| Setting | Scotland, 11th century |
| Shakespeare wrote the play for this king | King James |
| Qualities of a tragic hero | position of high rank, admirable personal qualities, tragic flaw |
| Duncan’s attitude toward Macbeth | respectful and grateful for Macbeth’s courage in battle |
| The title Duncan bestows upon Macbeth | Thane of Cawdor |
| Lady Macbeth can be described as | ruthless, cold, calculating, ambitious, manipulative |
| Macbeth’s tragic flaw | over-reaching ambition |
| Inverness | Macbeths’ home |
| Forres | Duncan’s home |
| Birnam Wood | trees used by Malcolm as camouflage for his army’s attack |
| Dunsinane | place of final battle |
| Malcolm | king’s son, named Prince of Cumberland, crowned king at the end of the play |
| Donalbain | king’s son, fled to Ireland after his father’s murder |
| Fleance | Banquo’s son, a threat to Macbeth because of the witches’ prophecy: “Thou shalt get kings though thou be none” |
| Banquo | noble, loyal, moral; killed by his best friend; shows up to haunt Macbeth |
| Macduff | his suspicions of Macbeth get his entire family killed, but he gets his revenge in the end |
| weather and other natural disturbances | indicate a break in the “chain”; signify something evil is happening or about to happen |
| witches | represent fate; play on Macbeth’s ambition; give him deliberately ambiguous prophecies |
| Hecate | vows to destroy Macbeth; states that Macbeth will “spurn fate, scorn death, bear his hopes above wisdom” |
| Macbeth’s belief that “to be thus is nothing but to be safely thus” means that | he feels having the crown is useless if there is a possibility of failure (ie: Banquo’s sons) |
| Macbeth does not fear Malcolm or Macduff because | they are “of woman born” |
| Lady Macbeth’s guilt eventually causes her to | kill herself |
| “Thou art too full of the milk of human kindness. . .” | Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth is not ruthless or cruel enough to do what needs to be done to get the throne |
| “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else overleap!” | Malcolm stands between Macbeth and the throne; now he has to wait or kill someone else |
| “Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round. . . “ | Lady Macbeth feels that she must convince Macbeth to do whatever it takes to get Duncan’s crown |
| “Unsex me here, and fill me, from the crown to the toe, topfull of direst cruelty!” | Lady Macbeth calls upon the dark spirits to take away her womanly, human feelings and fill her with a man’s cruelty |
| “They pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” | Macbeth believes that he can wash his hands of the blood, but he can never rid himself of the guilt that accompanies it. |
| Porter | a bit of comic relief; he believes that he is working at the gates of hell |
| Duncan | a bit naive; has difficulty judging people’s character; trusted Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and they killed him |
| Macbeth hesitates to kill Duncan because | Duncan has been a good, fair king, and Duncan trusts Macbeth |
| Indications that Macbeth is losing his grip on reality | hallucinates a dagger, hears voices, cannot say “Amen!”, sees ghosts, begins killing anyone he doubts |
| “Fair is foul and foul is fair!” | The line that establishes the mood of the play; all values and morals are flipped upside down |
| Macbeth’s title when he meets the witches | Thane of Glamis |
Macbeth Unit Test
August 21, 2019