1. What were the witches doing when the conversation began?

 a) Killing swine
 b) Eating chestnuts
 c) Sailing to Aleppo
 d) Casting spells
2. What did the sailor’s wife have in her lap?
 a) Chestnuts
 b) Swine
 c) A sieve
 d) A pilot’s thumb
3. What did the witches offer to give the first witch?
 a) A wind
 b) A drum
 c) A shipman’s card
 d) A pilot’s thumb
4. What did the witches predict about Macbeth?
 a) He will be thane of Glamis.
 b) He will be king hereafter.
 c) He will become a sailor.
 d) He will lose his bark.
5. How does Banquo react to the witches’ predictions?
 a) He is afraid.
 b) He is skeptical.
 c) He is excited.
 d) He is confused.
6. Who delivers the news of Macbeth’s success to the king?
 a) Macbeth
 b) Banquo
 c) Ross
 d) Angus
7. What additional title is bestowed upon Macbeth?
 a) Thane of Glamis
 b) Thane of Cawdor
 c) King of Scotland
 d) King of Norway
8. What does Banquo suspect about the witches’ prophecies?
 a) They are false.
 b) They are misleading.
 c) They are accurate.
 d) They are cursed.
9. How does Macbeth react to the witches’ prophecies?
 a) He is afraid and hopeful.
 b) He is frightened and suspicious.
 c) He is indifferent and skeptical.
 d) He is confused and disbelieving.
10.How does Macbeth contemplate the possibility of becoming king?
 a) He plans to take immediate action.
 b) He relies on chance and fate.
 c) He plans to seek the advice of Banquo.
 d) He dismisses the idea as impossible.
11.What does Macbeth say about the day he has experienced?
 a) It is both foul and fair.
 b) It is the best day of his life.
 c) It is filled with darkness and despair.
 d) It is a day of great fortune and success.
12.How does Banquo describe the witches’ appearance?
 a) Withered and wild
 b) Beautiful and enchanting
 c) Mysterious and other worldly
 d) Menacing and terrifying
13.What does Macbeth demand from the witches after their initial
prophecies?
 a) More specific details about his future
 b) An explanation for their presence
 c) A guarantee of their predictions
 d) Their immediate departure
14.What happens to the witches after Macbeth demands more answers?
 a) They vanish into thin air.
 b) They transform into animals.
 c) They attack Macbeth and Banquo.
 d) They reveal their true identities.
15.What does Banquo question about the witches’ prophecies?
 a) Their honesty and intentions
 b) Their connection to the natural world
 c) Their ability to change the future
 d) Their influence on Macbeth’s actions
16.How does Macbeth respond to being named the thane of Cawdor?
 a) He is surprised and shocked.
 b) He is grateful and humbled.
 c) He is suspicious and hesitant.
 d) He is eager and excited.
17.Who has come deliver the news of Duncan to Macbeth?
 a) Ross and Angus
 b) Macduff
 c) The witches
 d) Duncan himself
18.What do Ross and Angus offer Macbeth as a sign of gratitude?
 a) A royal crown
 b) A noble title
 c) Their loyalty and support
 d) A place in the king’s court
19.What is Banquo’s response to Macbeth’s growing power and success?
 a) He congratulates and admires Macbeth.
 b) He becomes jealous and resentful.
 c) He suspects foul play and treachery.
 d) He plans to join forces with Macbeth.
20.How does Macbeth feel about the witches’ prophecies at the end of the
scene?
 a) He is eager to fulfill them at any cost.
 b) He is skeptical and doubts their truth.
 c) He is fearful of their implications.
 d) He is confused and uncertain about their meaning.
21.What does Macbeth mean when he says, “So foul and fair a day I have not
seen”?
 a) The weather is both pleasant and unpleasant.
 b) The events of the day have been a mixture of good and evil.
 c) The day has been filled with both beauty and ugliness.
 d) The day has been filled with both success and failure.
22.How does Banquo react to the witches’ prophecies about Macbeth?
 a) He is excited and supportive.
 b) He is fearful and warns Macbeth.
 c) He is skeptical and dismisses them.
 d) He is jealous and plots against Macbeth.
23.What does Macbeth mean when he says, “If chance will have me king, why,
chance may crown me”?
 a) He believes that becoming king is a matter of luck.

