| “No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive/ Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death/ And with his former title greet Macbeth.” | Speaker: King DuncanSpoken To: RossSituation: Duncan has just found out that the Thane of Cawdor is a traitorSignificance: Duncan wants the Thane of Cawdor dead and Macbeth shall get his title for showing his loyalty-for killing the first traitor (Macdonwald) |
| “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: BanquoSituation:These are Macbeth’s first words – he and Banquo are returning from battle – this is right before Banquo sees the witchesSignificance:Paradox – Macbeth echoes the witches’ words – the day is foul because the weather is ugly; it is fair because they won the battle |
| “Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear/ Things that do sound so fair?” | Speaker: BanquoSpoken To: the Witches Situation: The witches have given Macbeth his prophecies and Banquo gives he and Macbeth’s reaction.Significance: Banquo is jealous that he doesn’t have any prophecies like Macbeth. |
| “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:/ By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis,/ But how of Cawdor?” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: WitchesSituation: Macbeth explains that the witches speak in a confusing way so he must hear more from them. He knows he is Thane of Glamis, but doesn’t understand why he is Thane of Cawdor.Significance: He is confused as to why he will be Thane of Cawdor because he believes the Thane is alive and well. Contrary to what Macbeth believes, the Thane of Cawdor is a traitor that shall be killed. |
| “The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me/ In borrowed robes?” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: Ross and AngusSituation: Ross and Angus come with news that Macbeth is Thane of Cawdor.Significance: Macbeth still doesn’t understand why he is Thane of Cawdor. He states that Thane of Cawdor is someone else’s position being put onto him and he doesn’t know why. |
| “This supernatural soliciting/ Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,/ Why hath it given me earnest of success,/ Commencing in a truth?” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: (aside)Situation: Macbeth tries to understand his entitlement of Thane of Cawdor.Significance: He describes the encounter with the witches are bad. He thinks that it is bad because it came from the witches, but he also feels it is good because it came true. ‘If its bad then why is it true’ – Macbeth begins to think about the last prophecy and the possibility to be king. His thoughts turn to how murdering the king would make him king, but Macbeth decides not to do anything, but let chance decide if the final prophecy becomes true. |
| “There’s no art/ To find the mind’s construction in the face./ He was a gentleman on whom I built/ An absolute trust.” | Speaker: King DuncanSpoken To: MalcolmSituation: Malcolm and King Duncan speaking about the execution of the old Thane of Cawdor.Significance: King Duncan is very worried about the traitor being killed. He reveals that he trusted him and he is sort of hurt that the Thane tried to betray him. This shows that the King is a bad judge of character. |
| “We will establish our estate upon/ Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter/ The Prince of Cumberland.” | Speaker: King DuncanSpoken To: Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, Angus, Malcolm (an announcement)Situation: The king is announcing that Malcolm will be heir to the throne (when Duncan dies, Malcolm will take the throne).Significance: King Duncan is proud of Malcolm and declares him Prince of Cumberland. This makes Macbeth third in line for the throne, which is not good because Malcolm is even younger than Macbeth. |
| “The Prince of Cumberland – that is a step/ On which I must fall down or else o’erleap,/ For in my way it lies.” | Speaker: Macbeth Spoken To: (aside)Situation: Speaking of Malcolm and how he has become Prince and future king.Significance: Macbeth says that Malcolm is in his way and he must get fast him. He used to not desire the title of king, but now it seems as if he wants to be king and he will do something about it to become king. |
| “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor and shalt be/ What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature./ It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness/ To catch the nearest way.” | Speaker: Lady MacbethSpoken To: (reading a letter)Situation: She is reading a letter from Macbeth. The letter states the prophecies he has been given. He says he’s already been given title of Thane of Cawdor, but not yet king. Macbeth also writes that Lady Macbeth is his equal.Significance: She is very excited because she will be Queen if this is true. She says Macbeth shall earn what he has been promised. She fears that Macbeth is too nice and too weak to make himself king. She believes Macbeth needs to kill Duncan to be king, but she doesn’t think he can or will. When Macbeth returns, Lady persuade him to take action. |
