Heath: Tract of Open Land with Sparse Vegetation

Hogentogler 1

Macbeth:

Act-by-Act,

Scene-by-Scene

Literary Terms

Vocabulary

Study Guide

Act 1, Scene 1

Vocabulary:

--Hurlyburly: turmoil

--Ere: before

--Heath: tract of open land with sparse vegetation

--Anon: soon

Questions:

1.  When are the witches planning to meet again and for what purpose?

2.  Describe the setting of this scene. How might it be significant considering this is the first scene of the play? What sort of mood does it create?

3.  The witches say together, “Fair of foul, and foul is fair.” This is one of the most famous lines in the play. What do you think it means?

Act 1, Scene II

Vocabulary:

--broil: battle --minion: servant --furbish’d: shining

--spent: exhausted --unseam’d: cut open --sooth: truth

--villainies: mercenaries --nave: the navel --flout: mock

--kerns: foot soldiers --chaps: one’s jaw --point: sword point

--gallowglasses: armed horsemen --skipping: fleeing --lavish: wild

--composition: a truce --deign: offer

Questions:

1.  What does the Sergeant specifically report about Macbeth? What does this news reveal to you about Macbeth’s character?

2.  What is Macbeth’s relationship with King Duncan?

3.  Who had Macbeth and Banquo been fighting?

4.  The Sergeant uses many similes to describe the battle. Identify two.

5.  What does Ross mean when he calls Macbeth “Bellona’s bridegroom?”

6.  What does King Duncan instruct Ross to do and why?

Act I, Scene III

Vocabulary:

--aroint: be gone --bark: a ship --get: to beget

--rump-fed: fed on rump meat --weird: fate-manipulating --imperfect: unclear

--ronyon: a fat woman --posters: travelers --intelligence: information

--sieve: a basket --aught: anything --blasted: cursed

--quarters: directions --choppy: wrinkled --corporal: physical

--shipman’s card: compass card --fantastical: imaginary --reads: considers

--penthouse lid: an eyelid --grace: title -- images: methods

--forbid: cursed --having: possessions --post: a messenger

--peak: waste away --happy: fortunate --earnest: pledge

--addition: title --combined: allied --prologues: predictions

--soliciting: temptation --use: custom --function: every task

--surmise: speculation --stir: effort --strange: new

--cleave: fit --mould: body --favor: pardon

--register’d: written to memory

Questions:

1.  What does the first witch plan to do to the sailor and why? What does this tell you about the three witches?

2.  What Macbeth says, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen,” what does he mean? What other line of the play does this echo? What could be the dramatic irony of this line? As Macbeth’s first words of the play, how might this line be significant?

3.  Describe the physical appearance of the witches.

4.  What prophecies do the witches make regarding Macbeth? How does he react based on what Banquo says?

5.  What metaphor does Banquo use to ask the witches about his future? What do the witches predict for Banquo? How does this prediction relate to the King of England at the time Shakespeare was writing?

6.  Shakespeare has the witches speak in language that is frequently contradictory. Point out an example of where that occurs in this scene.

7.  How likely does Macbeth think it is that he will become Thane of Cawdor of King of Scotland? How is this an example of dramatic irony?

8.  How do Banquo and Macbeth question their experience with the witches?

9.  What news does Ross bring to Banquo and Macbeth as they are discussing the prophecies?

10.  What does Banquo mean when he says, “What, can the devil speak true?”

11.  Why does Banquo warn Macbeth about “the instruments of darkness?” What type of literary device is this? How does this comment tie into the “fair is foul, foul is fair” theme?

12.  As the others talk, what does Macbeth’s aside reveal about his thinking? What does he fear? How is this moment a significant turning point for Macbeth?

13.  What is the difference between how Banquo reacts to the fulfillment of the first prophecy and how Macbeth reacts? Why might their reactions be significant?

14.  What common human feeling is Macbeth expressing when he says, “My thought…/Shakes so my single state of man function/Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is/But what is not”? How does the quote relate to the “fair is foul” theme?

Act I, Scene IV

Vocabulary:

--liege: ruler; king --before: ahead

--studied: rehearsed --wanton: unrestrained; lewd

--owed: owned --harbinger: a messenger

--careless: worthless

Questions:

1.  How does Malcolm describe Cawdor’s execution? How does Duncan respond?

2.  How does Duncan regard what Macbeth has done for him? What does Macbeth think about the services he has provided?

3.  What metaphor does the King use to describe how he will nurture Macbeth?

4.  How does Banquo further this metaphor? What earlier comment do his words echo?

5.  What is the significance of Duncan naming Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland?

6.  How does Macbeth react to the announcement in his last speech in this scene? What does he reveal?

Act I, Scene V

Vocabulary:

--missives: messengers --dunnest: darkest

--metaphysical: supernatural --beguile: deceive

--fell: cruel --dispatch: management

--gall: bile --sovereign: absolute

--sightless: invisible --favor: facial expression

--pall: cover

Questions:

1.  After Lady Macbeth finishes reading the letter, she says Macbeth, “shalt be” what he has been promised, meaning King of Scotland. Why is this comment significant?