 b) He is willing to wait and let fate decide his destiny.
 c) He is determined to take action to become king.
 d) He is unsure if he truly wants to be king.
24.What does Banquo mean when he says, “New horrors come upon him, like
our strange garments”?
 a) Macbeth is haunted by his own actions.
 b) Macbeth is surrounded by mysterious and frightening events.
 c) Macbeth is unstable because of the new honors that is bestowed on him.
 d) Macbeth is facing unknown challenges and dangers.
25.Macbeth says ” Two truths are told”. What are these two truths?
 Macbeth will become Thane of Fife and Glamis
 Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and Glamis
 Macbeth will become Thane of Fife and King
 None of the above

…………………………………….

. What do the three witches predict for Macbeth?

In this scene, we meet Macbeth for the first time. The

witches gather on the moor and cast a spell as Macbeth
and Banquo arrive. The witches hail Macbeth first by his
title Thane of Glamis, then as Thane of Cawdor and finally
as king. They then prophesy that Banquo’s children will
become kings. Macbeth demands to know more but the
witches vanish. Ross and Angus arrive to tell Macbeth
that he has been given the title Thane of Cawdor by
Duncan.

Then reread lines 71-73. In what way do the witches'

prophecies for Banquo function as additional prophecies
for Macbeth, and what insight might the contrast between
the two characters' fates suggest about the theme of
power and its effects on individuals?

Why do you think Shakespeare uses the prophecy of the

witches to set Macbeth's rise to power in motion? Support
your answer with evidence from the text.

Your answer Focus Question 3 - Compare and contrast the

ways in which Macbeth and t s poir'ts Banguo react to the
witches' prophecies and, later, to the fact that one has
already come true. Analyze what these differences reveal
about their characters.

How does foreshadowing contribute to the broader

theme of fate and destiny explored in the play?
Are the witches in Macbeth real?
Yes. Macbeth really does see the three Witches in the play. Banquo also
sees them and speaks with them. Initially, Banquo questions the Witches
about whether they are real or possibly a hallucination he and Macbeth
both share, but throughout the rest of the play both men seem to accept
the Witches as physical beings.( Later in the play, the Witches appear
with their Queen, Hecate, in a scene without any human characters. If
Macbeth had been hallucinating the Witches, he would need to be
onstage for them to be seen. He is not, which is more proof that in the
world of this play, they are real.)

We can also contrast the treatment of the Witches to Banquo’s ghost.

When Macbeth claims he sees the ghost, Lady Macbeth insists she
doesn’t see anything, telling Macbeth “When all’s done/ You look but on
a stool.” (3.4.) In the play, both Macbeth and his wife have hallucinations
which they alone see, but the Witches are clearly visible to more than
just Macbeth.
First Witch
I myself have all the other,
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I’ the shipman’s card.
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid:
Weary se’nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
1.Where does the scene take place?
2.To what does all the other in the first line of the extract refer? Whom is
the first which going to drain as dry as hay? Where is the person concerned
going?
3. What grudge does the first witch have against the man concerned
4. How does the first which plan to travel? What is going to guide her
during the journey?
5. How is the first witch going to punish the man?
……………………
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

1. To whom does Banquo address the words in the extract? Give the
occasion that makes him speak these words.
2. 2. Narrate the things that sound so fair. Why does the good
sir started on hearing the pleasant tidings?
3. What complaint does Banquo present in the second part of his
speech in the extract?
4. What prophesy is made about Banquo after the extract?
5. What light does the passage throw on the character of Macbeth and
Banquo
…………………………………….

Other questions
1.
1.What role does Banquo play in Macbeth’s story, and how does
he differ from Macbeth in terms of character and response to the
prophecies?
2. What does the encounter with the witches suggest about the
presence of supernatural elements and fate in the play?
3. What is the significance of the number three and its repetition
in the witches’ chants and prophecies?
4. What is the symbolism behind the contrasting descriptions of
the day as “foul and fair” by Macbeth and the presence of
thunder and storms during the witches’ scene?
5. What effect do the prophecies have on Macbeth’s mental and
emotional state, and how does it evolve as the play progresses?
6. How does the concept of fate versus free will come into play in
Macbeth, considering the witches’ prophecies and the characters’
choices
7. What does the passage reveal about the supernatural powers
and influence of the witches in shaping the events of the play?