| “Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of direst cruelty.” | Speaker: Lady Macbeth Spoken To: herself (riding a horse)Situation: She’s racing to go meet with Macbeth to plan King Duncan’s murderSignificance: She is asking the spirits to make her manly, and rid her of her feminine qualities. Women were not cruel at that time, she wants to be man so she can go through with the murder herself. She needs the strength to do so. |
| “To beguile the time,/ Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,/ Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower,/ But be the serpent under’t.” | Speaker: Lady MacbethSpoken To: MacbethSituation: Lady is giving him advice about their plan to murder Duncan.Significance: She says he needs to act natural when Duncan comes to visit, but to know what needs to be done. Macbeth is hesitant and unsure about the murder, but Lady is dead set on the plan. |
| “I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself/ And falls on th’ other–“ | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: (soliloquy)Situation: (Macbeth is afraid of killing the king and being caught) Macbeth shares his thoughts on the murder. Significance: His fears of the consequences are being shown. He feels bad because he is supposed to be Duncan’s protector. Instead of keeping him away from murderers, he is Duncan’s murderer and he has hosted him. Macbeth is trying to talk himself out of the murder because Duncan is a good guy. **He has no ambition or hate toward the king to kill him. He doesn’t (says he won’t) kill him. |
| “I have given suck, and know/ How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me:/ I would, while it was smiling in my face,/ Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums/ And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/ Have done to this.” | Speaker: Lady MacbethSpoken To: MacbethSituation: Macbeth has given Lady the news that they shall not go any further. Lady is furious.Significance: She says that she is much more of a man than he is. She said she would even kill her own baby, smiling in her face, while feeding it, if she had said she would go through with it. |
| “I am settled, and bend up/ Each corporal agent to this terrible feat./ Away, and mock the time with fairest show;/ False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: Lady MacbethSituation: Macbeth is pushed to the point where he must tell her his biggest fear (failing in the plan). Lady says they won’t fail because they will kill him in his sleep. They will drunken the guards to make them pass out, take their daggers, stab Duncan, and give the guards their daggers back (frame the guards).Significance: Macbeth is convinced by her plan. He has made up his mind and he is completely on board. |
| “Merciful powers,/ Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature/ Gives way to in repose.” | Speaker: BanquoSpoken To: himselfSituation: Banquo is with his son, thinking about the plan to murder DuncanSignificance: Banquo is asking for the merciful powers to not let him kill Duncan. He doesn’t want to kill him even though his son, Fleance, could become king. |
| “Is this a dagger which I see before me,/ The handle toward my hand?” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: soliloquy Situation: Macbeth is hallucinating a dagger (it’s not there) because he is about to kill Duncan. Significance: He is killing Duncan with a dagger, and it it pointing the way to Duncan. Macbeth is now obsessed with the idea of this murder. The dagger is bloody as if he’s already killed him. He is invisioning himself killing Duncan (pep talk). |
| “I go, and it is done. The bell invites me./ Hear it no, Duncan, for it is a knell/ That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: soliloquySituation: He is about to go kill Duncan.Significance: The bell is the sign from Lady to go kill him. |
| “I laid their daggers ready -/ He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled/ My father as he slept, I had done’t.” | Speaker: Lady MacbethSpoken To: MacbethSituation: She laid out the daggers for Macbeth to kill Duncan but she is worried something is wrong.Significance: When Lady Macbeth saw Duncan, she claims she would’ve killed him herself if he didn’t resemble her father so much. She is going back on her word when she said she would kill her own baby, because now she can’t kill something resembling her father. |
| “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/ Making the green one red.” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: himselfSituation: He has just killed Duncan and there is blood on his hands.Significance: Macbeth feels that nothing can free him from what he has done, not even cleaning his hands with an entire ocean of water will change the fact that he has killed Duncan. |
| “A little water clears us of this deed.” | Speaker: Lady MacbethSpoken To: MacbethSituation: She has just placed the daggers back and smeared blood on the guards.Significance: She doesn’t feel bad at all about what she has done, and she says cleaning her hands will rid her of her guilt. |
