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Essential Question: How relevant is Shakespearean drama to a modern audience? 

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About 400 years ago, a small-town actor/writer made it big in the theatres in
London. His plays were popular, and he earned his share of fame and fortune.
He, and his colleagues, never suspected that what he was writing would
become regarded as masterpieces of English literature. He wasn’t writing to be
studied, he was writing popular entertainment. (Think, ​Desperate Housewives,
Midsommer Murders, The World Around Us – the Royal Family). ​ Shakespeare
saw himself as an actor, director, writer and partner in a successful acting
company.

Shakespeare, and other playwrights, had an important role to fulfil in

Elizabethan England – to entertain the masses. There was no cinema, no
television, no football. If you were wealthy enough, you could bring
entertainment into your home by hiring musicians, actors, dancers etc.
Everyone else had to find their entertainment elsewhere, and in London, the
theatre was a favourite place to meet, be seen and to relax with a good story.
The theatre was quite a new form of entertainment, so all the trendy people
wanted to be seen there. Travelling entertainers would visit towns and taverns
to sing, dance a present short play (Shakespeare includes these travelling
players in some plays – ​A Midsummer Night’s Dream a​ nd ​Hamlet​ for example),
but the best plays were staged only in London.

1. Find out about the theatres (especially the Globe and Blackfriars
Theatres) where these London plays were staged. How did people view
the performance? What special effects were used? What was the role of
animals in adding authenticity?

2. What was the social status of actors in Shakespeare’s time?

3. Why were the female roles in Shakespeare’s plays acted by boys?

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Date of birth​: 23​rd​ April

Place of birth​: Stratford upon Avon-England
Date of death:​ 23​rd​ April 1616

Marital status:​ married to Ann Hathaway

Children:

● Suzanne (May 26​th​ 1583)

● Hamnet (Christened on
February 2​nd​ 1585)
● Judith (christened on February
2​nd​ 1583)

Occupations:
*Stage hand: an employee of a
theatre who performs work involved
in putting on a theatrical production.
*Playwright
*Actor
Shakespeare is renowned as the
English playwright and poet whose
body of work is considered the
greatest in history.

Why is he considered the greatest?

● Shakespeare wrote 97 plays

● His plays have a reputation of being the greatest plays in the English
language
● Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets
● He wrote three several long narrative poems and one short poem
● All of Shakespeare’s plays have been translated into every major
language
● Shakespeare’s plays are still being performed today

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Shakespeare’s plays fall into three categories: Comedy, History and Tragedy

Comedy:​ Is the use of humour in the performing arts. It also means a

performance that relies heavily on humour. The term originally comes from the
theatre where it is simply referred to a play with a hap ending

History:​ A chronological record of true stories about the past, usually including
how and why it happened.

Tragedy:​ Is a form of drama characterised by seriousness and dignity, usually

involving a conflict between a character and some higher power, such as the
law, the gods, fate or society. Its origins are unclear, but it certainly derived
from the Greeks

RESEARCH:
1. Find a list of all the plays and put them into the appropriate categories (use
a table).
2. Find out what productions of Shakespeare’s plays are currently on stage
around the world.
3. What are the films based on Shakespeare’s play that have been made?

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blank verse poetry in which the lines do not rhyme. Shakespeare

used a mixture of prose, rhymed verse, and blank
verse in his plays, but mostly he used blank verse.
comedy a play in which the heroes do not die, but usually get
married. Most comedies are light-hearted,​ ​but some
are more sombre until the final scene, when
everyone is reconciled.
couplet a pair of lines that rhyme. Shakespeare often marks
the end of a scene or Act with a rhyming couplet.
exeunt a stage direction which shows that many people (eg
an army) are to leave the stage at the same time.
flourish/sennet a stage direction for a fanfare of drums and
trumpets, usually announcing the entrance or exit of
a king or queen.
history a play which recounts historical events.
Shakespeare’s history plays are historical fiction – he
altered people, time and events.
iambic pentameter a form of verse in which every other syllable is
stressed (as in “dah-DUM) and each line contains five
stressed syllables
quatrain a stanza of four lines, usually rhyming on alternate
lines.
rhyme royal a verse form of seven-line stanzas rhyming in the
pattern ​ababbcc.​
soliloquy a monologue that reveals the character’s inner
thoughts and feelings.
sonnet a poem of 14 lines, rhyming in the pattern ​abab cdcd
efef gg.​ Shakespeare included sonnets in a few of his
plays, and he wrote 154 sonnets as a series.
tragedy a play in which the hero has a character flaw, such as
pride, that leads to his death.

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When you read Shakespeare’s plays, the language doesn’t look or sound like modern-day
English.​ The four hundred odd years since the plays were written have seen lots of changes
to language – this is the normal evolution of words, meanings and usage. Adding to our
difficulty in understanding Shakespeare’s language is that Shakespeare often wrote in verse,
which may be harder to understand than prose. Remember, read the lines aloud for the full
effect of the words – they’re plays! Context will generally give more clues to meaning, read
the passages before and after the lines you are trying to understand. Reading whole
passages will also assist when word order is the problem.

One of the differences between Shakespeare’s English and modern English is that
Shakespeare had ​three different ways to say ​you:​ you, thou ​and ​ye.

Thou​ is informal, used among friends, and to address a child or servant. ​Thou i​ s also
used in direct addresses to God.
You​ is formal, used to address a stranger, or someone of a higher status.
Ye​ is plural, or a synonym for ​you.

To make his verses come out right, with the correct number of syllables, Shakespeare used
contraction​s and ran words together For example, ​the other​ with three syllables, becomes
th’other,​ with only two. Any words that has the final syllable of ​est​ can also be contracted,
as in ​thou know’st ​ for ​thou knowest.​ Shakespeare used contractions anywhere he needed
to adjust the number of syllables, or just to make a line sound better. The following are
some common examples:

Contraction Expansion

‘t it

‘tis it is

o’er over

e’er ever

ne’er never

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academe accused addiction advertising amazement

arouse assassinatio backing bandit bedroom
n
beached besmirch birthplace blanket bloodstained
barefaced blushing bet bump buzzer
caked cater champion circumstantial cold-blooded
compromise courtship countless critic dauntless
dawn deafening discontent dishearten drugged
dwindle epileptic equivocal elbow excitement
exposure eyeball fashionable fixture flawed
frugal generous gloomy gossip green-eyed
gust hint hobnob hurried impede
impartial invulnerable jaded label lackluster
laughable lonely lower luggage lustrous
madcap majestic marketable metamorphize mimic
monumental moonbeam mountaineer negotiate noiseless
obscene obsequiously ode olympian outbreak
panders pedant premeditate puking radiance
d
rant remorseless savagery scuffle secure
skim milk submerge summit swagger torture
tranquil undress unreal varied vaulting
worthless zany gnarled grovel

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It is a land forced into major cultural upheaval for the second time in ten years.
It is a society divided by intolerance, a population cowed beneath the iron fist
of a brutal and paranoid Police State. It is an unequal society of great wealth
and unimaginable poverty with a population bedeviled by parasites, regularly
decimated by plague, often malnourished and rife with suspicion, superstition
and bloodlust. It is a society that lives under imminent threat of war, day to
day scrutiny by spies, and cruel and unusual State retribution.

It could be the setting for a post-apocalyptic novel – Stephen King's "The

Stand" or George Orwell's dystopian "1984" – or any number of straight to
video sci-fi movies, but it isn't. This is England in 1564, the year of William
Shakespeare's birth. This really happened.

England was for the main part a green and pleasant land, predominantly rural,
virtually untouched by human hand. The population of the entire country was
probably around 3 million, compared to nearly 60 million today. The majority
of people lived in the south with York being the only city of any note in the
north.

