Macbeth

• Name the 7 themes of Macbeth:

  • Appearance Vs Reality
  • Supernatural
  • Ambition and Nobility
  • Gender Roles
  • Paranoia and Guilt
  • Fate Vs Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
  • Fertility Vs Stagnation
• Context for Macbeth:

  • Written by Shakespeare in the Jacobean Era
  • Current monarch was James I who was almost assassinated by the Gunpowder Plot
  • Dramatic tragedy with a hamartia (fatal flaw)
  • Strong beliefs against witchcraft and with the Great Chain of Being/Divine Right of Kings
  • Shakespeare showed his support to King James I through Macbeth as he had multiple connections to the Gunpowder Plot
• Act 1 Summery:

  1. The 3 Witches plan to meet Macbeth
  2. King Duncan rewards Macbeth with the title 'Thane of Cawdor'
  3. The 3 Witches tell Macbeth and Banquo their prophecies then Macbeth is told he is now Thane of Cawdor
  4. Duncan announces his son, Malcom, will be the next King
  5. Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth's letter then welcomes him back to prepare for Duncan's arrival
  6. Duncan is welcomed by Lady Macbeth
  7. Macbeth is uncertain about committing regicide but Lady Macbeth convinces him
• Name 4 quotes for Act 1 Macbeth:

  • So foul and fair a day I have not seen
  • make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature?
  • stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires
  • False face must hide what the false heart doth know


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Fate/Supernatural
  • Ambition/Guilt
  • Paranoia/Ambition
  • Appearance Vs Reality/Ambition/Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Name 4 quotes for Act 1 Lady Macbeth:

  • chastise with the valour of my tongue
  • raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance
  • take my milk for gall
  • plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Gender Roles/Ambition
  • Ambition/Fate/Supernatural
  • Stagnation/Gender Roles/Ambition
  • Stagnation/Gender Roles/Ambition
• Name 4 quotes for Act 1 Banquo:

  • that look not like the inhabitants of the earth
  • he seems rapt withal
  • speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
  • have we eaten the insane root?


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Supernatural
  • Fate/Ambition
  • Reality/Nobility
  • Appearance Vs Reality/Nobility
• Name 4 quotes for Act 1 Other Characters:

  • Fair is foul, and foul is fair - The 3 Witches
  • fixed his head upon our battlements - Captain
  • this castle hath a pleasant seat - Duncan
  • we are your guest tonight - Duncan


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Supernatural/Fate Vs Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
  • Appearance Vs Reality
  • Guilt/Appearance Vs Reality
  • Ambition/Guilt
• Act 2 Summery:

  1. Banquo and Fleance meet Macbeth who is about to commit regicide
  2. Macbeth murders Duncan and immediately feels guilty, leaving Lady Macbeth to dispose the daggers
  3. Duncan is found dead and Macbeth kills the guards in a panic while Duncan's sons leave in fear of their safety
  4. Ross discusses the chaos caused by Duncan's death and has an outsider perspective of what had happened
• Name 4 quotes for Act 2 Macbeth:

  • nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse the curtained sleep
  • summons thee to heaven or to hell
  • I had most need of blessing and 'Amen' stuck in my throat
  • Had I but died an hour before

  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Supernatural/Guilt/Fate
  • Ambition/Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
  • Guilt
  • Stagnation/Guilt
• Name 4 quotes for Act 2 Lady Macbeth:

  • the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman
  • had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done it
  • my hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white
  • a little water clears us of this deed


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Supernatural/Fate
  • Reality/Ambition/Gender Roles
  • Ambition/Gender Roles
  • Appearance/Guilt
• Name 4 quotes for Act 2 MacDuff:

  • tongue nor heart cannot conceive
  • destroy your sight
  • shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, and look on death itself
  • lest our old robes sit easier than our new


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Reality
  • Reality/Stagnation
  • Reality
  • Nobility
• Name 4 quotes for Act 2 Other Characters:

  • there's husbandry in heaven, their candles are all out - Banquo
  • the earth was feverous and did shake - Lennox
  • there's daggers in men's smiles - Donaldbain
  • contending against obedience as they would make war with mankind - Ross