2.  After Lady Macbeth finishes reading the letter, what concern does she express about Macbeth?

3.  Why does Lady Macbeth want her husband to hurry home?

4.  How does the news about King Duncan’s impending arrival affect Lady Macbeth? What is she planning?

5.  Why does Lady Macbeth pray to be “unsexed”? How else does she ask to be altered and why? What does this say about Shakespeare’s view of the nature of masculinity and femininity?

6.  When Macbeth enters, how does Lady Macbeth again echo the words of the witches?

7.  What instructions does Lady Macbeth give to her husband? What metaphor does she use to describe her advice? What role has Lady Macbeth adopted in their relationship?

Act I, Scene VI

Vocabulary

--Hautboys: loud, double-reed woodwind instruments shaped like clarinets

--seat: location

-- martlet: a martin, a bird known to nest in churches

--approve: prove

--jutty: projection

--frieze: a decorative engraved band along the upper portion of a room or building

--buttress: stone or brick support

--coign of vantage: a protruding corner used as a lookout point

--pendant: hanging

--procreant cradle: place of breeding

--ild: yield (reward)

--single: minor

-- purveyor: a King’s traveling attendant

--holp: helped

--in compt: in trust

--audit: accounts

--still: ever ready

Questions:

1.  How do Duncan and Banquo regard Macbeth’s home? How are their comments an example of dramatic irony?

2.  How does Lady Macbeth’s behavior in this scene contradict with what we know of her from the last scene? What does this indicate about her character?

Act I, Scene VII

Vocabulary:

--sewer: a butler --bought: won --warder: a watchman

--divers: several --prithee: please --limbec: part of a still

--trammel: to catch or confine as with a net --enterprise: a promise --drenched: drowsy

--surcease: death --durst: dared --spongy: drunken

--shoal: a sandbar surrounded by water --adhere: suitable --mettle: courageous spirit

--jump: a risk --make: have taken --settled: determined

--chalice: a bowl-shaped drinking cup --fitness: convenience --bend up: summon

--faculties: royal powers --unmake: unnerve --mock: deceive

--virtues: a moral excellence --screw: pull tight

--blast: storm --wassail: a festivity with alcohol

--cherubin: a winged angel --convince: overpower

--chamberlain: servant in charge of a particular part of an estate --corporal agent: bodily strength

Questions:

1.  What arguments does Macbeth raise for not committing the murder? What does Macbeth mean when he says that Duncan is “here in double trust”?

2.  Macbeth indicates that Duncan has been a great ruler. According to Macbeth, what qualities make Duncan a good king?

3.  What resolution does Macbeth communicate to Lady Macbeth?

4.  What does Lady Macbeth say in an attempt to goad her husband into committing the murder? How do her comments tie into her earlier characterizations of masculinity and femininity?

5.  Macbeth’s response to his wife, about what a man may dare, is frequently quoted. What does he mean?

6.  What is the point of the baby imagery that Lady Macbeth uses? Note the many images of babies and mothers are presented in the play.

7.  Lady Macbeth reveals the details of the murder plot. What are they, and how does she convince Macbeth that the plan will work?

8.  Why does Macbeth believe his wife should “bring forth men-children only”? Has her plan convinced him to continue in the scheme?

Act II, Scene I

Vocabulary:

--husbandry: frugality --franchised: free of guilt --dudgeon: a handle

--summons: sleepiness --clear: pure --gouts: drops

--largess: gifts --counsell’d: supported --abuse: to deceive

--offices: servants --sensible: perceptible to the touch --watch: alarm

--cleave: support --heat-oppressed: fevered --design: prey

--consent: cause --marshall’d: to guide --prate: to chatter

Question:

1.  This is the first appearance of Banquo’s son, Fleance. Why might the sight of him be significant to Macbeth at this moment?

2.  Why do you suppose Banquo is having trouble sleeping?

3.  Why do you think Macbeth lies to Banquo and tells him that he, Macbeth, has not thought of the witches?

4.  In his soliloquy after Banquo leaves, what does Macbeth tell the audience he sees? In what ways does Macbeth explain the sight?

