| What is the central idea of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act II? | a murderer must live with his conscience |
| For which of the following reasons did Shakespeare probably choose to write The Tragedy of Macbeth in blank verse? | to create an effect for natural speech |
| In Act II, Scene ii, Lady Macbeth’s purpose in drugging the servants is | So they will sleep through King Duncan’s murder |
| Which of the following characterizes the line from The Tragedy of Macbeth “This night’s great business into my dispatch” as blank verse? | It has ten syllables with the stress falling on every second syllable. |
| Which of the following symbols in Act II, Scene ii, signals that the murder has been accomplished? | The owls scream and the crickets cry |
| In Act II, Macbeth declares he will “sleep no more” because he believes | his conscience will not allow it |
| In Act II, what does Macbeth really mean when he indicates that the blood on his hands will redden all the seas? | It is a comment of his profound guilt |
| In the Old Man’s dialogue in Act II, Scene iv, which of the following symbolizes King Duncan? | a horse |
| In the following quotation from Banquo in Act II, what does he say the purpose of meeting should be?And when we have our naked frailties hid, / That suffer in exposure, let us meet / And question this most bloody piece of work, / To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us. | to know the bloody piece of work further |
| In Act II, when Lady Macbeth says “My hands are of your color, but I shame / To wear a heart so white” she means that | her hands are red with King Duncan’s blood, but, unlike her husband, she is not afraid. |
| Why do you suppose Shakespeare made Banquo the last person Macbeth sees before he murders King Duncan in Act II? | Banquo, who is loyal to the king, represents Macbeth’s last chance to do what is right and call off his murderous plan. |
| In Act II, what reason does Lady Macbeth give for not killing King Duncan herself? | she said the king looks like her father |
| Unrhymed iambic pentameter is also called | blank verse |
| To make sense of blank verse, you must | read and analyze each full sentence, no matter where the line breaks |
| What is the central theme of Act I of The Tragedy of Macbeth? | Betrayal |
| The Tragedy of Macbeth and other Elizabethan plays represented a radical shift in English drama because they were | not about relgion |
| Based upon the information in Act I, what appears to be Macbeth’s character flaw? | desire for power |
| . During the Elizabethan period, theater companies began to | use permanent performance places |
| What important role do the witches play in Act I | they foreshadow events |
| Based upon the information in Act I, what can you infer about King Duncan? | he places high value on bravery and loyalty |
| Which of the following best describes Macbeth’s feelings about the possible assassination of King Duncan in Act I? | tortured ambivalence |
| n Act I, why does Lady Macbeth think Macbeth has a poor chance of achieving power | He is not ruthless enough. |
| What do stage directions give the reader? | info about what is taking place on stage |
| Throughout Act I, Macbeth’s plans and actions seem to be motivated most of all by | his wife’s encouragement |
| Elizabethan tragedies were modeled on plays from | ancient greece and rome |
| he annotations in The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act I, are a helpful aid for | clarifying unknown language |
| In what way is Lady Macbeth stronger than her husband? | she stands firm when her husband wants to back out |
| Which would be true if you were watching a play at the Globe Theater back in Shakespeare’s day? | The illusions of time and space would come from the words of the play. |
| …nothing in his life / Became him like the leaving it (13, lines 7-8). | Speaker: MalcolmContext: He is saying this as he is dyingMeaning: He was a traitor, but as he dies, he admits his wrongs which makes him a better person only in his final minutes |
| There’s no art / To find the mind’s construction in the face: / He was a gentleman on whom I built / An absolute trust (14, lines 11-14). | Speaker: King DuncanContext: He is talking about how he was sure Malcolm was good and he has poor judgmentMeaning: The king lacks skills like judging character, which are very important skills to have if you are a king |
| The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step / On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, / For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; (15, lines 48-50) | Speaker: MacbethContext: He is talking aside, the witches gave him his prediction and he is debating on how he should go about making the prediction come true. He can wait, or he can go out and do it himselfMeaning: He begins thinking about killing the king, however, he doesn’t want to kill the king and that makes him cowardly |
| Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, (17, 41-42) | Speaker: Lady MacbethContext: She is speaking to herself. She wants to be unsexed, unwomanly. She doesnt want sterotypical qualitiesMeaning: It shows what she really is. She is really a cruel unloving person, which is easily seen by the way she talks. She doesnt want people to see her as a woman. She wants to be seen as powerful and ruthless |
| Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men / May read strange matters (18, lines 63-64). | Lady MacbethContext: Lady macbeth is talking to macbeth and telling him he is bad at reading peoples’ facesMeaning: this is ironic because the king couldnt do this either and macbeth will be king soon |
| I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, / And dashed the brains out, (22, lines 56-59) | Speaker: Lady MacbethContext: If she had to, she would kill a baby. she is saying this because she wants macbeth to stop being a coward and kill the kingMeaning: it shows how ruthless she is. |
| Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? (25, lines 33-34) | Speaker: MacbethContext: Macbeth is speaking to himself, he thinks he sees a dagger floating which is leading him to kill the kingMeaning: macbeth is beginning to lose his grip on reality because he is stressing about killing the king and it points towards the king, covered in blood representing guilt |
| I go, and it is done: the bell invites me. / Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell / That summons thee to heaven, or to hell (26, lines 62-64). | Speaker: MacbethContext: He tells the server to remind his wife to ring the bell when his drink is ready. The bell is the signal that it is time to go kill the kingMeaning: the bell is representing death, because traditionally church bells ring when somebody has died. and death is happeing because that is the que to kill the king |
| Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep”–the innocent sleep, / Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, / The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, / Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, / Chief nourisher in life’s feast— (28, lines 34-39) | Speaker: MacbethContext: he just came back from killing the king and he is unable to say amen because he is a guilty man. he will never be able to sleep because he is so guiltyMeaning: He is already starting to feel intense guilt which is a sign that he may go insane later |
| No; this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red (29-30, lines 60-62). | Speaker: MacbethContext: If he put his hands in the sea, the whole sea would turn red with the bloodMeaning: the blood represents his guilt, he has so much guilt it would turn the sea red |
| Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. / Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope / The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence / The life o’ th’ building (33, lines 68-71). | Speaker: MacduffContext: He has just discovered the king is deadMeaning: It shows his love and respect for the king. he is saying the king represented faith and no it has been taken away |
| This murderous shaft that’s shot / Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way / Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse; (36, lines 143-145) | Speaker: MalcolmContext: He has just found out his dad is murderedMeaning: He knows that more murder will occour because it is somebody that wants to be king, so the brothers run away in opposite directions |
Macbeth Act 1 & 2
August 7, 2019