While England was still predominantly a rural economy, there were also
thriving merchants dealing with the strange and exotic imports coming to
England from overseas – potatoes from Virginia, sugar and spices from the
Caribbean, India or China. These might be landed in London by the growing
fleets of sailing ships and then transported inland by wagon or on packhorses.

There was also a growth in what we now call service industries – roadside inns
- offering the Elizabethan equivalent of a bed, Big Mac and fries to weary
travelers - wholesome family entertainments like public executions and bear
baiting, and the world's oldest profession, prostitution. Cities had entire
quarters devoted to basic metal work, clothes making and the working of
precious metals and jewels.

By far the most valuable commodity in Elizabethan England, however, was

wool. Wool production in the 1500s was a state monopoly and, like any other
restricted industry, attracted shadowy traders and illegal deals lucrative

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enough to tempt even a successful glover like William's father John

Shakespeare into potentially dangerous criminal activity.

Not that it was particularly hard to fall foul of the law in the 1500s. This was a
meticulously recorded Police State, comparable with Hitler's Germany,
Pinochet's Chile, the former Soviet Bloc or Saddam Hussain's Iraq. Almost all
the major players in Shakespeare's life - including the poet himself - would find
themselves on the wrong side of the law at some point during their life.

The nation's center of power as it had been from late Roman times
was London, which was home to an increasingly diverse population of around
200,000. Clearly anyone with a yearning for political power or the greatest
possible audience for their art would find themselves on the road to London
eventually, as would country-born William Shakespeare.

But England was not yet the world power it would be. At this time Spain
dominated the waves and most of the known world from the Americas to the
Far East. Its fleets of heavily armed galleons ruled the seas, and under Phillip
II, Catholic ruler of most of the world, those ships raided far and wide on a
mission to convert unbelievers and steal whatever precious metals they could.

Denied an alliance with England and its ruler Elizabeth I by marriage, Phillip
began to nurture the intent to take England by force. Consequently, England
was frequently a crucible for paranoia and dissent.

And so, England was a land of clear divisions: between the old faith and the
new, between the cities and the rural communities, between the known and
that which was unknown and therefore frightening.

This was Shakespeare's England - a point in history that he would make

timeless. And this was the backdrop to his work, the seething mass of divisions
and everyday banalities that inspired a critique of the human condition every
bit as relevant today as it was revolutionary back then.

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Shakespeare usually followed the convention that great things happen only to
great people, and therefore great leaders – kings, queens, and generals – were
the subjects of his plays. However, he also added ordinary people, servants,
beggars, witches, monsters, fairies, and even gods from classical mythology.

In Shakespeare’s time, just as today, ordinary people could not see ​the
glamorous world of the kings and queens​, so popular entertainment had to
represent it for them. Shakespeare’s plays take the audience inside the world
of politics, intrigue and the affairs of state and show that the noble people in
their loves and jealousies, in their hopes and their desires. However, in
Shakespeare’s time, people believed that there was an inborn quality (natural
order) which separated the nobility from everyone else, so ordinary people did
not expect to merely see a reflection of their own lives.

Shakespeare came from the middle-class, and so he depicted merchants and

other middle-class characters sympathetically. He had a range of depictions of
lower-class or common folk, however. Some are seen as simple, hard-working
peasants but often Shakespeare shows them to be beggars, thieves and
lowlifes. He depicts mobs in his plays, as fickle and easily swayed by powerful –
and sometimes unscrupulous – leaders.

The fool, or clown, holds a special position in Shakespeare’s plays​. The fool is
an entertainer, singer, dancer, and musician, but mostly a master of word-play
and verbal wit. Far from being foolish, the fool is intelligent and talented. The
fool has a special dispensation to poke fun at the king or queen and to dare to
speak the truth. No one else can do that and get away with it. Fools often
provide social commentary, saying the truth that is so obvious but unsettling,
that no one else dares to mention it. Because the fool comments on human
foibles, his comments are just as pertinent (or impertinent) today as they were
400 years ago. Many stand-up comics fulfil the role of the fool in today’s
entertainment. This role was also used in ​Shrek​, when the role of the fool was
filled by Donkey (played by Eddie Murphy, a comedian).

Not all of Shakespeare’s characters are human​. Witches, spirits, ghosts,

magicians, and gods also populate his plays.​ Shakespeare questions whether

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Macbeth would have ever dreamt or murdering his king without the
intervention of the witches. The fairy, Puck, sums up the attitude of the
fairies, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” The majority of Shakespeare’s
plays don’t need magic, however, as Shakespeare shows real life to be quite
strange enough.

The most common character types are warriors and lovers​, sometimes one
character is both. In Shakespeare’s world, love conquers all. Consider how
these character types are represented in popular television and film today.

There are ​few female roles in Shakespeare’s plays​. Women’s roles in

Shakespeare’s time were played by pre-pubescent boys. Shakespeare even
alludes to this in ​A Midsummer Night’s Dream​, Peter Quince hands out the
roles for a play and assigns the part of Thisbe to Francis Flute, whose name
suggests that his voice is still high-pitched and unbroken. (Act I, Sc 2, l 41-45)

Good acting requires experience and practice, so it was undoubtedly difficult

to find boys who could act well. Shakespeare must, however, have found at
least one boy with tremendous talent, as he wrote roles such as Lady Macbeth.
Some plays have two strong female roles, such as Helena and Hermia in, ​A Mid
Summer Night’s Dream, ​which leads us to believe that there must have been a
small pool of these talented young men.

In Shakespeare’s day, men and women wore very different clothing. Gender
was easily established through dress. On stage, the audience accepted that any
character wearing a dress was a woman, even if a boy played that character.
When a female character dressed in men’s clothing, “she” looked like a man,
or at least like a boy. (Recall Jessica and Portia in ​The Merchant of Venice)​ .

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A good story stands the test of time and this is why Shakespeare’s plays are still relevant
today – the characters and the plots stand the test of time because they are timeless.

Where did Shakespeare get the ideas for his stories?​ Mostly, he took them from existing
plays and books. He borrowed plots, characters, and entire speeches. He often mixed ideas
from two stories into a single play. Always, though, he modified his sources and improved
on them. Reusing plots and characters from other stories (or remaking favourite tales as
Hollywood is so fond of doing) was common in Shakespeare’s time. In fact, his audiences
liked knowing the basic plot line and were looking for how Shakespeare would put his
particular mark on the story.

Every one of Shakespeare’s plays is divided into five acts​, not because Shakespeare wrote
them like this but because this is the way they were first printed and edited. The divisions
tend to follow the following format:

The first act introduces the character and sets up the story. In most comedies you
meet the prospective lovers, who are usually at odds.
The second act expands the story and tells you more about the characters. In a
comedy, the situation usually involves some confusion (most often, the lovers don’t
love each other, or they love the wrong person). In a tragedy, you’ve had the chance
to meet the heroes and the villains.
The third act is the pivotal act. In a comedy, the confusion is usually at its maximum,
but you can see how this confusion will be resolved. In a tragedy, the villains have
set their evil plans in motion, and the heroes must respond. The heroes make
mistakes however, and these mistakes ultimately lead to their deaths. The third act
is often referred to as the ​climax​ of the play because it is the pivotal moment at
which decisions are made and plans become clear. However, the audience must wait
until the last act to see the full results of these actions and decisions.
The action unfolds in the fourth act, and the heroes’ plans collide with the villains’
plans. Shakespeare’s play are fairly straight-forward and the audience knows that
the villains will be caught in the end and that the heroes will triumph, but, in a
tragedy, the heroes will lose their lives.
The fifth and final act brings all the pieces together. The villains are caught. The
heroes learn their lessons. In a comedy, the lessons are light and the lovers get
married. In a tragedy, the heroes die to pay for their mistakes. The world of a
tragedy is cruel, this is an integral part of the play’s larger-than-life nature.