| “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!” | Speaker: MacduffSpoken To: Lennox and MacbethSituation: Macduff has just found King Duncan dead.Significance: Macduff is telling Lennox and Macbeth that Duncan is dead. He then calls Duncan a temple, showing that he thought of Duncan as an incredible person. He explains how awful this tragedy is. |
| “Who could refrain/ That had a heart to love, and in that heart/ Courage to make’s love known?” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: Macduff, Lennox, Malcolm, Lady, Donalbain, Banquo, Ross (everyone just hearing of Duncan’s death)Situation: Macbeth has just told everyone that he killed the guards because “he was angry that the guards killed Duncan”.Significance: He really killed them because he doesn’t want the guards to be able to defend themselves. He is trying to cover up his crime. Macbeth tries to claim that it had to be done because he was loyal to and loved Duncan. He also is trying to be the innocent hero, even though he is the one who killed Duncan. |
| “Thou hast it now – King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,/ As the weird women promised; and I fear/ Thou play’dst most foully for’t.” | Speaker: BanquoSpoken To: himselfSituation: Banquo realizes that Macbeth’s prophecies have come true.Significance: Banquo suspects Macbeth had a role in Duncan’s murder. He believes the way Macbeth earned these title were in vain. |
| “We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed/ In England and in Ireland, not confessing/ Their cruel parricide.” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: BanquoSituation: Banquo and Macbeth speaking about Duncan’s death.Significance: Macbeth is saying that Duncan’s sons did the deed, but they haven’t confessed. He is lying to Banquo by accusing other people so he won’t look suspicious. |
| “Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown/ And put a barren scepter in my gripe, Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,/ No son of mine succeeding.” | Speaker: Macbeth Spoken To: (soliloquy)Situation: Macbeth is speaking about becoming kingSignificance: Macbeth says that becoming king doesn’t mean anything if he has no heir. Having no children mean he cannot pass on the throne. He thinks he risked everything he has done just so Banquo can kill him and let his sons become king. This fourth prophecy is making Macbeth paranoid that Banquo is going after him. |
| “‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy/ Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.” | Speaker: Lady MacbethSpoken To: herselfSituation: She doesn’t feel safe in her new position. Significance: She says Duncan is safer dead than she is. She is glad to be queen, but she’s paranoid something will happen. There is a lot of pressure on her and Macbeth to say the right things and not let anyone find out what they’ve done. She has a tiny bit of regret. |
| “Come, seeling night,/ Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,/ And with thy bloody and invisible hand/ Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond/ Which keeps me pale.” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: Lady MacbethSituation: He tells Lady that something will happen to Banquo.Significance: Macbeth wants a darkness to cover what he will do. His friendship with Banquo has him worried. He is set on killing him. He will only let Lady Macbeth know what happens until after he has done something worthy of praise. |
| “O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!” | Speaker: BanquoSpoken To: FleanceSituation: The murderers killed Banquo, but failed in the other half of the mission: killing Fleance.Significance: This was a crucial part of the plan, and now Fleance is gone. Macbeth will be very angry. |
| “There the grown serpent lies; the worm that’s fled/ Hath nature that in time will venom breed,/ No teeth for th’ present.” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: First MurdererSituation: The first murderer just told Macbeth that Fleance had escaped.Significance: Macbeth doesn’t have the big outburst that was expected. Macbeth says that he cannot make a scene, for the people at the party will turn and look at him. He also states that Banquo was his threat, and he is gone, so the most important threat was taken care of. Banquo is not a threat to Macbeth yet, so it’s sort of okay that he got away. |
| “Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus,/ And hath been from his youth. Pray you keep seat./ The fit is momentary; upon a thought/ He will again be well.” | Location: Lady MacbethSpeaker: III.4.54 (p.52)Spoken To: the guestsSituation: The ghost of Banquo has crashed the party, and only Macbeth can see it.Significance: Macbeth is freaking out, and Lady is covering for him. She lies and says he has been struggling with this ailment since childhood, and the best thing to do is ignore him. She asks the guests to sit and tells them everything is fine and he will get past this. |
