ENGL 4313 / 5583: Shakespeare: Tragedies

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 7: Macbeth

Please note that the “b” in the title of the play is NOT capitalized.

 

Background

  1. When did Shakespeare write Macbeth?
  2. What definition of the word topical is Frank Kermode using when he states, in our textbook’s introduction to the play, that Macbeth is “the most topical of the tragedies” (1355)?  What are some specific ways in which this play is topical?
  3. Why have many scholars suggested that the play may have been abridged?  Have they been able to prove that it has?
  4. What are “interpolations” in a play?  What passages in Macbeth do most scholars agree are interpolations?  How are these passages similar in content?
  5. When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, who was the king of England?  Before he became king of England, what was his title?  To what royal house (line or dynasty) did he belong?
  6. What is Holinshed’s Chronicles, and what is its relationship to Shakespeare’s Macbeth?

 

The Supernatural

  1. What is the connection between King James I and the supernatural phenomena in Macbeth?
  2. How would the supernatural phenomena in the play have been regarded by Shakespeare’s original audience in Jacobean England?
  3. According to 1.3.1-37, what kinds of power do the Weird Sisters have?  What kinds of power do they not have?  What powers and limitations are suggested by the lines, “Though his [a sailor’s] bark cannot be lost, / Yet it shall be tempest-toss’d” (1.3.24-25)?
  4. According to the textbook’s introduction and the lines of the play itself, what sort of power, if any, do the Weird Sisters have over Macbeth?
  5. What is Macbeth’s first line in the play (1.3.38)?  How does this line connect him with the language of the Weird Sisters?
  6. How does the reversal of values in the Weird Sisters’ line “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (1.1.11) relate to what happens in the plot of the play?
  7. According to the script of the play, is the ghost of Banquo supposed to be portrayed by an actor on stage?  In what other ways could the ghost be represented? 
  8. Extra-credit research: What superstitions are associated with performing Macbeth?  Why do actors refer to it as “the Scottish Play” and never as Macbeth?

 

Poetic Meters

  1. What poetic meter is used for most of the play, as in the title character’s first line, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (1362; 1.3.38)?  Mark the accented and unaccented syllables, or type the accented syllables in ALL CAPS and the unaccented syllables in lower case.
  2. What distinctive poetic meter do the Witches use, as in the line, “Double, double, toil and trouble; / Fire burn and cauldron bubble” (1377; 4.1.10-11)?  Mark the accented and unaccented syllables, or type the accented syllables in ALL CAPS and the unaccented syllables in lower case. What is the effect of this meter?

 

Titles and Hierarchy

  1. What was a “thane” in medieval Scotland?
  2. Who is the Thane of Glamis (pronounced “GLAHMZ”; rhymes with “bombs”)?
  3. At the beginning of the play, who is the Thane of Cawdor?  Why does he lose his title?  To whom is this title given?  Why?
  4. Why does Malcolm have the final speech in the play? 
  5. In his final speech, what title does Malcolm abolish?  What title does he put in its place?

 

Jacobean Entertainments

  1. In Renaissance England, a masque was a short entertainment featuring pantomime, music, dancing, and elaborate costumes and scenery.  The “show of eight Kings” in Macbeth (4.1.112) is an example of a masque.  According to the script of the play, what is supposed to happen on stage during this masque?  Extra-credit research:  What else can you learn about masques in Renaissance England or about the “show of eight Kings”?
  2. Bearbaiting was a popular sport in Renaissance England.  What was bearbaiting?  How does Macbeth compare himself to a baited bear (1386; 5.7.1-2)?  How is this comparison appropriate?  Extra-credit research: What else can you learn about bearbaiting in Renaissance England?

 

The Theme of Guilt

Macbeth contains Shakespeare’s best treatment of the effects of guilt on the human psyche. In this play guilt destroys, in quite different ways, the lives of two murderers, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

 

Lady Macbeth’s Guilt

  1. How does Lady Macbeth’s prayer that the evil spirits “unsex” her and fill her up with “direst cruelty” (1.5.41, 43) reveal her naïveté about guilt?  Is her prayer answered in the short term?  in the long term?
  2. Before Duncan arrives at Macbeth’s castle, Lady Macbeth says, “This night’s great business . . . / . . . shall to all our nights and days to come / Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom” (1.5.68-70).  What is the significance of her referring to the murder as “great business”?  What prediction does she make about the effects of the murder?  How accurate is her prediction?
  3. What other instances can you find where the Macbeths use euphemisms like “business,” “enterprise,” or “quell” to refer to their villainy?
  4. When Lady Macbeth returns with the bloody knives, what does she say that indicates her naïveté about guilt (2.2.64-65)?
  5. Lady Macbeth reveals for the first time her ability to feel human pity when she explains why she herself has not killed Duncan (1367; 2.2.12-13).  What is the reason she gives?
  6. After the murder is discovered, Lady Macbeth cries, “Help me hence, ho!” (1370; 2.3.118), which indicates that Lady Macbeth faints, almost faints, or pretends to faint. If she actually becomes faint, what does this reveal about her character?
  7. What does Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene reveal about the consequences of guilt?  What specific words and actions of Lady Macbeth in this scene reveal her guilt?
  8. What are we told about Lady Macbeth’s death?  What might be the cause of her death?  How can her death be seen as the consequence of her guilt?