5.  How would you describe Macbeth’s mental/emotional state at this point?

6.  What does the ringing of the bell indicate to Macbeth? How does Macbeth say the ringing relates to Duncan? What kind of poetic form ends the scene?

Act II, Scene II

Vocabulary:

--surfeited: overindulged --unbend: to loosen --multitudinous: vast

--grooms: guards --witness: evidence --incarnadine: to make red

--charge: duty --infirm: weakness --constancy: strength of will

--possets: drinks of milk and liquor --purpose: a will --watchers: awake

--confounds: ruins --gild: to cover with gold leaf

Questions:

1.  What has Lady Macbeth done to the guards?

2.  Why does Lady Macbeth not commit the murder when she is in the room?

3.  Macbeth enters and describes what he saw and heard. Lady Macbeth tells him, “These deeds must not be thought/After these ways.” Why?

4.  How does the form of the dialogue create a sense of urgency early in this scene?

5.  Macbeth goes on to describe how he thought he heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth doth murder sleep." What is the meaning of Macbeth’s remarks about sleep?

6.  In this scene, how does Lady Macbeth criticize her husband and show herself to be stronger? In what ways is she just as weak?

7.  What does Macbeth say about cleaning the blood off of his hands? How does Lady Macbeth’s comments about their bloody hands contrast with his? What do their bloody hands symbolize?

8.  At the close of the scene, there is an incessant knocking at the door. What might this knocking symbolize?

Act II, Scene III

Vocabulary:

--Porter: a gatekeeper --limited: specified --pauser: hesitant

--old: plenty of --appoint: a plan --wasteful: destructive

--Belzebub: Beelzebub (name of the devil) --combustion: chaos --office: an action

--physics: cures --confusion: destruction --shaft: an arrow

--primrose: pleasurable --parley: a conference --lighted: landed

--marry: indeed --chance: an event --shift: to sneak

--nose-painting: reddening of the nose --lees: dregs; sediment --warrant: justification

--cast: vomit --vault: wine cellar --scruples: doubts

--timely: early --badged: marked --steals: flees

-- breech’d: covered as though clothed in --expedition: haste

--equivocator: one who speaks vaguely intentionally

Questions:

1.  The Porter’s scene, or the “knocking at the gate scene,” is frequently debated by scholars, but most agree it is a typical scene of comic relief often found in Shakespeare’s plays. Why do you think a scene of comic relief has been placed in this particular part of the play? What is its purpose? Why are the Porter’s lines in prose rather than poetry? What lines contain the bawdy humor often found in these scenes?

2.  What role does the Porter imagine he is playing? How does he continue his joke? How is his characterization of his role in the castle ironic?

3.  What strange events of the previous night does Lennox describe? What theme do these events reinforce?

4.  What allusion does Macduff make to Greek mythology? What is his meaning?

5.  How does Macduff question Macbeth’s actions? What does Lady Macbeth do to intercede?

6.  Who are Malcolm and Donalbain? What do they suspect, and what decision do they make?

7.  In Greek theater, tragedies focus on the tragic hero. This tragic hero is a great man who has one tragic flaw, which brings about his downfall. As the hero accepts the consequences of his errors, he teaches the audience some truth of life. If Macbeth is a tragic hero, what is his tragic flaw?

Act II, Scene IV

Vocabulary:

--mousing: mouse-eating

--hawk’d at: attacked

--minions: the finest examples

--suborn’d: bribed

--thriftless: profitless

--ravin up: devour

--invested: crowned king

--benison: blessing

Questions:

1.  What further unnatural acts are occurring? What do you think these happenings are meant to signify?

2.  Who is suspected of setting up the murder of Duncan? Why?

3.  What does Ross have to say about the ambition that must have led to the murder?

4.  Who has been named King? Where will the coronation take place?

5.  Instead of attending the coronation, Macduff plans to travel home. How might this choice be significant?

Act III, Scene I

Vocabulary:

--sennet: a trumpet call --filed: defiled --clept: called

--grave: substantial --rancors: bitterness --addition: a distinction

--twain: two --jewel: the soul --station: a rank

--bestow’d: staying --list: a combat area --buffets: strikes

--invention: a lie --champion: to battle --set: to risk

--sweeter: more --utterance: last word --avouch: to justify

--Sirrah: servants’ title --under: out of favor with --sundry: miscellaneous

--without: outside --cross’d: shut out --thought: remember

--genius: spirit --instruments: agents --rubs: flaws

--fruitless: sterile --gospell’s: devoted to the Bible --material: important

--unlineal: producing no successors --catalogue: a list --apart: in private

Questions:

1.  In his soliloquy, what suspicion and hope does Banquo reveal?