| “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o’er,” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: Lady MacbethSituation: The party just ended because Lady shooed everyone out. Macbeth realizes that Macduff did not show up to his party.Significance: Macbeth realizes that if he wants to stay king, he must get rid of everyone in his way. He has done so many bad things that if he stopped, it wouldn’t be any easier than if he kept killing people. He has nothing to lose, so he will keep killing the people in his way and act without thinking. |
| “Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan/ was pitied of Macbeth. Marry, he was dead./ And the right valiant Banquo walked too late;/ Whom, you may say (if’t please you) Fleance killed,/ For Fleance fled.” | Speaker: LennoxSpoken To: a LordSituation: He is speaking to a lord about all of these recent deaths, and he slowly becomes more sarcastic.Significance: Lennox is suspecting something fishy. He realized that both murders are connected to Macbeth, and in both situations the sons of the murdered person ran away immediately. He claims that Macbeth is acting too perfectly after these deaths. Lennox doesn’t believe the sons really killed their fathers. Instead, he suspects Macbeth and calls him a tyrant. |
| “Some holy angel/ Fly to the court of England and unfold/ His message ere he come, that a swift blessing/ May soon return to this our suffering country/ Under a hand accursed!” | Speaker: LennoxSpoken To: a LordSituation: Macduff has gone to England to get help for a war against Macbeth. Significance: He is calling on some sort of divine intervention. He wants there to be peace rather than suffering, which is what is happening under Macbeth’s rule. He calls Macbeth an evil king and hopes he will no longer be king. Lennox supports what Macduff is doing. |
| “By the pricking of my thumbs,/ Something wicked this way comes.” | Speaker: Second WitchSpoken To: Other witchesSituation: The witches anticipate Macbeth visiting them.Significance: They are making a special potion while waiting for him to give him his apparitions. |
| “From this moment/ The very firstlings of my heart shall be/ The firstlings of my hand.” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: (aside)Situation: Macbeth just learned that Macduff fled to England.Significance: He is going to act before he thinks. Macbeth says he will kill Macduff’s family and anyone connected with him. He is so very angry. |
| “Whither should I fly?/ I have done no harm. But I remember now/ I am in this earthly world, where to do harm/ Is often laudable, to do good sometime/ Accounted dangerous folly.” | Speaker: Lady MacduffSpoken To: herselfSituation: A messenger just told Lady Macduff that she needs to leave and take her family, because people are coming to kill themSignificance: She said she doesn’t understand why she must leave because she hasn’t done anything wrong. She says people who do bad things are praised, but when you do good things gets you put in bad situations. She says the world is unfair in that way. |
| “What you have spoke, it may be so perchance./ This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,/ Was once thought honest; you have loved him well;/ He hath not touched you yet.” | Speaker: MalcolmSpoken To: MacduffSituation: They are both in England. Macduff wants to bring back Malcolm because he is the heir to the throne. If this plan works, Macduff wants to make Malcolm king.Significance: Malcolm replies by saying that it is possible, but he is skeptical of Macduff and his plan. Malcolm believes this plan of Macduffs is really to bring him back to Macbeth to have him killed. *Neither of them know that Macbeth just killed Macduff’s family. Technically Macbeth has touched Macduff. Malcolm doesn’t believe him but he should. |
| “That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth/ Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state/ Esteem him as a lamb, being compared/ With my confineless harms.” | Speaker: MalcolmSpoken To: MacduffSituation: Macduff is trying to persuade Malcolm to come back with him.Significance: Malcolm humors him by saying, if he went back with Macduff, he would be a worse king than Macbeth. Macbeth would seem like a great king compared to Malcolm. Malcolm goes on saying the country will suffer more and more. |
| “But there’s no bottom, none,/ In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters,/ Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up/ The cistern of my lust.” | Speaker: MalcolmSpoken To: MacduffSituation: They are still going back and forth about the plan to go back together and make Malcolm king.Significance: Malcolm is saying that he has a large sexual appetite. There aren’t enough woman in Scotland to satisfy him enough to be king. Macduff ends up telling him that it isn’t a problem and there are plenty of potential sexual partners for him. |
