Macbeth Exam Study Guide

Characters: any person, animal or a figured represented in a literary work

Plot: structure of the story regarding of the intercalated event/action
Themes: Main idea that underlined the message that the author want to express
Commonly held beliefs: popular/ well-known belief
Literary terms: Technique that styled, formatted the language and strengthen the writer compositions
Significant quotes: important phrase or short writing had taken from a literary work
Symbols: an object that had a literal meaning but presented a different meaning in the context of the story
Irony: Something that departs from what expected to happen
Foreshadowing: Literary device that the writer gave the audience an advance hint for the latter event that
happen.

Macbeth
Characters:
Macbeth
Duncan
Donalbain
Malcolm
Lennox, Ross, Menteith, Angus, Caithness
Banquo
Macduff Fife
Dunsinane Castle
Burnim Woods
Fleance
Porter

Test questions regarding characters:

1. Macbeth beat this king to gain the title of Thane of Cawdor
2. Was “not of woman born”
3. Macbeth’s guilt causes him to believe he has murdered his sleep
4. “Instruments of darkness”
5. A long uninterrupted speech given by a character alone one the stage
 6. Who spoke this “Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all and I fear/ Thou played’st most
foully for’t”
7. Prince of Cumberland
8. “Shall beget kings”
9. Character who is “too full of the milk of human kindness”

Plot
● 2 themes in the play includes perils of ambition and fate
● The play’s dramatic

Quotes
1) “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”
a) Who said this?
b) What does it mean?
2) “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.”
a) Who said it?
b) What does it mean?
3) “But tis strange: and oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win
us with honest trifles, to betrays, in deepest consequence.
a) Who said it?
b) What does it mean?
4) “Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
a) Who said it?
b) What does it mean?
5) “But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail.”
a) Who said it?
b) What does it mean?
6) “That but this blow, might be the be-all and the end-all- here, but here, upon this bank and shoal of
time, we’d jump the life to come.”
a) Who said it?
b) What does it mean?
7) “It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood.”
 a) Who said it?
b) What does it mean?
8) “Something wicked this way comes.”
a) Who said it?
b) What does it mean?
9) “I am in blood stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.”
a) Who said it?
b) What does it mean?
10) “But I must also feel it as a man.”
a) Who said it?
b) What does it mean?

Themes/ Symbols/ Motifs

Blood (Symbol)
Blood is everywhere in Macbeth, beginning with the opening battle between the Scots and the Norwegian
invaders. Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes to
symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained them in a way that cannot be
washed clean. Macbeth cries after he has killed Duncan, even as his wife scolds him and says that a little
water will do the job. Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of
both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that hounds them to their graves.
Perils of Ambition (Theme)
Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he
deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better judgment and afterward stews
in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play, he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness.
Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of
withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare’s most forcefully drawn female
characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder’s
aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeth’s repeated bloodshed on her
conscience
In each case, ambition—helped, of course, by the malign prophecies of the witches—is what drives the
couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use
violence to further one’s quest for power, it is difficult to stop. There are always potential threats to the
throne—Banquo, Fleance, Macduff—and it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them.
Unnatural v. Natural (Theme)
“Unnatural deeds/ Do breed unnatural troubles”
This quote by Lady Macbeth’s doctor when she is sleepwalking relates to the theme of unnatural v.
natural and how it affects the characters. Here Lady Macbeth is going insane over the unnatural events
her, and her husband have committed causing her to lose her insanity and obtain unnatural troubles like
sleepwalking. This quote also relates to how Macbeth’s ambition and tyranny has skyrocketed due to the
unnatural deeds he committed. Macbeth’s hallucinations are also an unnatural trouble that has come about
because his unnatural deeds.
Sleep
Sleep is a big motif throughout the book because it shows how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth deal with the
murders they have committed. Only the innocent can sleep, and Macbeth soon realizes he murdered his
chance of having a peaceful sleep. Sleep symbolizes innocence, and Macbeth killed Duncan at his most
peaceful state, when he was asleep. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s guilt and lack of sleep soon makes
them become insane.

Literary Terms
Tragedy
Tragic Hero
Catharsis
Soliloquy
Aside
Paradox
Foil