Shakespeare's Macbeth: Key Extracts and Themes

MACBETH
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
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How to use this booklet:

The best form of revision you can complete is to reread the entire play. Remember, the
extract you receive in the exam could come from any part of Shakespeare’s text. You must
be prepared for any eventuality. However, if you are unsure where to start, work your way
through this booklet, reading each extract I have selected as the ‘most important’ parts of the
play and completing the activities that follow.
KEY EXTRACTS – ACT ONE

How do I use this booklet?
There are a number of ways in which you can use this booklet to help you with your revision
for ‘Macbeth’. One of the best ways to revise is to reread the entire play. Exam extracts can
be taken from anywhere in Shakespeare’s text so rereading it in its entirety would ensure you
are fully prepared. However, if you are struggling, consider the ways in which you could use
this ‘Key Extract’ booklet to help you:
1. Read each extract and complete the activities that follow. Activities have been
designed to help you understand the text as well as Shakespeare’s purpose. You will
be asked some extract specific questions and should aim to complete these in full
sentences. You will also have the opportunity to link the extract to other areas of the
play and I have included some ‘Extra Challenge’ tasks should you wish to have a go.
2. Read through the extracts and highlight what you deem to be the most important
quotations. Aim for a maximum of three quotations. Copy the quotations on to
flashcards and explain why they are important to know. Circle small phrases and
individual words and explain why you think Shakespeare has made certain language
choices. How do these words and phrases help him get his message across to an
audience?
3. Consider the themes in ‘Macbeth’. Create flashcards that detail how each theme is
explored by Shakespeare in his play.
4. Consider the icons used for each theme. Explain verbally to a parent or friend why
each icon has been chosen to represent each theme.
5. Link each of the themes in this booklet to the context of ‘Macbeth’. Explain why it
was necessary for Shakespeare to include these ‘big ideas’ in his play by discussing
what was happening at the time the play was written and how this influenced
Shakespeare’s choices when he was writing.
Themes: Shakespeare’s ‘Big Ideas’ in ‘Macbeth’
Here are a list of the themes and ideas Shakespeare explores in ‘Macbeth’. You will be needing them for
some of the activities in this booklet. If you think any themes are missing, add them in the spaces provided!
Violence Betrayal Kingship
Appearance vs Ambition Temptation

reality
Power The Manipulation

supernatural
Masculinity Tyranny Guilt
Children
Extract 1: Act 1, Scene 1 – The Witches
The following extract has been taken from Act One of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, the
beginning of the play, we are introduced to the witches.
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.
First Witch
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch
When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.
Third Witch
That will be ere the set of sun.
First Witch
Where the place?
Second Witch
Upon the heath.
Third Witch
There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch
I come, Graymalkin!
Second Witch
Paddock calls.
Third Witch
Anon.
ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Exeunt
Revision Activities for Extract 1

Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
this extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want
to use? Add it in!
Perhaps Shakespeare opens his play with three
witches
to criticise/ to warn/ to expose/ to teach/ to celebrate/ to

reveal the importance of/ to question/to establish
Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.
1. How does Shakespeare use the weather to establish an ominous and threatening atmosphere?
2. How does Shakespeare allude to the chaos engulfing Scotland in this scene?
3. ‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair’ is a warning that permeates throughout the rest of the play. Explain what
Shakespeare may be warning his audiences about.
Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see the witches plotting and Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
scheming? relate to this extract and briefly explain your choices.
1.
2.
Extra Challenge task

On a different piece of paper, write an extended response to the following question:
The witches chant ‘hover through the fog and filthy air’, suggesting the air is unclean, polluted or infected. How
and why does Shakespeare use imagery relating to infection throughout the play?
Extract 2: Act 1, Scene 2 – The Captain’s report

The following extract has been taken from Act One of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, the Captain
reports to Duncan about Macbeth’s prowess on the battlefield.
DUNCAN
What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state.
MALCOLM
This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.
Captain
Doubtful it stood;
As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald--
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villanies of nature
Do swarm upon him--from the western isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.
DUNCAN
O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!

to use? Add it in!
Macbeth’s violent actions in this scene are

celebrated, perhaps because Shakespeare wishes

1. How does Shakespeare influence the audience’s perception of Macbeth before they have even met him?
2. What impression do we get of how Macbeth has been fighting based on the description of his sword?
3. How is Duncan presented as an ineffective king in this scene?

Violence is celebrated in this scene. Where else in the play Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
does violence occur and is it celebrated or criticised? relate to this extract and briefly explain your choices.
1.
2.

On a different piece of paper, write an extended response to the following activity:
Violence. Discuss.
Extract 3: Act 1, Scene 3 – The Prophecies

The following extract has been taken from Act One of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth meets the witches who give
him three prophecies.
MACBETH
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
BANQUO
How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these
So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her chappy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
MACBETH
Speak, if you can: what are you?
First Witch
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!
Second Witch
All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch
All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!
BANQUO
Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.
First Witch
Hail!
Second Witch
Hail!
Third Witch
Hail!
First Witch
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Second Witch
Not so happy, yet much happier.
Third Witch
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
First Witch
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
to use? Add it in!
Shakespeare has the witches tempt Macbeth and

Banquo here

1. How is Macbeth linked to the witches from the first thing he says? What does this tell the audience about
him?
2. Consider Banquo’s description of the witches. How are they presented?
3. Why do the witches speak in paradoxical couplets here?