Shakespeare wrote plays about people and their problems​. The main reason that his plays
remain popular is that people (and their problems) have not changed very much in 400
years. The kings, tyrants, murderers and lovers about whom Shakespeare wrote face the
same issues that everyone else faces. The two problems that Shakespeare wrote about most
frequently were: love and revenge.

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LOVE
The most popular topic in Shakespeare’s comedies is love: unrequited love, forbidden love,
disguised love, misguided love. The rule for comedy is that all of the relationships must be
straightened out by the end of the play. Shakespeare gives you lots of hints at the start of
each play, so you can tell who will marry whom by the end of the play. The first two acts
introduce the characters and their relationships. If a couple is happy together when a play
begins, you can be fairly sure that something will go wrong, but that matters will be patched
up by the final act, and they will be together again at the end. If a play opens with a man
pressing unwanted attention on a woman, Shakespeare is usually telling the audience that
these lovers don’t belong together. In a comedy, the only solution to this kind of problem is
to find a suitable mate for the misguided lover. Even Shakespeare’s tragedies examine
aspects of love. Often the audience can see how insecurity and low self-esteem can mar a
relationship.

REVENGE
Life isn’t fair. Sometimes the trials and tribulations of life seem so grossly stacked against
you that you seek a reason, a person to blame, a person on whom you can seek revenge.
Revenge is a popular theme in Shakespeare’s play, especially his tragedies. But revenge is
usually just one element of a much more complex story. As you read or watch a play, play
particular attention to ​why​ someone seeks revenge and ​how​ they carry out the plan.
Inevitably revenge begets revenge. In

Shakespeare’s plays, revenge escalates until the final act when heroes and villains alike face
the consequences of their unbridled hatred.

TRAGEDY
Shakespeare’s most famous plays are his tragedies, such as ​Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Julius
Caesar, ​and ​Macbeth.​ These plays follow the standard rules for tragedies: the hero has a
basic human frailty that brings about his downfall and death, but before he dies, he learns
an important lesson about his frailty and how it destroyed his life (and usually of those he
loved). Shakespeare did not write his plays to teach his audience a lesson, but rather as
entertainment, full of action, intrigue, and excitement.

The tragic hero is a person of high degree, often a king or a prince. He is a good person but
not perfect. Like every human being, he has flaws. A tragic play takes one of those flaws and
shows how it affects the hero’s life. To make the play more thrilling, the action in a tragedy
is magnified, so much so that the hero dies.

Shakespeare’s villains are often his most interesting characters. Although they seem at first
to be pure evil, as you get to know them, you realise that they are human too. They act in
response to injury, although their response is out of proportion to the hurt. The villain’s role
in a tragedy is to take advantage of the hero’s flaw and bring it out into the open. The villain
shows the audience how we all have a little bit of the villain in us.

Shakespeare’s plays contain numerous varieties of villains, from the merely disgruntled to
the envious to those hell-bent on revenge – reflecting the nature of society, some villains
are outcasts because of their illegitimate birth (they are bastards). Conflict is a natural
element to any dramatic story, and Shakespeare’s villains usually provide the conflict.

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COMEDY
In Shakespeare’s time, a comedy was a play in which the protagonist didn’t die. Comedies
tended to be less grandiose than tragedies; heroes might learn a lesson but wouldn’t die.
Villains might get caught and face justice, but not the death penalty. Most comedies are
love stories and in the end the hero and the heroine get married. Comedies do not follow
the same strict formula as tragedies. Sometimes a villain causes the mix-up, and at the end
of the play he will be punished. Other times, the confusion is the result of honest
circumstance, such as mistaken identity. Occasionally, the hero causes the mix-up,
intentionally or accidentally.

In a comedy, the action may originate from circumstances which are outside the hero’s
control. Perhaps a nasty relative has evicted the hero from their proper home. Sometimes, a
wandering eye causes a would-be hero to fall in love with a woman other than his fiancée.

HISTORICAL FICTION
Shakespeare based his histories on written accounts of the kings of England. His audience
knew these stories well, so they knew when Shakespeare altered the past, moved events
forward or backwards by a few years, and so on. But historical accuracy was not important
to an audience seeking good entertainment.

Shakespeare also altered history to please England’s reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth I
and her successor, King James. Shakespeare and his acting company depended on the good
graces of the monarch, and pleasing the king or queen made good political and financial
sense.

FAIRY TALES
Many of Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies are like fairy tales. The stories are unreal
and even outrageous. In Shakespeare’s stories, magic, fairies, ghosts and witches are as real
as the people. To his audience, ghosts were real in a way that modern audiences find hard
to believe.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

Especially in the comedies, two people might meet for the first time and fall immediately,
desperately, and completely in love. This unlikely scenario was popular in Shakespeare’s
plays. Sometimes magic is involved, but not always.

Shakespeare chose this theme well, and it is still popular today. Consider its role in
advertising – boy exchanges glances with a girl, atmosphere enhanced by perfume, alcohol,
soft drink, jeans etc, and their lives are changed forever.

DIVINE JUSTICE
In every one of Shakespeare’s plays, the villains are always caught and punished. From the
very beginning of every play, you can have faith that, even if the tragic heroes do not live
happily ever after, they will see justice done on the villains. (For example, in ​Macbeth,
Macduff loses his entire family but he lives to see Macbeth dead.) The characters always
make mistakes, sometimes fatal mistakes. Often the villains seem literally to get away with

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murder. But they are always caught in the end. Shakespeare’s audience were a much more
religious people than most modern audiences and so this justice meted out by God (or the
gods) seemed entirely plausible and profoundly reassuring – something missing from many
modern stories.

FATE AND DESTINY

In Shakespeare’s plays, characters are free to make some choices but they cannot escape
their ultimate destiny. Understanding the role of the formula in deciding the fate of the
characters may be quite comforting. In the comedies, an invisible hand seems to shape and
order events so that everything comes out just right. Justice, fate and destiny work behind
the scenes to produce the correct ending to the play’s plot, one which the audience finds
immensely satisfying.

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The sketch at left is perhaps one of the most important in

theatrical history. In 1596, a Dutch student by the name of
Johannes de Witt attended a play in London at the Swan
Theatre. While there, de Witt made a drawing of the theatre's
interior. A friend, Arend van Buchell, copied this drawing and
in doing so contributed greatly to posterity. The sketch is the
only surviving contemporary drawing of the interior of an
Elizabethan-era public theatre. As such, it's the closest thing
historians have to an original picture of what the Globe may
have looked like in its heyday.
Shakespeare's company erected the multi-storey Globe
Theatre circa 1598 in London's Bankside district. It was one of
four major theatres in the area, along with the Swan, the Rose,
and the Hope. The open-air, octagonal amphitheatre rose
three storeys high with a diameter of approximately 33
metres, holding a seating capacity of up to 3,000 spectators. The rectangular stage platform
on which the plays were performed was nearly 12 metres wide and 9 metres deep. This
staging area probably housed trap doors in its flooring and primitive rigging overhead for
various stage effects.
The story of the original Globe's construction might be worthy of a Shakespearean play of its
own. The Lord Chamberlain's Men had been performing in the Theatre, built by James
Burbage (the father of Richard Burbage) in 1576. In 1597, although the company technically
owned the Theatre, their lease on the land on which it stood expired. Their landlord, Giles
Allen, wanted to tear the Theatre down. This led the company to purchase property at
Blackfriars in Upper Frater Hall, which they bought for £600 and set about converting for
theatrical use.
Unfortunately, their aristocratic neighbors complained to the Privy Council about the plans
for Blackfriars. Cuthbert Burbage tried to renegotiate the Theatre lease with Giles Allen in
autumn of 1598; Allen vowed to put the wood and timber of the building "to better use."
Richard and Cuthbert learned of his plans and set in motion a plot of their own. It seems
that the company's lease had contained a provision allowing them to dismantle the building
themselves.
In late December of 1598, Allen left London for the countryside. The Burbage brothers, their
chief carpenter, and a party of workmen assembled at the Theatre on the night of
December 28. The men stripped the Theatre down to its foundation, moved the materials
across the Thames to Bankside, and proceeded to use them in constructing the Globe.
The endeavor was not without controversy. A furious Giles Allen later sued Peter Street, the
Burbage's carpenter, for £800 in damages. The courts found in favor of the Lord
Chamberlain's Men and ordered Allen to desist from any further legal wrangling. The Globe
would play host to some of Shakespeare's greatest works over the next decade. In an ironic
epilogue, the troupe won the right in 1609 to produce plays at Blackfriars, and subsequently
split time between there and the Globe.
In 1613, the original Globe Theatre burned to the ground when a cannon shot during a
performance of ​Henry VIII​ ignited the thatched roof of the gallery. The company completed