| “O nation miserable,/ With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptred,/ When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again?” | Speaker: MacduffSpoken To: MalcolmSituation: The two are still talking about going back and making Malcolm king. Malcolm continues giving reasons why he shouldn’t be king. He says he would need lots of women, lots of riches, and he even says he has no good qualities that a king should. Malcolm calls himself a horrible person.Significance: After the final reason, Macduff realizes that he isn’t fit to be king. He even says he isn’t fit to live. Macduff doesn’t even want Malcolm alive anymore. Macduff also asks when Scotland is going to be good again, because there is constant struggle under Macbeth. Macduff also tells Malcolm that he can’t go back without him because he is a traitor. |
| “Such welcome and unwelcome things at once/ ‘Tis hard to reconcile.” | Speaker: MacduffSpoken To: MalcolmSituation: Malcolm reveals that he just lied to Macduff about who he really is. Malcolm isn’t really this horrible person that he just described himself as. He does this because he wants to make sure Macduff is really on his side, because Macbeth has sent people after people before. When Macduff called himself a traitor, Malcolm realized that he was on his side, so Malcolm took everything back about himself. Malcolm also says that there are troops waiting to go back to Scotland to fight.Significance: Macduff responds by saying he can’t wrap his head around this combination of Good and bad news. He can’t believe what Malcolm said about himself, and now he can’t believe how perfect this situation has turned out. |
| “Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes/ Savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner/ Were, on the quarry of these murdered deer,/ To add the death of you.” | Speaker: RossSpoken To: Macduff (and Malcolm)Situation: Ross is telling Macduff that his entire family (everything) has been killed because of MacbethSignificance: Macduff has a hard time taking it in. He continues asking if it’s true and if certain people have been killed, even though Ross explained it to him already. Ross then tells him he needs to get revenge on Macbeth |
| “But, gentle heavens,/ Cut short all intermission. Front to front/ Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself./ Within my sword’s length set him.” | Speaker: MacduffSpoken To: MalcolmSituation: After learning that Macbeth killed his entire family, Macduff seeks revenge.Significance: Macduff wants to kill Macbeth. Specifically, he wants to fight him face-to-face and within a swords length. He thinks it’s the best way to get revenge. |
| “Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One – two – why/ then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A/ soldier and afeard?” | Speaker: Lady MacbethSpoken To: herself; she’s sleep-walkingSituation: She is washing her hands in her sleep.Significance: She is trying to scrub blood off her hands, but it’s not there. She is guilty of her murders. It is ironic because she was the one that said just a little water could wash her guilt of killing Duncan. This isn’t the first time she’s done this. Lady then goes on to confess all of her and Macbeth’s murders in her sleep. The Doctor and a gentlewoman are observing this and they hear everything. |
| “Those he commands move only in command,/ Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title/ Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe/ Upon a dwarfish thief.” | Speaker: AngusSpoken To: Mentheith, Caithness, LennoxSituation: Angus is describing Macbeth’s troops.Significance: Angus says that Macbeth’s troops aren’t loyal, they only do what he says because they will be killed otherwise. It is also a reference to borrowed robes by calling him a bad king when Angus says king hood doesn’t fit Macbeth. |
| “Cure her of that!/ Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,/ Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,/ Raze out the written troubles of the brain,/ And with some sweet oblivious antidote/ Cleanse the stuffed bosom of the perilous stuff/ Which weighs upon the heart?” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: DoctorSituation: Doctor tells Macbeth that something is troubling Lady Macbeth.Significance: Macbeth asks the doctor to cure her by clearing her mind. Macbeth wants him to use something magical to fix her, but the doctor says the only person that can fix Lady is herself. |
| “Out, out, brief candle!/ Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more. It is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing.” | Speaker: MacbethSpoken To: to himself, though Seyton was thereSituation: Lady Macbeth just died.Significance: Macbeth isn’t very shaken up, he just merely comments that life is short. He just says that she should have died some other day. Macbeth thinks it is bad timing, and it is an unusual response |
| “The castle’s gently rend’red:/ The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight,/ The noble thanes do bravely in the war,/ The day almost itself professes yours/ And little is to do.” | Speaker: SiwardSpoken To: MalcolmSituation: Siward tells them that when Macbeth’s people (most of them) surrendered and switched sides to fight with Malcolm.Significance: Now the forest has moved, Macbeth’s troops switched sides, and he is outnumbered. Things aren’t looking good for Macbeth. |