 

Macbeth’s Guilt

  1. As he contemplates the murder of Duncan, Macbeth identifies several strong reasons why he should not kill Duncan (1365; 1.7.12-25).  What are these reasons?
  2. As he goes to kill Duncan, what hallucination does Macbeth experience (1367; 2.2.33 ff.)?  How does the hallucination change before Macbeth’s eyes (2.2.45-46)?  What indicates that Macbeth understands what the consequences of the murder will be (2.2.49-56)?
  3. When he is in Duncan’s chamber, what words does Macbeth imagine that he hears (1368; 32-33)?  What does this auditory hallucination reveal about Macbeth’s awareness of the consequences of his crime?
  4. After the murder, what does Macbeth say about the blood on his hands (1368; 2.2.57-60)?  What does this indicate about his sense of guilt?  How does his response contrast with Lady Macbeth’s reaction to the blood on their hands?
  5. In Macbeth’s speech that begins “We have scorch’d the snake, not kill’d it” (1373; 3.2.13-26), what manifestations of guilt does he describe?
  6. What does Macbeth mean by “that great bond / Which keeps me pale” (3.2.49-50)?  Why does he want this bond to be destroyed?
  7. Before the banquet scene, how does Macbeth cut off Lady Macbeth from his plans (3.2)?   What change in their relationship does this reveal?
  8. How does each of the following aspects of the appearance of Banquo’s ghost reflect Macbeth’s feelings of guilt?
    1. How the ghost looks
    2. How the ghost acts
    3. Who can see the ghost
    4. How Macbeth reacts
  9. In what sense is the appearance of Banquo’s ghost the high point of Macbeth’s guilt?  How is Macbeth’s experience of guilt different after this scene?
  10. At the end of the banquet scene, what does Macbeth mean when he says, “I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er” (1375; 3.4.135-37)? 
  11. How does Macbeth’s seeing the three apparitions raised by the Weird Sisters embolden him in his evil actions?  
  12. After seeing the three apparitions, what does Macbeth mean when he says, “From this moment / The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand” (4.1.147-48)?  How does this statement relate to his feelings of guilt?  What evil plan does he announce at this moment?  
  13. Just before he learns of Lady Macbeth’s death, how do Macbeth’s words suggest that he no longer feels guilt (5.5.9-15)?
  14. In his famous speech immediately after learning of Lady Macbeth’s death, what meaning and value does Macbeth, now apparently deadened to guilt, attach to his life (1385; 5.5.17-28)? 

 

 

Equivocation

  1. According to the textbook’s introduction to the play, what is equivocation?  What dictionary definition of “equivocation” applies here?
  2. How was equivocation a current issue in Jacobean society?  What group of people was especially associated with equivocation?
  3. When Macbeth and Banquo learn that Macbeth has become the Thane of Cawdor, how do Banquo’s words reveal his understanding of the dangers of equivocation (1363; 1.3.123-26)?  (Quote the lines, and explain how they relate to equivocation.)
  4. The soliloquy of the drunken Porter, who imagines he is the keeper of the gate to Hell (1368; 2.3.1-21), serves several functions in the play: it creates suspense (as the Porter keeps talking without answering the knock at the door), it creates comic relief (because of the drunken way he acts and the humorous, ironic things he says), and it relates to the theme of equivocation. 
    1. What does the Porter say about the imaginary equivocator who arrives at the gate of Hell (2.3.8-11)? 
    2. In what way is Macbeth like “a farmer” who “hang’d himself on th’ expectation of plenty” (2.3.4-5)? 
  5. Explain how each of the following statements is an equivocation.
    1. Second apparition: “[N]one of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth.” (1377; 4.1.81-82)
    2. Third apparition: “Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until / Great Birnan wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him.” (1378; 4.1.92-94)
    3. Lady Macduff: “[Y]our father’s dead.” (1379; 4.2.30)
    4. Lady Macduff: Your father is “a traitor” who “swears and lies.”  (1379; 4.2.44-47)
    5. Rosse: Your wife and children “were well at peace when I did leave ’em.” (1382; 178-79)
  6. When does Macbeth say, “I . . . begin / To doubt th’ equivocation of the fiend / That lies like truth” (1386; 5.5.41-42)?  What aspects of equivocation do these lines emphasize?
  7. When does Macbeth denounce “these juggling fiends” that “palter with us in a double sense, / That keep the word of promise to our ear, / And break it to our hope” (1387; 5.8.19-22)?  What aspects of equivocation do these lines emphasize?
  8. The equivocation of the Weird Sisters’ apparitions have been compared to that of the serpent (or Satan) to Eve in the story of the fall in Genesis 3.  Explain how each of the following statements by the serpent can be interpreted as an equivocation:
    1. “Ye shall not surely die.”  (Genesis 3:4)
    2. “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”  (Genesis 3:5)
  9. Outright lies are related to but not the same as equivocation.  What lies does Malcolm tell Macduff about himself (4.3)?  At what point does he recant these lies?  What is Malcolm’s purpose in telling these lies?

