Revision resources

• Retribution


  Inflicting punishment for a wrongful act
• Patriarchy


  Society dominated by males who rule over females
• Masculinity


  Traits relating to being stereotypically male
• Insanity


  Being seriously mentally ill
• Loyalty


  Having a strong feeling of support or allegiance
• Wisdom


  Quality of having good judgement/being wise
• Justice


  Fair treatment or behaviour
• Tyrannical


  Exercising power in a cruel way
• Hamartia


  Fatal flaw leading to the downfall of the main character
• Malevolence


  Being deliberately hostile to others
• Maternal


  Feelings which are related to being a mother
• Regicide


  Killing the king or queen in charge, usually to take power for yourself
• Futile


  Something that is seen as pointless
• Usurp


  Take a position of power by force or wrongfully
• Tragedy


  Form of the play exploring tragic events & downfall of character
• Dramatic Irony


  Where the audience are more aware of the action happening than the characters
• Soliloquy


  An individual character in a play speaking their thoughts out loud to the audience
• Protagonists


  The main character who propels the action forward
• Imagery


  Visual descriptions that allows the audience to understand an idea
• Oxymoron


  Using two opposing terms together, that normally contradict each other
• Juxtaposition


  Placing contrasting ideas close together in a text
• Foreshadowing


  A hint or suggestion of what might happen later in the story
• Emotive Language


  Language which creates an emotion in the reader
• Connotations/Zooming in


  Implied or suggested meanings of a word or phrases
• Hyperbole


  Use of extremely exaggerated terms for emphasis
• SKILLS (AO1, AO2 & AO4)
• EXAM REQUIREMENTS - English Literature - Component 1, Section A
• Act 1 Key Moments


  • Scene 1: The witches meet up and set the tone of evil throughout the plot.
  • Scene 2: King Duncan hears reports that Macbeth and Banquo have helped win the war.
  • Scene 3: Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches on a heath and hear predictions that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor and King, and Banquo won't be king but his sons will be kings.
  • Scene 4: King Duncan meets Macbeth and Banquo and rewards them. Macbeth is now Thane of Cawdor and secretly starts to think he could be king.
  • Scene 5: Lady Macbeth has received a letter from Macbeth about the witches. She starts to think how to persuade Macbeth to kill King Duncan.
  • Scene 6: Duncan arrives at Macbeth's home.
  • Scene 7: Macbeth convinces himself not to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth again to kill King Duncan.
• Act 2 Key Moments

  • Scene 1: Macbeth murders King Duncan, committing regicide.
  • Scene 2: Macbeth loses his nerve after killing King Duncan, so Lady Macbeth has to help frame the guards and clean up after Macbeth. Macbeth regrets what he has done.
  • Scene 3: Macbeth sends Macduff to find King Duncan dead. The guards are blamed and Malcolm and Donalbain run away as they might be suspected of killing their father to get the throne.
  • Scene 4: Ross and Macduff think the guards were paid by Malcolm and Donalbain to kill the king for their own gain. Macbeth becomes king.
• Act 3 Key Moments

  • Scene 1: Banquo thinks to himself that Macbeth has done something wrong to become king. Macbeth hires murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance to stop Banquo's prophecy coming true.
  • Scene 2: Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that Banquo now needs to be killed. Lady Macbeth wants to convince him otherwise, but now Macbeth keeps his evil plans to himself, no longer trusting her.
  • Scene 3: Banquo is killed by the murderers. Fleance escapes.
  • Scene 4: Macbeth is holding a large meal in honour of him being new king. The murderers tell him Banquo is dead but Fleance escaped. Macbeth then sees Banquo's ghost at the meal when no one else can. Lady Macbeth sends him to bed so he doesn't say anything to make him seem guilty.
  • Scene 5: The three witches meet again discussing Macbeth.
  • Scene 6: Lennox, Malcolm and Macduff all suspect Macbeth to be evil, calling him a tyrant. Malcolm and Macduff are making plans in England.
• Act 4 Key Moments

  • Scene 1: Macbeth sees the witches again who tell him these things: Beware Macduff, beware the Thane of Fife, None of woman born can harm Macbeth, Macbeth shall never be beaten until Birnam Woods moves towards the castle
  • Scene 2: Macbeth has Macduff's wife and children killed.
  • Scene 3: Malcolm and Macduff plan on killing Macbeth. Macduff hears his wife and child are dead and vows vengeance.
• Act 5 Key Moments

  • Scene 1: Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, feeling guilty about killing King Duncan.
  • Scene 2: An army is approaching Macbeth's castle.
  • Scene 3: A doctor tells Macbeth that Lady Macbeth is getting worse.
  • Scene 4: Macbeth's army have left him. Birnam wood is moving as soldiers have cut branches down to use as disguise.
  • Scene 5: Lady Macbeth kills herself. Macbeth finds out the wood is moving.
  • Scene 6: The soldiers have arrived at Macbeth's castle ready to fight.
  • Scene 7: Macduff and Macbeth fight. Macduff reveals he was not born of a woman but by caesarean birth. Macduff kills Macbeth. Malcolm is now king.
• Themes


  • Ambition
  • Loyalty and Betrayal
  • Kingship
  • Reality and Appearance
  • Fate and Free Will
  • Supernatural
• Characters


  • Macbeth
• Macbeth: '"For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--"'
• Macbeth: '"Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires:"'
• Macbeth deals with the question of free will vs fate when the Witches prophesise him becoming king
• Macbeth uses his free will to make his fate come true
• Banquo would rather fate take its own course
• Supernatural


  Powers that cannot be explained normally with ideas of magic