Q&A SummaryStory

Compare the witches’ speech pattern with Macbeth’s. (Act 4:1) Macbeth speaks in unrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse). The witches speak in irregular trochaic tetrameter (rhymed couplets). What effect is Shakespeare creating by altering the speech patterns like this in Act…

who is fighting whom? list the characters on both sides of the conflict Norway: Macdonalwald, fortune, Thane of Cawdor, King SwenoScotland: Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, Lennox what is the cause of the battle … how do the witches,…

What predictions do the witches make about Macbeth and Banquo? The witches predict that Banquo’s sons would be kings. They also predicted that Macbeth could be king. How does Macbeth react when Duncan declares his son Malcolm heir to the…

What ingredients go into the witches brew? What symbolic purpose does this vile concoction have? Liver of a blasphemous Jew, nose of a turk, the finger of a bay strangled at birth after being born in a ditch to a…

Who is Hecate and why is she angry? She’s the goddess of witcraft. She is mad at the witches because they were medding in the business of Macbeth without consulting her. What is the effect of this scene? They are…

What do Macbeth and Banquo discuss in the middle of the night–when neither of them can sleep? The wtiches’ prophecy What “vision” does Macbeth see after Banquo and Fleance leave him in the hall? A dagger–with the handle pointing toward…

Macbeth Scottish general in the king’s army and thane of Glamis, who becomes a corrupt and murderous king. INTERNAL factor- has power, wants more. EXTERNAL factor- his wife. Lady Macbeth Wife of the play’s antagonist, Macbeth who pushes him into…

Witch 2 says, “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” Who’s comes? Macbeth What is Macbeth’s attitude towards the witches this time? He is very demanding and trys to take control What four things did the…

1. What is the effect of beginning the play with the witches? There shouldn’t be witches–they are unwanted in society (divine theory)– it sets the precedent for a conflict in the play. 2. Whom are the witches going to meet…

Round about the cauldron go,In the poisoned entrails throw.Toad, that under cold stoneDays and nights has thirty-oneSweltered venom sleeping got,Boil thou first i’ th’ charmèd pot. WitchCasting spell to make Macbeth see illusions so he will have overconfidence Double, double…