| “Despair thy charm,/ And let the angel whom thou still hast served/ Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb/ Untimely ripped.” | Speaker: MacduffSpoken To: MacbethSituation: Macbeth and Macduff are fighting and Macbeth just told Macduff that no one born of a woman can harm him.Significance: Macduff was born through a sea section, meaning a doctor birthed him, not a woman. The final apparition has been reversed, and Macbeth realizes that the witches played him like a fiddle. The final apparition is that Macbeth should fear Macduff. Macduff and Macbeth fight, and Macbeth dies. |
| Banquo | Macbeth’s best friend (at first) who receives prophecy from witches that his son shall become king. He suspects Macbeth, killed by three hired murderers (Macbeth hired them). |
| Donalbain | Duncan’s son and Malcolm’s younger brother. |
| Fleance | Banquo’s son; could become king if witches prophecy to Banquo is true |
| Hecate | Head witch; angry that other witches gave the prophecies to Macbeth and Banquo without her; she wants to be involved in the process of messing with humans because it’s fun |
| Duncan | King of Scotland; killed by Macbeth so he could take the throne |
| Lady Macbeth | Macbeth’s wife; becomes obsessed with idea of being queen; doesn’t feel guilty at first but throughout the novel goes crazy with guilt for the things she did |
| Macbeth | Main character; a brave but ruthless and brutal soldier who receives prophecies from witches; these prophecies turn him from an innocent man to a crazy animal who kills people in his way in order to be king. |
| Macduff | Nobleman; discovers Duncan’s dead body; after a while he suspects Macbeth and flees to England to conspire with Malcolm about a plan to attack Macbeth at Dunsinane; becomes Macbeth’s rival and ends up killing Macbeth |
| Malcolm | Named heir to the throne by Duncan; Prince of Cumberland |
| Prince of Cumberland | Malcolm |
| Ross | Nobleman; primarily a messenger; he informs Macduff that his entire family was killed |
| Thane of Cawdor (original) | Traitor who was ordered to be executed by Duncan; Macbeth was given the title of Thane of Cawdor because he killed a different traitor, Macdonwald, earlier. His good deed of executing a traitor is what inspired King Duncan to give the title to Macbeth |
| Witches | Speak in paradoxes; like to meddle in humans lives for fun; don’t care about human’s suffering; gives prophecies to Macbeth and Banquo |
| Aside | Speaking to the audience; however, there are other characters on stage |
| Birnamwood | Name of the forest outside of Dunsinane |
| Dunsinane | Name of King’s castle |
| Foil | A character who acts as a contrast to another character; example being Banquo and Macbeth |
| Iambic Pentameter | The verse that Shakespeare wrote in |
| Inverness | name of Macbeth’s castle |
| Paradox | Something that seems untrue or impossible; an apparently contradictory statement that actually contains some truth |
| Scone | Place where kings were coronated |
| Scotland | Where most of the play takes place; (beginning of play) both Scotland and Norway had been fighting in a war and Scotland won |
| Soliloquy | Something said alone on stage |
| What does blood symbolize? | Guilt; example being when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were washing off Duncan’s blood from their hands and Macbeth felt very guilty |
| What does the reference to “borrowed robes” indicate? | An ill-fitting title; a title that belongs to someone else; it can be because of the way the title was taken or because of the persons inexperience of that title |
| Anne Hathaway | Shakespeare’s wife |
| First Folio | First collection of Shakespeare’s works |
| Globe Theatre | Theatre involved with Shakespeare that was built in 1599; 16 sides and 3 levels of seats; weren’t seats on the ground, so people stood; no roof, so rain was a problem; got burned down, rebuilt, and torn down, and rebuilt |
| King James I | Shakespeare’s patron; paid Shakespeare to write play about his ancestors |
| Stratford-upon-Avon | Shakespeare’s birthplace |
| What happened in 1613? | Burnt down from a spark from a cannon |
| What happened in 1642? | The Puritan government issued a law that all theaters would be banned and closed down |
| In what year was Shakespeare born? | 1564 |
| In what year did Shakespeare die? | 1616 |
| What three prophecies do the witches give to Macbeth at the beginning of the play? | 1. Thanes of Glamis2. Thane of Cawdor3. King |
| What prophecy do the witches give to Banquo? | That his son would be king |
| Identify the three apparitions in the latter part of the play and tell what they said to Macbeth. | 1. Armed Head – beware and be scared of Macduff2. Bloody Child – no one born of a woman can harm him3. Child with crown and a tree in hand – Macbeth will be king until the forest reaches the castle (Birnamwood meets Dunsinane) |
Macbeth Flashcards
November 26, 2019