 

Image Patterns

The play contains many complex image patterns, interweaving verbal images (expressed in the lines of the play) and theatrical images (shown by what the audience sees on stage). 

  1. Blood imagery
    1. Where in the play is blood a theatrical image (seen by the audience)?
    2. Where in the play is blood (either the word “blood” or the sight of blood) associated with valor and honor?
    3. Where in the play is blood associated with death?
    4. Where in the play is blood associated with hereditary lineage?  (For example, “The near in blood, the nearer bloody” [1370; 2.3.140-41])
    5. Where in the play is blood associated with guilt?  (See “Lady Macbeth’s Guilt” and “Macbeth’s Guilt” earlier in this study guide.)
  2. Sleep imagery  
    1. Where in the play is literal sleep described or depicted?
    2. Where in the play is sleep (either the word “sleep” or the sight of someone sleeping) associated with death?
    3. Where in the play is sleep associated with innocent, carefree rest?
    4. Where in the play are sleep disorders (such as insomnia and sleepwalking) associated with guilt?
  3. Clothing imagery
    1. What does Macbeth mean when he asks, “Why do you dress me / In borrowed robes?” (1362)?  Explain the metaphor.
    2. What is meant by the statement that Macbeth “cannot buckle his distemper’d cause / Within the belt of rule” (1384; 5.2.15-16)?  Explain the metaphor.
    3. What is meant by the statement that Macbeth “[feels] his title / Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe / Upon a dwarfish thief” (1384; 5.2.20-22)?  Explain the simile. 
    4. What other images relating to clothing do you find in the play?
  4. Imagery of disruption in nature (or, as will be discussed in class, disruption in the Great Chain of Being)
    1. How does Macbeth’s murder of Duncan represent a disruption in the natural order of society?
    2. According to Lennox’s report, what strange events occur during the night of Duncan’s murder (1369; 2.3.54-61)?
    3. According to the choric scene (revealing background information as a chorus would in classical drama) between Rosse and the Old Man, what other disruptions in nature occur around the time of Duncan’s murder (1370; 2.4)?
    4. What other images of disruption in nature appear in the play?
    5. In what other tragedy do similar disruptions in nature occur before a murder?

 

Macbeth as an Aristotelian Tragedy

  1. Nobility of the tragic hero
    1. Before the murder of Duncan, does Macbeth exhibit nobility of character?  What outstanding character traits does he have? 
  2. Hamartia
    1. How does Macbeth, unlike other Shakespearean tragic heroes, accurately foresee the disastrous results of his actions?  (See “Macbeth’s Guilt” earlier in this study guide.)  Does his foreknowledge make Macbeth a more admirable or a less admirable character?
    2. Is Macbeth more culpable (blameworthy) or less culpable than the other tragic heroes in Shakespeare?  Why?    
    3. Does Macbeth commit a criminal act that could be considered his hamartia?
    4. As soon as Macbeth learns that, in fulfillment of the Weird Sisters’ prophecy, he has been named Thane of Cawdor, what idea immediately comes to his mind (1363; 1.3.134-37)?  What does this suggest about his own culpability?
    5. What character flaw does Macbeth share in common with Adam and Eve (and also with Satan)?  Just as the serpent is Eve’s tempter (and Iago is Othello’s), who are Macbeth’s tempters?  Are his tempters responsible for his committing the crime? 
    6. What else could be identified as Macbeth’s hamartia?
  3. Recognition
    1. Macbeth seems to know at the outset what the consequences of his crime will be. (See “Macbeth’s Guilt” earlier in this study guide). However, what is the final moment of recognition when he most fully understands his situation?
  4. Catharsis
    1. Why might the audience feel pity for Macbeth?
    2. Why might members of the audience feel fear for themselves?  In what sense is Macbeth an Everyman character?  (See item 2.e above concerning Macbeth’s similarity to Adam and Eve, the archetypal humans.)
    3. How might each of the following cause the audience to feel a positive uplift at the end of the play?

                                                               i.      Macbeth’s attitude in fighting Macduff at the end of the play 

                                                             ii.      The political situation in Scotland at the end of the play

    1. Near the beginning of the play, it is said of the previous Thane of Cawdor, “Nothing in his life / Became him like the leaving it . . .” (1363; 1.4.7-11).  Could the same be said of Macbeth?  Why or why not?  (See item 4.c.i above.)
    2. Extra-credit video, extra-credit research, or prior knowledge:  How does the ending of Roman Polanski’s film of Macbeth undercut the idea that order has been restored to Scotland at the end of the play?  (See item 4.c.ii above.)