macbeth

• How is Macbeth initially portrayed at the beginning of the play?

  Brave and noble
• According to the Captain's report, what positive impression does the audience receive of Macbeth?

  A fearless and noble soldier
• What words are used to describe Macbeth in the Captain's report?

  "Brave" and "like Valour's minion"
• What does Macbeth's brutality on the battlefield prepare the audience for?

  Similar violence later in the play
• What is Macbeth's hamartia?

  Ambition
• According to a classical virtue system, when does ambition become a flaw?

  When it is misdirected or extreme
• Who plays a crucial role in shaping and misdirecting Macbeth's ambition?

  Lady Macbeth
• How does Macbeth's character change as the play progresses?

  He becomes increasingly unsympathetic
• What is one characteristic Macbeth develops as the play unfolds?

  Ruthlessness
• Where does Macbeth's power come from?

  His capacity for violence
• How does Macbeth kill Macdonwald in battle?

  Unseaming him from the nave to the chops
• How does Macbeth consolidate his position as king?

  By controlling and manipulating others
• Whom does Macbeth hire murderers to kill?

  Banquo
• Besides Banquo, who else does Macbeth order to be murdered?

  Macduff's family
• What does Macbeth say to persuade the murderers to kill Banquo?

  "Banquo was [their] enemy"
• What vision does Macbeth see that demonstrates his guilt?

  Banquo's ghost
• What does Macbeth say when he sees Banquo's ghost?

  "For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind"
• What does the audience interpret Banquo's ghost to be?

  A product of paranoia and guilt
• What philosophical outlook does Macbeth increasingly contemplate?

  Nihilism
• What aspects of his life does Macbeth contemplate in his final soliloquy?

  Futility and meaninglessness
• How does Macbeth's self-awareness ultimately characterize him?

  As a tragic hero
• How does Shakespeare's use of language reflect Macbeth's character?

  It reflects his complex character
• What form of verse does Macbeth often speak in?

  Iambic pentameter
• What does iambic pentameter convey about Macbeth?

  His high status
• What happens to Macbeth's speech as his moral decline progresses?

  It becomes more fragmented
• What does Shakespeare use to distance Macbeth from his noble status?

  Prose
• When does Shakespeare use prose to illustrate Macbeth's deceptive nature?

  When he speaks to Banquo's assassins
• Which language pattern links Macbeth to the witches?

  Rhyming couplets
• What do soliloquies and asides reveal about Macbeth?

  His ambition, guilt, paranoia, nihilism
• What do Macbeth's soliloquies enable the audience to do?

  Connect with his inner thoughts
• Who does Macbeth not deceive in the play?

  The audience and himself
• In Act 1, Scene 7, what does Macbeth's first soliloquy reveal?

  His internal conflict
• What does Macbeth's first soliloquy foreshadow?

  The moral turmoil that will plague him
• What is Macbeth hallucinating in Act 2, Scene 1?

  A blood-covered dagger
• What does the dagger hallucination convey about Macbeth?

  Supernatural forces have overcome him
• In the banquet scene (Act 3, Scene 4), what does Macbeth encounter?

  The ghost of Banquo
• What does the banquet scene signify about Macbeth?

  His deteriorating mental state
• In Act 5, Scene 5, what is Macbeth's state of being?

  Increasingly isolated
• What does Macbeth reflect on in his final soliloquy?

  The meaninglessness of life
• What does Macbeth's final soliloquy capture?

  His despair