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Fate
  • Supernatural
  • Paranoia/Reality
  • Supernatural
• Act 3 Summery:

  1. Banquo is suspicious of Macbeth so Macbeth sends assassins
  2. Lady Macbeth is uncertain about Macbeth's plans and he refuses to tell her anything
  3. Banquo is murdered but Fleance escapes
  4. The Banquet scene with Banquo's Ghost
  5. IGNORE
  6. Lennox discusses recent events, including how Malcom and Macduff have joined the King of England to raise an army against Macbeth
• Name 4 quotes for Act 3 Macbeth:

  • upon my head they placed a fruitless crown
  • full of scorpions is my mind
  • then comes my fit again
  • I am in blood stepped in so far


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Stagnation/Fate/Ambition
  • Paranoia/Guilt/Ambition
  • Guilt/Fate/Reality
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy/Ambition
• Name 4 quotes for Act 3 Banquo:

  • I fear thou played most foully for it
  • if there come truth
  • set me up in hope?
  • most indissoluble tie forever knit


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Appearance Vs Reality
  • Ambition/Appearance
  • Nobility/Reality
  • Fate Vs Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Name 4 quotes for Act 3 Other Characters:

  • what's done is done - Lady Macbeth
  • be bright and jovial among your guests tonight - Lady Macbeth
  • are you a man? - Lady Macbeth
  • our suffering country under a hand accursed- Lennox


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Guilt/Stagnation
  • Appearance Vs Reality
  • Gender Roles/Reality
  • Reality/Supernatural/Stagnation
• Act 4 Summery:

  1. The Witches give Macbeth new prophecies and show apparitions
  2. Macduff's family is assassinated
  3. Macduff joins Malcom then hears of his family's assassination
• Name 4 quotes for Act 4 Macbeth:

  • I conjure you
  • then live Macduff, what need I fear of thee?
  • bid the tree unfix this earthbound root?
  • firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Supernatural/Ambition/Fate Vs Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy/Ambition
  • Supernatural/Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
  • Reality/Ambition/Paranoia
• Name 4 quotes for Act 4 Macduff:

  • bleed, bleed poor country
  • take upon you what is yours
  • thy royal father was a most sainted king
  • if he scape, heaven forgive him too


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Stagnation
  • Nobility
  • Fertility/Nobility
  • Nobility
• Name 4 quotes for Act 4 Other Characters:

  • laugh to scorn the power of man - The 3 Witches
  • her young ones in her nest, against the owl - Lady Macduff
  • what I am truly is thine, and my poor country's, to command - Malcom
  • it cannot be called our mother, but our grave - Ross 


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Supernatural/Ambition/Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
  • Fertility Vs Stagnation/Gender Roles
  • Fertility/Nobility
  • Stagnation
• Act 5 Summary:

  1. Lady Macbeth sleepwalking
  2. Army arriving at Dunsinane
  3. Macbeth remembers the Witches' prophecies for comfort then asks about Lady Macbeth's health before battle
  4. Malcom's soldiers camouflage themselves, fulfilling the Witches' third prophecy
  5. Macbeth hears that Lady Macbeth had died and that the Witches' third prophecy is fulfilled
  6. Malcom's army invades Macbeth's castle
  7. Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcom is proclaimed King
• Name 4 quotes for Act 5 Macbeth:

  • never sag with doubt nor shake with fear
  • out, out brief candle
  • begin to doubt the equivocation of the fiend
  • yet I will try the last


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Appearance/Ambition/Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
  • Stagnation
  • Ambition/Paranoia
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Name 4 quotes for Act 5 Macduff:

  • those clamorous harbingers of blood and death
  • my sword with an unbattered edge I sheath again undeeded
  • painted upon a pole and underwrit
  • the time is free


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Nobility
  • Nobility
  • Nobility
  • Fertility
• Name 4 quotes of Act 5 Other Characters:

  • thought the old man to have had so much blood - Lady Macbeth
  • all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand - Lady Macbeth
  • more she needs the divine than the physician - Doctor
  • planted newly with time - Malcom


  Themes that match the quotes in order:

  • Appearance Vs Reality/Guilt
  • Guilt
  • Guilt
  • Fertility/Nobility