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a new Globe on the foundations of its predecessor before Shakespeare's death. It continued
operating until 1642, when the Puritans closed it down (and all the other theatres, as well as
any place, for that matter, where people might be entertained). Puritans razed the building
two years later in 1644 to build tenements upon the premises. The Globe would remain a
ghost for the next 352 years.
The foundations of the Globe were rediscovered in 1989, rekindling interest in erecting a
modern version of the amphitheatre. Led by the vision of the late Sam Wanamaker, workers
began construction in 1993 on the new theatre near the site of the original. The latest Globe
Theatre was completed in 1996; Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the theatre on June 12,
1997 with a production of ​Henry V.​ The Globe is as faithful a reproduction as possible to the
Elizabethan model, seating 1,500 people between the galleries and the "groundlings." In its
initial 1997 season, the theatre attracted 210,000 patrons.

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The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches and then moves
to a military camp, where the Scottish King Duncan hears the news that his
generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have defeated two separate invading
armies—one from Ireland, led by the rebel Macdonwald, and one from
Norway. Following their pitched battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and
Banquo encounter the witches as they cross a moor. The witches prophesy
that Macbeth will be made thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and
eventually King of Scotland. They also prophesy that Macbeth’s companion,
Banquo, will beget a line of Scottish kings, although Banquo will never be king
himself. The witches vanish, and Macbeth and Banquo treat their prophecies
skeptically until some of King Duncan’s men come to thank the two generals
for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named
thane of Cawdor. The previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the
Norwegians and Duncan has condemned him to death. Macbeth is intrigued by
the possibility that the remainder of the witches’ prophecy—that he will be
crowned king—might be true, but he is uncertain what to expect. He visits with
King Duncan, and they plan to dine together at Inverness, Macbeth’s castle,
that night. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that
has happened.

Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband’s uncertainty. She desires the
kingship for him and wants him to murder Duncan in order to obtain it. When
Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides all of her husband’s objections and
persuades him to kill the king that very night. He and Lady Macbeth plan to get
Duncan’s two chamberlains drunk so they will black out; the next morning they
will blame the murder on the chamberlains, who will be defenseless, as they
will remember nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite
his doubts and a number of supernatural portents, including a vision of a
bloody dagger. When Duncan’s death is discovered the next morning, Macbeth
kills the chamberlains—ostensibly out of rage at their crime—and easily
assumes the kingship. Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England
and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever killed Duncan desires their
demise as well.

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Fearful of the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will seize the throne,
Macbeth hires a group of murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They
ambush Banquo on his way to a royal feast, but they fail to kill Fleance, who
escapes into the night. Macbeth becomes furious: as long as Fleance is alive,
he fears that his power remains insecure. At the feast that night, Banquo’s
ghost visits Macbeth. When he sees the ghost, Macbeth raves fearfully,
startling his guests, who include most of the great Scottish nobility. Lady
Macbeth tries to neutralize the damage, but Macbeth’s kingship incites
increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects. Frightened, Macbeth goes
to visit the witches in their cavern. There, they show him a sequence of
demons and spirits who present him with further prophecies: he must beware
of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth’s accession to the
throne; he is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman; and he
will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth is relieved
and feels secure, because he knows that all men are born of women and that
forests cannot move. When he learns that Macduff has fled to England to join
Malcolm, Macbeth orders that Macduff’s castle be seized and, most cruelly,
that Lady Macduff and her children be murdered.

When news of his family’s execution reaches Macduff in England, he is stricken

with grief and vows revenge. Prince Malcolm, Duncan’s son, has succeeded in
raising an army in England, and Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland to
challenge Macbeth’s forces. The invasion has the support of the Scottish
nobles, who are appalled and frightened by Macbeth’s tyrannical and
murderous behavior. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes plagued with fits of
sleepwalking in which she bemoans what she believes to be bloodstains on her
hands. Before Macbeth’s opponents arrive, Macbeth receives news that she
has killed herself, causing him to sink into a deep and pessimistic despair.
Nevertheless, he awaits the English and fortifies Dunsinane, to which he seems
to have withdrawn in order to defend himself, certain that the witches’
prophecies guarantee his invincibility. He is struck numb with fear, however,
when he learns that the English army is advancing on Dunsinane shielded with
boughs cut from Birnam Wood. Birnam Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane,
fulfilling half of the witches’ prophecy.

In the battle, Macbeth hews violently, but the English forces gradually
overwhelm his army and castle. On the battlefield, Macbeth encounters the
vengeful Macduff, who declares that he was not “of woman born” but was
instead “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb (what we now call birth by
cesarean section). Though he realizes that he is doomed, Macbeth continues to
fight until Macduff kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the King of Scotland,

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declares his benevolent

intentions for the country and

invites all to see him crowned at Scone. We will watch this video as a class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-PKotyoxy

Instructions: Use the following character map to think deeply about how the
character’s actions affect the work as a whole. On the lines, provide the answer
to each of the following; ​1)​ List important traits, 2
​ )​ List quotes relating to
morals and values, ​3)​ Track lessons taught or learned.

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SCENE GUIDE
For each act, you will be completing a Scene Guide to help you understand and follow the important
elements of your reading. For each scene, in short phrases or words, summarize the setting, the
action (plot), and the main characters involved in the action.

Setting, Action Summary (Plot)

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 7

Now that you have read and taken notes on Act One, make a prediction as to what you will believe
will happen next in Act Two.

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My Prediction:
_____________________________________________________________________________

ACT 1, SCENE 1
Consider the following…
As the play begins, three witches appear. The audience in Shakespeare’s time (called the
Elizabethan Age) would not have been surprised to see witches. That’s because many of
them believed in witches. Witches were suspected of having strange powers, such as the
ability to make people do evil deeds. Shakespeare knew three such eerie women were bound
to interest his audience.
Shakespeare included witches for another reason, too. He wrote Macbeth as a special
favour for King James I of England. Since he knew James had just written a book about
witches, he made certain there were witches in Macbeth.
As you read this short scene, consider the mood and tone created by the witches.

Questions:
1. The play is set in what country? And, this country is at war with whom?

2. When are the witches planning to meet again and for what purpose?

3. Describe the setting of this scene. How might it be significant considering this is the first
scene of the play? What sort of mood does it create?

4. The witches say together, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” This is one of the most famous
lines in ​Macbeth.​ What do you think it means?

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Act I, Scene II

Consider the following…

Since King James I was born in Scotland, Shakespeare based Macbeth on real people and
events in Scottish history. For example, Macbeth is set in Scotland in the early 1000s
(11thcentury). At the time in history, there really was a King Duncan who ruled
Scotland. He had two sons named Malcolm and Donalbain. Duncan became king in 1034
while Scotland was forming into a nation.

