Macbeth Final - Warren Hills Regional School District



The Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare

Study Guide for Final Unit Exam, English III (CP, Level 2)

Literary Terms

playwright: The author of a drama, or play. For The Tragedy of Macbeth, the playwright is

William Shakespeare.

acts and scenes: These are divisions within a play that divide the action into sections. The

Tragedy of Macbeth, considered Shakespeare’s shortest play, contains five acts, and each

act is further broken up into different scenes. Acts and scenes are represented as Roman

numerals; for example, III iv 10-14 is shorthand for Act 3, Scene 4, Lines 10 through 14.

protagonist: The main character in a play, novel, short story, or other literary work.

tragedy: A play that leads to the downfall or death of the protagonist.

tragic hero: Another name for the protagonist, or main character, in a tragedy. A tragic hero is an outstanding person of high rank whose downfall and/or death by the end of the play is caused by his (or her) own flawed behavior. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, the tragic hero is the character Macbeth.

tragic flaw: Part of the hero’s character that leads him, or her, to make a fatal mistake.

Macbeth’s tragic flaw is his unrestrained ambition.

comic relief: A humorous scene or character that a playwright adds to his (or her) play to relieve the audience’s tension. An example in The Tragedy of Macbeth is the porter, who is a character that makes an appearance at the start of Act II Scene iii.

soliloquy: A long speech expressing private thoughts, delivered by a character who is alone on the stage.

monologue: A long speech delivered by one character to another character or to a group of

characters.

aside: A private remark to one character or to the audience that is understood not to be heard by other characters on the stage.

Main Characters

Macbeth: main character and a general in King Duncan’s army who ends up murdering the king and many others. His ambition leads him to destruction and death.

Lady Macbeth: wife of Macbeth; near the end of the play, she sleepwalks too much and talks about the murders that she has been involved in.

Banquo: Macbeth’s fellow general and friend; the witches predict that his children will be kings.

Malcolm: Duncan’s oldest son who is named king at the end of the play.

Donalbain: King Duncan’s other son who flees with Malcolm after Macbeth murders their father.

Fleance: Banquo’s son who escapes the murderers hired by King Macbeth.

Macduff: A Scottish nobleman not born of woman who kills Macbeth at the end of the play.

Lady Macduff: Wife of Macduff who is murdered, along with her entire family, by order of Macbeth.

The Weird Sisters (Witches): Evil women with beards (according to Banquo); they predict that Macbeth will be king.

Ross: nobleman of Scotland, tells Macbeth he is Thane of Cawdor

Duncan: King of Scotland at the beginning of the play; guards were blamed for his murder.

Siward: The English general who helps Malcolm and Macduff defeat Macbeth.

Information About the Play

The Tragedy of Macbeth was first performed in the early 1600s, during playwright William Shakespeare’s lifetime. The main setting of the play is in Scotland. When referring to a specific place in a play by William Shakespeare, numbers like “III.i.12-20” mean Act Three, Scene One, Lines 12 through 20. These are Roman numerals. The first number is the number of the act, the second number is the number of the scene within the act. The third number is the number of the lines in the dialogue.

In Act I of the play, the witches tell Macbeth that he will become Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland, and that Banquo will have children who become kings. After expressing his gratitude for Macbeth’s help in a recent battle, King Duncan names his son, Malcolm, the Prince of Cumberland, which means Malcolm will become the King of Scotland when his father dies. This action upsets Macbeth. When we first meet Lady Macbeth, she is at the Macbeth castle, Inverness, reading Macbeth’s letter. At this point, she thinks her husband should murder Malcolm in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy that he will become king of Scotland. Lady Macbeth’s motive for urging Macbeth on is that she wants to be queen, is an evil criminal at heart, and is ambitious for her husband to become king. When King Duncan visits the Macbeth castle, Lady Macbeth acts as if she is glad to see him, but she is actually plotting to murder the king.

