – She suggests talking to Hectate.
Hecate (Queen of Witches) – She guides the three witches against Macbeth with
a false sense of security.
In the space below each question write the page number, the
act number and the scene number of the quotation asked for. Then copy the key
lines of the quotation and write your own summary of the whole quotation.
Theme:
“Let every man be master of his time till
seven at night.” Act III Scene I
Macbeth hints to how Banquo
will be murdered at 7 and how he has control of everything up until then.
“Ay, my good lord.” Act III Scene I
Banquo says this even though he knows that Macbeth is
not as good as he is said to be.
Macbeth’s Character:
Ross: His absence, sir, Lays blame upon his
promise. Pleas’t your highness TO grace us with your royal company?
Macbeth: The table’s full.
Act 3 Scene 4
This shows how Macbeth only accepts
that there is no place for him and does not demand a place to sit as a powerful
confident king would.
In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly: better be the dead, Whom we, to gain
our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In
restless ecstasy.”
Act 3 Scene
2
Macbeth discusses his dreams with
Lady Macbeth.
“Come
seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful
day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that
great bond Which keeps me paled!”
He goes from being reluctant about killing
“Blood hath been shed ere now, I’th’olden time, Eere humane
statute purged the gentle wal; Ay, and since too,
murders have been performed that, when the brains were out, the man would die,
and there an end: but now they rise again, With twenty
mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stolls.
This is more strange than such a murder is.” Act 3 Scene 4
He says that the murdered
men will rise again to get revenge.
"I
will tomorrow to the Weird Sisters. More shall they speak, for now I am bent to
know By the worst means the worst. For mine own good, All causes shall give way. I am in blood Stepped in so far that , should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as
go o'er." Act 3 Scene 4
He
says he has to get help from the sisters to hold his power.
Lady Macbeth’s Character:
"Naught's had, all's spent, where our desire is got without
content. 'Tis safer to be
that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy." Act 3 Scene
2
She realizes that the
murder of
" Sit,
worthy friends. My lord is often thus And hat been
from his youth. Pray you, keep seat. The fit is momentary; upon a thought He
will again be well." Act 2 Scene 4
She thinks it is nothing to worry
about and reassures the guests of this.
Banquo’s Character:
"...and I fear Thou played'st most foully for 't. Yet
it was said It should not stand in thy posterity."
Act 3 Scene 1
Banquo says that he is afraid that Macbeth had a part in
the murder.
First Witch – She is one of the three witches who begin to brew a witches brew around a cauldron.
Second Witch - She is one of the three witches who begin to brew a witches brew around a cauldron.
Third Witch - She is one of the three witches who begin to brew a witches brew around a cauldron.
Macbeth – Macbeth goes to the witches to have them tell him of his future.
First Apparition – It is a head with a helmet on who says to beware of Macduff.
Second Apparition – It is a bloody child who says that men will harm
Macbeth.
Third Apparition – This is a crowned child who is holding a tree in his
hand.
Lady Macduff – She is the wife of Macduff. She is angry at Macduff
for leaving her and feels betrayed by him.
Ross – He tries to explain why he left her and sympathizes with her.
Son (of Lady Macduff) – He is wise and believes that his
father did not betray them. He was killed by the murderers.
Messenger – He tries to warn Lady Macduff that she is in
danger.
Murderer – He kills Lady Macduff and her son.
Malcolm – He lives in
Macduff – Goes to find Malcom to convince him to take
back the kingdom. His family is
murdered.
Doctor – He tells Malcom of a deadly disease spreading
through
Analysis:
In the space below each question write the page number, the
act number and the scene number of the quotation asked for. Then copy the key
lines of the quotation and write your own summary of the whole quotation.
Macbeth:
“Thought
castles topple on their warder’s heads, thought palaces and pyramids do slope
their heads to their foundations, through the treasure of nature’s germends tumble all together even till destruction sicken.”
Act 4 Scene 1
He becomes completely obsessed with power.
1. The
first appartition warns Macbeth of Macduff and the thane of
2. The second appartion
says to Macbeth, "Be bloody, bold, and resolute... the power of
man; for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth.” This
simply means it will be a man, not a woman who will be king (of course).
3. The third
apparition says "Be lion-mettled, proud, and
take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall
never vanquished be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him” This says for
Macbeth to be proud to keep power.