Questions:
1. What does the Sergeant specifically report about Macbeth? What does this news reveal
to you about Macbeth’s character?

2. What is Macbeth’s relationship to King Duncan?

3. Who had Macbeth and Banquo been fighting?

4. The Sergeant uses many similes to describe the battle. Identify two.

5. What does Ross mean when he calls Macbeth “Belona’s bridegroom”?

6. What does King Duncan instruct Ross to do and why?

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Act I, Scene III

Consider the following…
In this scene, the three witches call themselves the “Weird Sisters.” In Shakespeare’s time,
the word weird meant more than strange-acting. It was still closely tied to the ancient word
wyrd,​ which meant fate. Thus, Elizabethans saw the sisters as supernatural beings who
could control people’s lives.
Notice how the witches use their “weird” powers in this scene by speaking of the future.

Questions:
1. What does the First Witch plan to do to a sailor and why? What does this tell you about
the three witches?

2. When Macbeth says, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen,” what does he mean? What
other line of the play does he echo? As Macbeth’s first words of the play, how might this
be significant?

3. What are the witches’ three predictions (or their three titles) for Macbeth?

1.
2.
3.
4. What do they predict for Banquo?

5. How likely does Macbeth think it is that he will become Thane of Cawdor or King of
Scotland? How is this an example of dramatic irony?

6. As the others talk, what does Macbeth’s aside reveal about his thinking? What does he
fear? How is this moment a significant turning point for Macbeth?

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Act I, Scene IV

Consider the following…

In the 11th century, the Scots followed a special system for naming their kings. The king in
power would choose the next ruler. (Male family members were usually chosen.) This
person would then be known as the Prince of Cumberland until he was crowned. In this
way, the Scots would always have a leader ready to carry on after the current king.
However, this system could lead to violence. Often a man next in line to the throne was
tempted to speed things up by murdering the king. In fact, a total of ten Scottish kings were
murdered by their successors.
In this scene, note how Duncan’s announcement causes problems for Macbeth.

Questions:
1. How does Duncan regard what Macbeth has done for him? What does Macbeth think
about the services he has provided?

2. What metaphor does the King use to describe how he will nurture Macbeth? How does
Banquo further the metaphor?

3. What is the significance of Duncan naming Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland?

4. How does Macbeth react to the announcement in his last speech in this scene? What
does he reveal?

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Act I, Scene V
Consider the following…
In early Scotland, men ruled both public and private life. The warriors, priests, mayors, and
merchants were all males. At home, too, they controlled their wives and children. In almost
all situations, women were expected to obey men. The woman’s job was to keep the
household and raise children.
A noblewoman, such as Lady Macbeth, generally had an easier life than a peasant
woman. Upper-class women were often taught to read, write, and even sing. Yet though
they were praised in poems, songs, and tales, their talents did not win them real
respect. They were considered inferior to men.
Lady Macbeth does not exactly welcome this image. In fact, in Scene v, she wishes that her
female traits of gentleness and mercy would disappear. Notice her strong personality as
you read this scene.

Questions:
1. After Lady Macbeth finishes reading the letter, she says Macbeth, “shalt be” what he has
been promised, meaning the King of Scotland. Why is this comment significant?

2. Why does Lady Macbeth want her husband to hurry home?

3. How does the news about King Duncan’s impending arrival affect Lady Macbeth? What
is she planning?

4. Why does Lady Macbeth pray to be “unsexed”? How else does she ask to be altered and
why? What does this say about Shakespeare’s view of the nature of masculinity and
femininity?

5. When Macbeth enters, how does Lady Macbeth again echo the words of the witches?

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Act I, Scene VI
Consider the following…
In Elizabethan times, many Christians believed that a monarch (king or queen) represented
God. A monarch ruled by “divine right,” which meant that people thought the ruler was
actually chosen by God. So disobeying a king or queen would upset God’s plan for the order
of the universe. Murdering a monarch was to kill God’s representative.
But in 11th century Scotland, a ruler was not yet considered divine. Instead, he was the
most important human being in a kingdom. In fact, sometimes the rule was not as powerful
as some of his followers. Therefore, to disobey or even kill a king was not unthinkable.
Macbeth, you recall, was written for King James I of England. King James and most
Elizabethan people strongly believe in divine right. So Shakespeare made the slaying of a
king a sinful and horrible action. Notice how he creates this horror in Scenes vi and vii.

Question:
1. How do Duncan and Banquo regard Macbeth’s home? How are their comments an
example of dramatic irony?

2. How does Lady Macbeth’s behavior in this scene contrast with what we know of her
from the last scene? What does this indicate about her character?

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Act I, Scene VII

1. What arguments does Macbeth raise for not committing the murder? What does
Macbeth mean when he says that Duncan is “here in double trust”?

2. Macbeth indicates that Duncan has been a great ruler. According to Macbeth what
qualities make Duncan a good king?

3. What resolution does Macbeth communicate to Lady Macbeth?

4. What does Lady Macbeth say in an attempt to goad her husband into committing the
murder? How do her comments tie into her earlier characterizations of masculinity and
femininity?

5. Macbeth’s response to his wife, about what a man may dare, is frequently quoted. What
does he mean?

6. Lady Macbeth reveals the details of the murder plot. What are they, and how does she
convince Macbeth that the plan will work?

7. Why does Macbeth believe his wife should “bring forth men-children only”? Has her
plan convinced him to continue in the scheme?

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For ACT TWO, you will be completing a Scene Guide to help you understand and follow the
important elements of your reading. For each scene, in short phrases or words, summarize the
setting, the action (plot), and the main characters involved in the action

Setting, Action Summary (Plot)

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Now that you have read and taken notes on Act Two, make a prediction as to what you will
believe will happen next in the Act Three.

My Prediction:

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Act II, Scene I

Consider the following…
In earlier times, the duties of a host were very important. Only major cities had inns for
travelers. Therefore, travelers were often forced to stay at a stranger’s house. A host was
expected to provide a guest with food, shelter, and protection. Harming a guest was
considered a terrible crime.
A visitor also followed strict codes of behavior. He or she was expected to honor the host,
often by giving fine gifts.
As you read Scene I, notice how the King repays Macbeth and Lady Macbeth for their
hospitality. Then contrast the King’s words and actions with Macbeth’s plans for him.

Questions:
1. How can we tell that Banquo is nervous or fearful in scene 1?

2. Why do you think Macbeth lies to Banquo and tells him that he, Macbeth, has not
thought of the weird sisters?

3. How would you describe Macbeth’s mental/emotional state at this point?

4. What does the ringing of the bell indicate to Macbeth? How does Macbeth say the
ringing relates to Duncan?

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Act II, Scene II

Consider the following…
The plot to murder Duncan in Macbeth would have been a familiar threat to King James. He
knows how dangerous it was to be a monarch. His mother - Mary Queen of Scots - was
executed for plotting against Queen Elizabeth of England. And his father was mysteriously
murdered. (It was believed that James' mother was involved in the murder.) James' aunt,
Anne Bolyn, was beheaded by her own husband, King Henry VIII.
James, too, was threatened. Guy Fawkes was executed in 1605 for trying to overthrow
James and put a Catholic ruler on the throne.
As you read Scene ii, imagine you are a member of the royal family. How would you feel
about Macbeth's actions?

Questions:
1. How does Lady Macbeth prevent the servants from coming to King Duncan’s rescue?

