Instructions: While reading (or after completing) the play Macbeth, answer the questions that begin at the bottom of this sheet. Then complete the top. Title: ______________________________________________________________ Author: ______________________________________________________________ Language: ______________________________________________________________ Nationality: ______________________________________________________________ Date Written: ______________________________________________________________ Genre: ______________________________________________________________ Style: ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Setting (Place and Time): _____________________________________________________________________ Synopsis: ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Major Themes _____________________________________________________________________ and Concepts: ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 1. What has just ended when the play begins? What role did Macbeth play in that event? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Who is Banquo? At the beginning of the play, what kind of relationship does he have with Macbeth? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What is Macbeths title at the beginning of the play? ________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. What do the Three Sisters (the witches) say to Macbeth that surprises him? Aside from surprise, what other thought does he have? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________
5. How do the Three Sisters greet Banquo? How does he react?
________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Who is Malcolm? Why is Macbeth upset when King Duncan names him Prince of Cumberland? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. When Lady Macbeth learns how the Three Sisters greeted Macbeth, what does she decide to do? Why does she think Macbeth might not agree? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. How does Lady Macbeth pressure her husband into going along with her plan? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. What vision does Macbeth see as he goes to put the plan into action? What does this reveal about his feelings toward the crime? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. What does Macbeth imagine he heard as he left the crime scene? Why does it bother him so much? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 11. What sight particularly horrifies Macbeth after the crime? How does Lady Macbeth tell him to deal with it? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 12. As he goes to answer the knocking at the gate, where does the Porter of Inverness Castle pretend he is? ________________________________________________________________________________________ 13. After Macduff discovers King Duncans body, what does Macbeth do? What reason does he give? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 14. What do the princes Malcolm and Donalbain agree to do after their father is found dead? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 15. What are some of the strange events that occur the day after Duncans murder? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________
Unit ________________________________________
Name _____________________________________
Section ______________________________________
Date ______________________________________
Guided Reading Questions for Macbeth, Part II
Instructions: While reading (or after completing) the play Macbeth, answer the questions below.
1. After he is crowned king, why is Macbeth anxious about Banquo? What action does he take in response to his fear? What goes wrong with his plan? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What does Macbeth mean when he says to Lady Macbeth, Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! (III.ii.36). ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Why does Macbeth say, The time has been, / That when the brains were out, the man would die, / And there an end; but now they rise again, / With twenty mortal murders [death-wounds] on their crowns, / And push us from our stools? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. What do each of the following apparitions tell Macbeth? a) The armed head (helmet) ________________________________________________________________ b) The bloody child________________________________________________________________________ c) The child holding a tree___________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 5. How does Macbeth decide to avenge what he sees as Macduffs betrayal? How does Shakespeare make the scene of Macbeths revenge especially upsetting? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. What is Malcolm doing in England? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________
7. Why does Malcolm tell Macduff, Be this the whetstone [Let this be the sharpening stone] of your sword; let grief / Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it! (IV.iii.228-229). ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. After not being onstage for a whole act, Lady Macbeth (now the queen) finally reappears. How has she changed? Why? What does her outward condition reveal about inner state? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. In the soliloquies Macbeth recites in the last scenes, what does he reveal to us about his inner state of mind? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. As the English armies led by Malcolm and his allies close in on Macbeth, Macbeth continues to defy the odds against him. Why? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 11. When they confront each other in battle, why does Macduff tell Macbeth, Macduff was from his mothers womb / Untimely ripped (V.viii.15-16)? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ 12. What caused Macbeths fall? ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________