However, this is the opposite.
"I will be satisfied: deny me this,
And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know-"
Act 4 Scene 1
This
shows how Macbeth wants to have immediate satisfaction.
Macduff:
"I grant him bloody, luxurious...but
there's no bottom, none, in my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters, your
matrons, and your maids could not fill up the cistern of my lust..."
Act 4 Scene 3
He tells him he is mean and could
sleep with all the women in
"It hath been th' untimely emptying of the happy throne and fall of
many kings. But fear not yet to take upon you what is yours. You may convey
your pleasures in a spacious plenty and yet seem cold - the time you may so
hoodwink." Act 4 Scene 3
He
says Malcom needs to be honest in order to be a good
king.
Macduff, this noble
passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wiped
the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts To thy good truth and honour.”
Act 4 Scene 3
Malcom tells Macduff that
he is good enough to be the king.
“And I must be from thence! My wife killed
too?” Act 4 Scene 3
Macduff is sad his wife and child have been killed
but he will get revenge.
Doctor – He is a very curious person.
Gentlewoman – She is respectful to Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth – She sleep walks because of the guilt
and eventually kills herself.
Mentieth – He is a Scottish nobleman who talks about the military in scene 2.
Angus – He is a Scottish nobleman who also talks about the military.
Macbeth – He is killed by Macduff by decapitation.
Servant – He tells Macbeth that there are 10000 men coming.
Seyton – He also tells Macbeth that there are 10000 men coming.
Malcolm – He leads the 10000 men and takes control of
Siward – He is an English lord that helps command the army.
Soldiers – They fight against Macbeth under Malcom.
Macduff – He kills Macbeth for killing his family.
Messenger – He tells Macbeth of Birnam wood moving.
Young Siward – He talks to and is murdered by
Macbeth.
Ross – He tells Siward his son is dead.
Analysis:
In the space below each question write the page number, the
act number and the scene number of the quotation asked for. Then copy the key
lines of the quotation and write your own summary of the whole quotation.
Macbeth’s Character:
"Will cheer me ever or disseat me now. I have lived
long enougth. My way of life is fall'n
into the sere, the yellow leaf, ...curses, not loud
but deep, mouth-honor, breath which the poor heart would fain deny and dare
not." Act 5 scene 3
He says that he has lived long enough and life is over for
him.
“Come,
sir, dispatch. – If thou couldst, doctor, cast the water of my land, find her
disease, and purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to
the very echo that should applaud again. – Pull ‘t off, I say” Act 5 Scene 4
He shows concern by asking
the doctor to help her.
“I have almost forgot
the taste of fears. The time has been my senses would have cooled to hear a
night-shriek, and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir as
life were in ‘t. I have supped full with horrors.
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me.”
He has forgotten other feelings which he hasn’t felt for a
long time.
"I 'gin to be aweary of the sun and wish th' estate o th' world were
now undone. - Ring the alarum bell! - Blow wind come wrack, at least we'll die
with harness on our back." Act 5 scene 3
He realizes the prophecies are true and he is going to die.
"I pull in resolution and begin to
doubt th' equivocation of the fiend, that lies like truth.’Fear not till Birnam Wood
do come to Dunsinane,' and now a wood comes toward Dunsinane." Act 5 scene 3
He realizes that the witches were correct.
"I will not yield to kiss the ground
before young Malcolm's feet and to be biated with the
rabble's curse...Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike
shield." Act 5 Scene 3
He
refuses to give in to his enemies.
Lady Macbeth’s Character:
"Out damned spot, out, I say!...Her's the smell of the blood still." Act 5 scene 1
She is trying to wash away the
guilt.
Analysis of the complete play:
At first, Macbeth is reluctant to kill and Lady
Macbeth wants to have people murdered.
By the end of the play, they have completely switched positions. Macbeth is consumed by power. Lady Macbeth is consumed by guilt.
Simply put, Macbeth committed murder because he was power
hungry. He became completely obsessed
and could not stop once he started.
He misunderstands the witches because once they put
the idea that he can become king into his head, this becomes all he wants to
have. This small idea kept growing in his head until it became reality.
The quest for power eventually
leaves Macbeth with virtually nothing.
Everyone is dying around him, including himself, and he ends up with a
lot less than he started with.