2. Who is the one that commits the crime? How might this be slightly ironic?

3. Give an example of a line from the play that illustrates Macbeth’s guilt following the
murder?

4. What does Lady Macbeth say is the reason she was unable to kill the King herself?

5. At the close of the scene, there is an incessant knocking at the door. What might this
knocking symbolize?

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Act II, Scene III

Consider the following…
In Shakespeare's time, people believed that there was a perfect order to their universe.
Everything fell neatly into the place God assigned it.
Elizabethans pictured God's plan as a chain or ladder. God, of course, was at the top.
Angels and then humans followed. Next came beasts, fowl, fish, and insects. In this "great
chain of being," even the smallest insect was linked to God.
People also believed that God divided humans into classes. For example, knights were
above merchants, merchants above peasants, peasants above serfs. The higher a person's
rank, the higher a person stood on the chain.
The Elizabethans thought that any change in God's order could set off horrifying reactions as
the universe reacted and tried to restore order. Thus the murder of a monarch, the
supreme rule, would deeply upset the harmony of the universe. Disasters - including
terrible storms - might follow such an act.
As you read the next two scenes, notice the frightening events that follow Duncan's death.

Questions:
1. What do you think is the main purpose of the scene with the porter? Keep in mind, it
comes right after the murder.

2. How does Macduff question Macbeth’s actions? What does Lady Macbeth do to
intercede?

3. Why do Malcolm and Donalbain flee the country once the murder of their father
becomes known?

4. In Greek theater, tragedies focus on the tragic hero. This tragic hero is a great man who
has one tragic flaw, which brings about his downfall. As the hero accepts the
consequences of his errors he teachers the audience some truth of life. If Macbeth is a
tragic hero, what is his tragic flaw?

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Act II, Scene IV

Questions:
1. What further unnatural acts are occurring? What do you think these happenings are
meant to signify?

2. Who is suspected of setting up the murder of Duncan? Why?

3. Who has been named King? Where will the coronation take place?

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For ACT THREE, you will be completing a Scene Guide to help you understand and follow the
important elements of your reading. For each scene, in short phrases or words, summarize the
setting, the action (plot), and the main characters involved in the action

Setting, Action Summary (Plot)

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Now that you have read and taken notes on Act Three, make a prediction as to what you will
believe will happen next in Act Four.

My Prediction:

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Act III, Scene I

Consider the following…
Macbeth is now King of Scotland. In Scottish history, the real King Macbeth ruled from 1040
to 1057. He became king after leading a rebellion against King Duncan and slaying Duncan
in battle. For ten years, Macbeth was a fairly good monarch. But in the last seven years of
his rule, he became suspicious and cruel.
For the murder plot in the play, Shakespeare borrowed from another time in history. A
Scottish king named Duff was murdered in his sleep when he was a guest of Donwald, one
of his nobles. According to history, Donwald's wife convinced him to murder King Duff.
So, Shakespeare used historical facts to make his play exciting and to please King James, but
he changed history to suit his purposes
In the scene that follows, notice how the murder has affected Macbeth.

Questions:
1. Look at the dialogue between Macbeth and Banquo; how has their relationship changed
now that Macbeth is King? How has Macbeth’s demeanor change since his last scene?

2. What can we can we infer is Macbeth’s plan (or next move) from his soliloquy?

3. Why does Macbeth decide to hire murderers as opposed to doing the deed himself?
How does he motivate the murderers?

4. What is the specific plan for Banquo’s murder? Who else is to be killed in the plot?

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Act III, Scene II

Consider the following…
To this day, some people are fearful when a black cat crosses their path. This old
superstition is linked to the notion that cats were helpers of witches and devils.

People in the Middle Ages and in Elizabethan times held many such beliefs about animals.
Like cats, hares that crossed your path were unlucky because they, too, were linked with
witches. The meat of the hare was not good for you, either. It was thought to produce
sadness.

Another unlucky sign was the crowing of a hen. Such a sound supposedly meant someone
would soon die. Ravens could be unwelcome birds as well. Their appearance was said to
foretell disease, starvation, and death.

Among other strange animal beliefs, it was said pelicans fed their young with their own
blood. Deer were believed to shed tears. And toads were thought to have a great jewel in
their heads which could cure poison.

As you read Scenes ii and iii, notice if the insects and animals mentioned bring good fortune
or bad.

Questions:
1. By scene 2, what is now Lady Macbeth’s attitude about her newly-gotten crown?

2. What strong metaphor does Macbeth use to describe his mental state? What is he
worried about? Is Lady Macbeth aware of his plans to resolve his worries?

3. How have Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s roles changed from earlier in the play?

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Act III, Scene III

Questions:
1. What happens during the ambush? What causes the murderers to leave the job only
half done?

2. What are Banquo’s dying words? How might they related back to the prophecies?

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Act III, Scene IV

Consider the following…
Shakespeare's plays often feature supernatural creatures. Yet none are more terrible than
the ghost Macbeth will meet.

The thought of a ghost was even more frightening to Elizabethans than it is to horror fans
today. Some people who thought they'd been visited by a ghost went insane. Most
Elizabethans thought that ghosts came back to earth for a reason. Usually that reason was
thought to be revenge.

The Church of England had its own beliefs about ghosts. Clergymen insisted that spirits
were really devils that took on the shape of a dead person. This notion was naturally very
alarming. People feared that these demons could drag them to hell.

As you read Scene IV, notice how Macbeth reacts to the horrifying shape that haunts him.

Questions:
1. How does Macbeth respond to the news of Fleance’s escape? What details does the
first murderer reveal about Banquo’s death?

2. Upon returning to the banquet table, what does Macbeth see and how does he
respond? How do the guests respond?

3. How does Lady Macbeth explain her husband’s behavior to their guests? How does
she criticize her husband, and what earlier experience of Macbeth’s does she recall?

4. In this scene, what does the ghost of Banquo likely represent?

5. Why has Macbeth paid a servant to watch each of the noblemen?

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Act III, Scene V

Questions:
1. Who is Hecate? Why is she angry with the witches?

2. What comments does Hecate make that suggest Macbeth has free will? What does she
say to suggest he is controlled by fate?

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Act III, Scene VI

Consider the following…
In this scene, you will deal with more Scottish history.

Northumberland is one name you will encounter. This was an English county on the border
between Scotland and England. For centuries, English and Scottish lords fought over this
land. Finally in the 10th century, an English king tried to settle the dispute by giving the
northern part of Northumberland to Scotland. However, the English earls never accepted
losing part of their land.

Siward is another name out of history. He was an English earl of Northumberland during
Macbeth's rule. Siward agreed to help Duncan's son Malcolm take the throne from
Macbeth. Perhaps Siward hoped to get back his homeland as a reward. No one knows. As
Shakespeare portrays him, he is an honest general who bravely defends Malcolm against
cruel Macbeth.

In Scene vi, watch for hints that Macbeth's role in Duncan's murder is suspected by his
nobles.

Questions:
1. Lennox seems to be very careful in his speech. Why is he cautious in what he says?
What, if anything, could be interpreted as a criticism of Macbeth?

2. The audience learns that Macduff has gone to England to do what?

3. According to the Lord, what problems are plaguing Scotland? What is the source of
these troubles?

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For ACT FOUR, you will be completing a Scene Guide to help you understand and follow the
important elements of your reading. For each scene, in short phrases or words, summarize the
setting, the action (plot), and the main characters involved in the action

Setting, Action Summary (Plot)

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Now that you have read and taken notes on Act Four, make a prediction as to what you will
believe will happen next in Act Five.

My Prediction:

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Act IV, Scene I

Consider the following…
Many Elizabethans, including King James, believed that witches practiced "black arts." For
example, it was thought that witches could brew potions made of horrid ingredients to cast
evil spells. Or they could call upon spirits or "illusions" to foretell the future. Superstitious
beliefs such as these were great material for a playwright.