Macbeth is tempted by the prophecies he is given. Where else Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
in the play do we see temptation? relate to this extract and briefly explain your choices.
1.
2.

On a different piece of paper, write an extended response to the following question:
‘This scene proves that Banquo is not Macbeth’s perfect opposite. After all, he also gives in to temptation.’ To what
extent do you agree?
Extract 4: Act 1, Scene 4 – Macbeth’s ambition

The following extract has been taken from Act One of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, King Duncan announces Malcolm as
the heir to the Scottish throne and audiences begin to see how ambitious Macbeth really is.
DUNCAN
My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know
We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must
Not unaccompanied invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.
MACBETH
The rest is labour, which is not used for you:
I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So humbly take my leave.
DUNCAN
My worthy Cawdor!
MACBETH
[Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Exit

to use? Add it in!
Perhaps Shakespeare has Macbeth call for darkness

because he wants


1. Duncan says ‘signs of nobleness, like stars, shall sign on all deservers.’ What is the significance of light in
this extract?
2. What is ambition?
3. How is Macbeth presented as ambitious in his final ‘aside’ before he exits?

Macbeth calls upon darkness here to hide his thoughts and Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
actions. Where else in the play do we see characters calling relate to this extract and briefly explain your choices.
for darkness?
1.
2.

Discuss the role of light and darkness in ‘Macbeth’.
Extract 5: Act 1, Scene 5 – Lady Macbeth

The following extract has been taken from Act One of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, audiences are introduced to Lady
Macbeth. She has received a letter from Macbeth detailing his encounter with the witches and the prophecies they
gave him.
LADY MACBETH
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry 'Hold, hold!'
Enter MACBETH
Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.
MACBETH
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here to-night.
LADY MACBETH
And when goes hence?
MACBETH
To-morrow, as he purposes.
LADY MACBETH
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

to use? Add it in!
Shakespeare may be presenting Lady Macbeth as a

woman who wishes to rid herself of her femininity
here


1. How does Lady Macbeth allude to the fact that Duncan will not survive his visit to the Macbeths’ castle?
2. How does Lady Macbeth praise her husband when he enters? Why does she do this?
3. Why does Lady Macbeth instruct her husband to ‘be the serpent’? What is the significance of serpent
imagery?
Where else in the play do we see characters in a Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
moment of deception? relate to this extract and briefly explain your choices.
1.
2.

Discuss Lady Macbeth as an Eve figure.
Extract 6: Act 1, Scene 7 – ‘We will proceed no further in this business’

The following extract has been taken from Act One of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth tells his wife they
will not be proceeding with their plans to murder Duncan.
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'
Like the poor cat i' the adage?
MACBETH
Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
LADY MACBETH
What beast was't, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
MACBETH
If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH
We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.

to use? Add it in!
Macbeth may be shown to still have some grasp of

morality here because Shakespeare wishes


1. Why does Macbeth make the decision that Duncan shall not be murdered?
2. How and why does Lady Macbeth attack Macbeth’s masculinity in this scene?
3. Innocence cannot exist around Lady Macbeth. How do we know this from the extract? Explain your ideas.

Where else in the play do we see the destruction of Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
innocence? relate to this extract and briefly explain your choices.
1.
2.

Masculinity in ‘Macbeth’. Discuss.

Shakespeare's Macbeth: Key Extracts and Themes

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MACBETH

How to use this booklet:

KEY EXTRACTS – ACT ONE

Violence Betrayal Kingship

Appearance vs Ambition Temptation

Power The Manipulation

Masculinity Tyranny Guilt

Revision Activities for Extract 1

to criticise/ to warn/ to expose/ to teach/ to celebrate/ to

Extract specific questions

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Extra Challenge task

Extract 2: Act 1, Scene 2 – The Captain’s report

Revision Activities for Extract 2

Macbeth’s violent actions in this scene are

to criticise/ to warn/ to expose/ to teach/ to celebrate/ to

3. How is Duncan presented as an ineffective king in this scene?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Extra Challenge task

Extract 3: Act 1, Scene 3 – The Prophecies

Shakespeare has the witches tempt Macbeth and

to criticise/ to warn/ to expose/ to teach/ to celebrate/ to

2. Consider Banquo’s description of the witches. How are they presented?

3. Why do the witches speak in paradoxical couplets here?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Extra Challenge task

Extract 4: Act 1, Scene 4 – Macbeth’s ambition

Revision Activities for Extract 4

Perhaps Shakespeare has Macbeth call for darkness

to criticise/ to warn/ to expose/ to teach/ to celebrate/ to

Extract specific questions

3. How is Macbeth presented as ambitious in his final ‘aside’ before he exits?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Extra Challenge task

Discuss the role of light and darkness in ‘Macbeth’.

Extract 5: Act 1, Scene 5 – Lady Macbeth

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!

Revision Activities for Extract 5

Shakespeare may be presenting Lady Macbeth as a

to criticise/ to warn/ to expose/ to teach/ to celebrate/ to

Extract specific questions

Extra Challenge task

Discuss Lady Macbeth as an Eve figure.

Extract 6: Act 1, Scene 7 – ‘We will proceed no further in this business’

Revision Activities for Extract 6

Macbeth may be shown to still have some grasp of

to criticise/ to warn/ to expose/ to teach/ to celebrate/ to

Extract specific questions

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Extra Challenge task

Masculinity in ‘Macbeth’. Discuss.

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