Macbeth stabs to death King Duncan as the king sleeps in the Macbeth castle. Macbeth tells his wife that while killing the king he thought he heard someone yell out that Macbeth had “murdered” sleep and that he would sleep no more. Immediately after he murders King Duncan, Macbeth is afraid and paranoid. The chief purpose of the scene with the porter guarding the castle gate shortly after King Duncan’s murder is to relieve tension through comic relief. Macbeth becomes jealous of Banquo because the witches said Banquo’s children would be kings, which means that Macbeth’s children – if he ever gets around to having any – will not be kings. Banquo is killed by murderers hired by King Macbeth, but Banquo’s son, Fleance, gets away. Macbeth ordered Banquo’s murder without telling his wife, Lady Macbeth. At a banquet with the great lords of Scotland, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth descends further into madness and begins to plot more murders, including the murders of Macduff’s entire family.

The three apparitions conjured by the witches give Macbeth three pieces of information: Beware Macduff, no man born of woman shall harm Macbeth, and Macbeth shall never be vanquished or lose his kingship until Birnam Wood walks up Dunsinane Hill toward Macbeth’s castle.

Near the end of the play in Act V, Lady Macbeth loses her mind and dies. Macbeth dies while fighting in combat against Macduff. Macbeth meets his final fate in Act V with desperate bravery. Due to the witches’ apparitions stating that Macbeth cannot be harmed by a man “born of woman,” Macbeth believes no man can slay him. He fails to realize that Macduff was “ripped” from his mother when he was born, and the mother was already dead, so technically Macduff was not “born of woman.” Macbeth’s death restores order in Scotland.

At least three of the following five questions will appear on the test as short-answer questions:

(1) Explain the reasons for the flight of Donalbain and Malcolm after the murder of their father, King Duncan.

ANSWER: Donalbain and Malcolm fled from Scotland because their father, King Duncan, had been murdered. They did not know who committed the murder, so they could not trust any of the Scottish noblemen. They thought it was possible that they would be killed next because they were next in line to replace their murdered father as King of Scotland. By running away from Scotland, however, it looked as if they were guilty of killing their own father.

(2) Read the following lines. Identify who said these lines, and tell us why she said them.

“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!...

…Yet who would have thought the old man

to have had so much blood in him?” Act V.i.

ANSWER: These lines were spoken by Lady Macbeth in Act V, Scene i, of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is speaking these lines while sleepwalking in front of a female attendant (a “gentlewoman”) and a doctor. Since she is asleep, she does not know that anyone else is in the room. The gentlewoman and doctor hear her confess to helping her husband murder King Duncan and others. Lady Macbeth thinks she sees and smells blood on her hands, but it is only her conscience leading her to believe that the blood is there. She wants to get rid of the blood on her hands. She says not even all of the perfume in Arabia could get rid of the smell of blood.

(3) How does the opening scene with the witches set a mood for the play?

ANSWER: The opening scene of The Tragedy of Macbeth leaves a mood of dread. The witches appear to be evil, so opening a play with them offers a mood of evil. This dark mood runs throughout the play. We expect evil and supernatural activities to pop up every now and then. We later learn that the witches, indeed, are evil and not nice witches sometimes portrayed on television shows.

(4) Explain how the messages from the Apparitions came true.

ANSWER: The apparitions warn Macbeth to beware Macduff. Macduff ends up killing Macbeth. The apparitions tell Macbeth that no man “born of woman” can harm him, but it turns out that Macduff was “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped” (a C-section that killed his mother) and therefore Macduff technically was not born of woman. This seems like Shakespeare was cheating, but the witches were tricky, so they were the ones who were really cheating. The apparitions also noted that Birnam Wood would walk up Dunsinane Hill before Macbeth would lose his kingship. But Macduff has the soldiers cut down boughs from Birnam Wood to disguise themselves when they march against Macbeth’s castle, so it looks as if Birnam Wood is actually walking up the hill.

(5) Read the following line. Identify who said it, and tell us why he said it:

“It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood.” Act III.iv.

ANSWER: Macbeth says these lines. He has just seen Banquo’s ghost and has a guilty conscience. He fears he may die a bloody death.

Essay Question: Be prepared to answer the following question in a well-thought-out, thorough essay.

In three paragraphs or more, on a separate sheet of paper, discuss the relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Who is the stronger, or better, person in the relationship? Is this always true? Explain how things between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth change throughout the course of the play, and why.

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