In Scene i, a spirit will again link Macbeth's future to the dead Banquo. As you read this
scene, imagine how it might have been staged for an Elizabethan audience.

Questions:
1. Why does Macbeth return to the witches?

2. What or whom do they conjure up? Also, what are the three warnings/prophecies?

1.

2.

3.

3. What is Macbeth’s final question, and what is its message? How does Macbeth respond?

4. How is Macbeth encouraged by the witches’ prophecies?

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Act IV, Scene II

Consider the following…
In the 11th century, an honorable Scotsman was expected to be a loyal defender of his king
and clan. A man died in bed was thought to be weak and cowardly. The worthy man died in
battle.

Shakespeare's audience also understood the importance of loyalty and bravery. Soldiers
were expected to die in battle rather than surrender. The safety of king, country, and family
came before their own lives.

In this play, Macduff faces a difficult choice. Should he protect and defend his family, his
country, or his king? As you read Scene ii, see if you can decide what MacDuff honors most.

Questions:
1. Why does Lady Macduff think Macduff’s flight was “madness”?

2. Why does she tell her child that Macduff is dead? How would you describe the child?

3. Why does Lady Macduff feel it is unfair that she must flee?

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Act IV, Scene III

Consider the following…
In Scene iii, a "crowd of miserable creatures" waits for Macbeth to cure them. Since English
kings and queens were supposedly divine, many people believed monarchs could heal the
sick with a touch. King James was one who claimed great success in curing diseases. (After
all, only a fool would say that the King's touch hadn't produced a cure.)

Shakespeare probably included this episode to flatter King James. While you read the
scene, picture the actors looking directly at James as they speak of the King's holy touch.

Questions:
1. What various reasons does Malcolm give for being suspicious of Macduff? How does
Macduff react?

2. How does Malcolm cleverly test Macduff’s loyalty? What is Macduff’s initial
response? What finally indicates to Malcolm that Macduff is truly loyal?

3. What news does Ross bring to Macduff?

4. Why do you think Macduff comments about Macbeth’s lack of children?

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For ACT FIVE, you will be completing a Scene Guide to help you understand and follow the important
elements of your reading. For each scene, in short phrases or words, summarize the setting, the
action (plot), and the main characters involved in the action

Setting, Action Summary (Plot)

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 7

Scene 8

Now that you have read and taken notes on Act Five, what questions do you still have about
the play?

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Act V, Scene I

Questions:
1. What has Lady Macbeth been seen doing late at night?

2. How does Lady Macbeth’s character in this scene contrast with her behavior in earlier
scenes?

3. What secrets does Lady Macbeth speak about in her sleepwalking? What calls her back to
bed?

Act V, Scene II

Questions:
1. What does Angus say about the men that Macbeth commands?

2. How is the plant metaphor begun by Duncan in Act I, Scene IV, continued in this scene?

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Act V, Scene III

Questions:
1. Why is Macbeth not worried when he receives word that the Scottish nobles, along with
thousands of English troops, are marching toward the castle? Which part of the witches’
prophecy does he overlook?

2. What are Macbeth’s troops doing? Why does he remain so confident?

3. What is Macbeth’s lament in his speech beginning, “my way of life is fallen into the
sear…”?

4. How would you describe Macbeth’s demeanor in this scene?

Act V, Scene IV

Questions:
1. What tactical strategy does Malcolm implement? What is its purpose, and why is it
significant to the play?

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Act V, Scene V

Questions:
1. How does the sound of the woman’s cry affect Macbeth?

2. In reaction to the news that Lady Macbeth is dead, Macbeth delivers his most famous
soliloquy. What is the main idea of the speech?

3. What does Macbeth now recognize about the prophecies? How does his realization
relate to the play’s central theme?

Act V, Scene VI

Questions:
1. Where are Malcolm’s forces now located?

2. How would you characterize the scene in the final act so far? What sort of mood does
their form create?

Act V, Scene VII

Questions:
1. What information does Macduff reveal about himself that makes Macbeth frightened?

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2. What comforts Siward about his son’s death?

Act V, Scene VIII

Questions:
1. How was Macbeth viewed differently by the other characters at the end of the play
than he was at the very beginning?

2. What is the final resolution of the play?

3. What sort of moral or lesson can we gather from the play’s action?

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AMBITIONS

You'd think it was enough to be the nation's greatest warrior ​and​ Thane of Cawdor. What
more could a man want? Apparently, a lot. Once Macbeth has had a taste of power, he's
willing to kill anyone (men, women, and children) who he thinks might undermine his seat
on Scotland's throne. But Macbeth doesn’t get to enjoy being a king for long. He puts his
own desires before the good of his country, and, in the end, is destroyed by that ambition.

 Questions…

1. What compels Macbeth to murder Duncan? What drives him to continue committing
heinous acts after the initial murder?
2. What does Lady Macbeth say about her husband's ambition? What does this reveal about
her desires?
3. If Macbeth believed he was fated to have the crown, can he be credited (or blamed) with
ambition in trying to gain it?
4. What fuels Malcolm's interest in defending Scotland? Do his actions up to the final battle
indicate that he's prepared to be King? Is he ambitious? What is the difference between him
and Macbeth, if they’re after the same throne?

FATE AND FREE WILL

‘The dog ate my homework. The devil made me do it. She forced me to ​eat that apple​.’

People have been coming up with excuses for their actions since Ugg first had to apologize
for hitting Zog with a rock. (The sabre-toothed tiger made me do it?) And the favourite
excuse of great tragedy is almost always "fate." But ​Macbeth​ questions that excuse. Is it
Macbeth's fate to be a traitor and a king-killer? Or is he alone responsible for his actions,
and did he freely choose his choice? The play pits the prophecies of the three weird sisters
against its own dramatization of Macbeth's internal conflict—and it's not clear which
wins. In fact, fate and free will might just be working together.

Questions

1. What is Macbeth's initial response to the weird sisters' prophesy? Does his attitude change
at some point? If so, when does the change occur?
2. Macbeth is repeatedly described as giving the witches his "rapt" attention. Why is that?
What does this suggest about Macbeth's choices?

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3. Do all of the witches' prophesies come true?
4. What role does Lady Macbeth play in her husband's actions? Is she always involved in
Macbeth's decision making?

POWER

Absolute power corrupts absolutely… unless, of course, your absolute power is a

god-given right. In Shakespeare's time, the ​Divine Right of Kings​ was the idea that the
power of kings comes directly from God. In ​Macbeth,​ power is natural—until it's not.
When Macbeth kills Duncan, he goes against the very law of nature and God by killing his
king, and then gets killed in return. According to the play, it's okay to kill King Macbeth
because King Macbeth is actually a tyrant. But who gets the power to decide what tyranny
looks like?

Questions

1. What kind of a ruler is King Duncan? How would you compare his leadership to Macbeth's?
2. What is the play's attitude toward the murder of King Duncan? Toward the death of
Macbeth?
3. In Act iv, Scene iii, Malcolm pretends that he thinks he'll become a tyrant once he's crowned
king. Why does he do this? What's Macduff's response? What's the overall purpose of this
scene?
4. Does the play ever portray an ideal monarch? If yes, what does that monarch look like? If
no, why do you think the play never shows us a good king?

VERSIONS OF REALITY

Bearded witches, severed fingers, and floating daggers: ​Macbeth​ is more fun than the
haunted house at Luna Park! And, like that haunted house, nothing is quite what it seems.
Fair is foul; foul is fair; and the rivers of blood turn out to be ​corn syrup and food
colouring​. But once you're in that rickety cart jerking around the tracks, can you really be
sure that the skeleton in the corner is fake?

Questions …

1. At the beginning of the play, the witches say "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." What in the world
does this mean, and how does that topsy-turvy feeling resonate in the play?
2. How do Macbeth and Banquo respond to the witches' prophesy in act one, scene three?
Does it seem real to them? Why or why not?
3. What kinds of hallucinations and visions occur in the play? What purpose do they serve?
4. Why is a doctor called in to tend to Lady Macbeth? What's wrong with her?

GENDER

Ah, 11th century Scotland: a time when men were men, and women were … either
bearded witches, unsexed nags, or dead. ( did you notice that not a single woman is left
alive at the end of the play?) Shakespeare may be known for strong female heroines, but
they're not in this play. Not that ​Macbeth​ is full of strong male heroes, either. We get a lot
of examples of how ​not​ to do it, and in the end we're left with Macduff and Malcolm as

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our role models. So, which one are you going to look up to: the man who left his family to
the not-so-tender mercies of Macbeth's murderous crew; or the new king, whose first
impulse was to run away?

Questions …

1. How does Lady Macbeth convince her husband to kill Duncan? Could (according to the logic
of this play) a man have used a similar strategy on a woman, or a man on a man? Or does
this kind of convincing only work one way?
2. What is meant when Lady Macbeth says Macbeth is too "full o'th'milk of human kindness"?
Why "milk"? Is this description gendered?
3. How does the play define "manhood"? What is it that makes one a "man" in Macbeth?
4. How are women characters portrayed in Macbeth? What kinds of roles do they play? Is
"womanhood" or "femininity" defined in the way that masculinity is?

SUPERNATURAL

Are the three weird sisters witches, or are they just … three weird sisters? Is there really a
floating dagger, or is Macbeth just making up excuses? Does he really see a ghost, or is it
just the impression of his guilty conscience? ​Do you believe in magic​?

In ​Macbeth​, the supernatural isn't just for stories around the fireplace; it's a real,
everyday fact of life. Almost, you might say, ​natural​. Unless, of course, it isn't. To figure
out what's going on with all the witches and ghosts, you have to decide whether you
believe in fate. Is Macbeth seeing daggers and ghosts because someone outside his
control is controlling him? Or is he simply seeing the fevered imaginings of a guilty and
freely choosing mind?

Questions

1. How do Banquo and Macbeth react when they first encounter the weird sisters in Act I,
Scene iii? Are they surprised, afraid, confused?
2. The witches accurately predict Macbeth's future, but do they control his fate? Why or why
not?
3. How would you characterize the witches' speech? What does it suggest about their
characters? How does it set them apart from other characters in the play?
4. Are there connections or similarities between the witches and any other characters in the
play? If so, what are they, exactly?

​VIOLENCE

Do violent TV shows and video games actually make children more violent? Maybe. But if
they do, then you're going to have to lock up Shakespeare with a ​MA-15+​ rating, too,
because ​Macbeth'​ s body count is out of control As with all of Shakespeare's tragedies,
Macbeth​ piles on the violence. Just as we ask whether it's necessary or gratuitous in the
latest James Bond film, we can ask the same thing here: is there a good reason for all the
violence, or did people in the seventeenth century like to watch blood being spilled just as
much as we do?

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Questions​ …

1. Most characters in the play have won their honours on the battlefield. To what degree could
you describe politics in ​Macbeth​ as a kind of battlefield? Is this political violence acceptable?
2. Nature always seems to be rebelling against the unnatural acts going down in Dunsinane,
yet violence is a central part of the natural world. Are humans any more than animals here?
3. The play ends with as much violence as the original battle against another traitor to the
crown. Is there a suggestion here of cyclical and never-ending violence? Is there any way to
argue against Macbeth's claim that blood demands blood? And ​where have all the flowers
gone​?
4. When Malcolm wants to grieve, Macduff tells him instead that violence in the name of
Scotland is a better cure. Yet when Macduff finds out his family is murdered, he grieves first
before taking revenge. Is violence a justified reaction to a wrong, or is it just an emotion out
of control that can be rightfully calmed with thought?

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1. The last scene in the play, where Malcolm blesses all who have fought nobly on his side
and promises to punish all who helped the traitors, is eerily reminiscent of the first scene
with his father, Duncan. Is this play commenting that it's just the nature of history to repeat
itself?
2. Macbeth starts the play as a hero and ends up a tyrant. Does this mean there are no truly
evil people and power corrupts, or just that some people have bad judgment when choosing
heroes?
3. Lady Macbeth is often hailed as the source of Macbeth's evil, but she never talks about
her own gain. Even when she should be all happy as queen, she takes her own life. Is Lady
Macbeth just caught in fate here? Was she just trying to do the good thing by being a
supportive wife? Is good in the eye of the beholder?
4. The three witches, the weird sisters, are also often blamed for planting the seed of
treachery in Macbeth's mind —yet the root of the word "wyrd" goes back to the Anglo
Saxon word for "fate." Does thinking something is fated make it happen? How much
personal agency do we have against fate?
5. The good of other characters seems magnified when called out against Macbeth's evil. If
not for Macbeth, Duncan would've died an aged king, Malcolm would never have tested his
mettle in battle, and Macduff would've just been a good, quiet Thane of Fife, not a
warrior-hero. Does it truly take the worst of times to see the best in men's natures?
6. Is there anything good about ambition? Are there any kinds of acceptable ambitions, or
are we all just supposed to be content with our lots, whether we're kings or servants? (Or
witches.)
7. Straight talk: are there really witches, floating daggers, and invisible spots of blood—or do
the spooky, supernatural occurrences merely reflect the characters' interior thoughts? And
what difference does it make?
8. ​Macbeth​ has been adapted in India and Japan; it's been set in the Chicago underworld,
the Melbourne Mafia, and in small-town Pennsylvania. What makes ​Macbeth'​ s themes so
universal? Where would you set it?

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Answer the following whole-play questions, in sentences and paragraphs, using

quotations and direct references to events in the play:

a) Describe the duties and privileges of those in power in the world of the play, and
compare the strengths and weaknesses of Duncan, Macbeth, Malcolm and King Edward
according to this expectation.

b) Trace femininity and masculinity as they are developed in the play. Then, consider
this: Lady Macbeth is often portrayed as a temptress who wields sexual power to gain
political power, and Macbeth’s vulnerability to her influence is often portrayed in sexual
terms. Can you see evidence to support this interpretation? What other interpretations are
possible?

c) Give an in-depth portrait explaining the motives, style and significance of a secondary
character in the play (the porter, Macduff’s wife, the assassins)

d) Trace at least three of the ironies that run through the play.

e) Give an overview of the role of magic in the play. Consider what magic implies about
the importance of various features of the story, and what would be lost without it.

f) Research the writing and earliest productions of Macbeth. Consider your

knowledge of Old English culture and poetry. What differences were there between the
time period in which it was set, and that in which it was performed?

Essay questions
(1000 words)
1. ​Agree or disagree with the following statement: "​Macbeth​ is a play about courage, which
asserts the triumph of good over evil." In answering this question, you should remember
that courageous acts are not always motivated by virtue.
2. ​Examine to what extent Lady Macbeth is to blame for her husband's downfall. Discuss the
relationship between the couple as the play develops.
3. ​Discuss whether Macbeth is truly a tragic​ f​ igure.
4.​ Some people suggest that the porter scene is included only so that the actor playing
Macbeth has time to wash the blood off his hands. Do you agree? Or do you think the scene
serves other purposes? Explain your answer.
5.​ From your reading, explain what Shakespeare imagined to be the qualities of a good king.
How do Duncan and Macbeth fit this role? How might Malcolm do so?
6. ​Consider the use that Shakespeare makes of supernatural elements in this play. Be sure
to include the Witches, the dagger, Banquo's ghost, the apparitions, and the Old Man's
observations in your assessment.

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