MACBETH

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Name:
Class:
Teacher:

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
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 this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
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!
Revision Activities for Extract 2
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Macbeth’s violent actions in this scene are celebrated,

perhaps because Shakespeare wishes

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 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?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

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.

Extra Challenge task

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!
Revision Activities for Extract 3
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Shakespeare has the witches tempt Macbeth and

Banquo here

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 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?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

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.

Extra Challenge task

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
Revision Activities for Extract 4
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
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 has Macbeth call for darkness

because he wants

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. 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?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

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 for relate to this extract and briefly explain your choices.
darkness?
1.

2.

Extra Challenge task

On a different piece of paper, write an extended response to the following activity:

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.
Revision Activities for Extract 5
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Shakespeare may be presenting Lady Macbeth as a

woman who wishes to rid herself of her femininity
here

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 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?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see characters in a moment Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
of deception? 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 activity:

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.
Revision Activities for Extract 6
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Macbeth may be shown to still have some grasp of

morality here because Shakespeare wishes

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. 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.

Links to other areas of the text Themes

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.

Extra Challenge task

On a different piece of paper, write an extended response to the following activity:

Masculinity in ‘Macbeth’. Discuss.

 Extract 1: Act 2, Scene 1 – ‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’
The following extract has been taken from Act Two of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth is led
to Duncan’s chambers by a hallucination of a dagger.
MACBETH
Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

Exit Servant

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

A bell rings

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

Exit
Revision Activities for Extract 1
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

The dagger, perhaps symbolic of _____________, is

used by Shakespeare

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. In what ways does the dagger invite Macbeth to murder Duncan?

2. Why is it important that Macbeth realises the dagger he sees isn’t real before he murders Duncan?

3. Why does Macbeth desire silence at this moment?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

In this extract, Macbeth is spurred on by something that isn’t Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
actually there. Where else in the play are Macbeth’s actions relate to this extract and briefly explain your choices.
influenced by his own visions?
1.

2.

Extra Challenge task

On a different piece of paper, write an extended response to the following question:

Is Macbeth acting of his own free will in this scene?

 Extract 2: Act 2, Scene 2 – After the murder
The following extract has been taken from Act Two of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth deal with the immediate repercussions of Duncan’s murder.
MACBETH
This is a sorry sight.

Looking on his hands

LADY MACBETH
A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
MACBETH
There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried
'Murder!'
That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:
But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
Again to sleep.
LADY MACBETH
There are two lodged together.
MACBETH
One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
When they did say 'God bless us!'
LADY MACBETH
Consider it not so deeply.
MACBETH
But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
MACBETH
Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast,-
Revision Activities for Extract 2
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Macbeth’s guilt means his plans are dangerously close

to careening out of control. Perhaps Shakespeare is

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/ establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. ‘Amen’ is a holy word used to end a prayer. Why is Macbeth so concerned that he cannot say this word?

2. What does ‘Macbeth does murder sleep’ actually mean? How will he suffer now he has murdered Duncan?

3. How does Lady Macbeth try and gain control of the situation in this extract?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else do we see Shakespeare explore ideas of sleep in Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
the play? 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:

‘Macbeth cannot redeem himself now he has committed regicide. His fate is sealed.’ To what extent do you agree?
 Extract 3: Act 2, Scene 2 – After the murder (Part 2)
The following extract has been taken from Act Two of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth deal with the immediate repercussions of Duncan’s murder.
LADY MACBETH
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their guilt.

Exit. Knocking within

MACBETH
Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

Re-enter LADY MACBETH

LADY MACBETH
My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.

Knocking within

I hear a knocking
At the south entry: retire we to our chamber;
A little water clears us of this deed:
How easy is it, then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.

Knocking within

Hark! more knocking.

Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH
To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.

Knocking within

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!

Revision Activities for Extract 3
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Guilt is consuming Macbeth at this point in the play

which means Shakespeare could be

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/ establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. Why is the repeated sound of knocking symbolic of Macbeth’s fate catching up with him?

2. Lady Macbeth believes ‘a little water’ will clear them of the deed. Why is she wrong?

3. Macbeth says ‘To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.’ How is Macbeth beginning to lose sight of
who he really is?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see the act of hand washing Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
occur? 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 activity:

Discuss the significance of the motif of hands in Acts One and Two.
 Extract 4: Act 2, Scene 3 – The Porter
The following extract has been taken from Act Two of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth’s
drunken porter enters to answer the knocking at the gates.
Knocking within. Enter a Porter
Porter
Here's a knocking indeed! If a
man were porter of hell-gate, he should have
old turning the key.

Knocking within

Knock,
knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of
Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged
himself on the expectation of plenty: come in
time; have napkins enow about you; here
you'll sweat for't.

Knocking within

Knock,
knock! Who's there, in the other devil's
name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could
swear in both the scales against either scale;
who committed treason enough for God's sake,
yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come
in, equivocator.

Knocking within

Knock,
knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an
English tailor come hither, for stealing out of
a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may
roast your goose.

Knocking within

Knock,
knock; never at quiet! What are you? But
this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter
it no further: I had thought to have let in
some of all professions that go the primrose
way to the everlasting bonfire.

Knocking within

Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.

Revision Activities for Extract 4
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Through the character of the Porter, Shakespeare may

be

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/ establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. The Porter, through his drunken ramblings, pretends to be the porter of the gates of Hell. Why is this
significant?

2. Consider the crimes committed by the imaginary sinners. What are they and how is Macbeth guilty of all
the same crimes?

3. The Porter is saying the path to ‘hell-gate’ is well trodden. What is he saying about human criminality and
how can this be seen as a warning to the audience?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see the act of hand washing Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
occur? 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 activity:

‘Alcohol is inextricably linked with the failure of characters in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’’. Discuss.
 Extract 5: Act 2, Scene 3 – Discovery
The following extract has been taken from Act Two of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macduff has
discovered that Duncan has been murdered.
LADY MACBETH MACDUFF
What's the business, Your royal father 's murder'd.
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley MALCOLM
The sleepers of the house? speak, speak! O, by whom?
MACDUFF LENNOX
O gentle lady, Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:
'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: Their hands and faces were an badged with blood;
The repetition, in a woman's ear, So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
Would murder as it fell. Upon their pillows:
They stared, and were distracted; no man's life
Enter BANQUO Was to be trusted with them.
O Banquo, Banquo, MACBETH
Our royal master 's murder'd! O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.
LADY MACBETH
Woe, alas!
MACDUFF
What, in our house?
Wherefore did you so?
BANQUO
MACBETH
Too cruel any where.
Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
And say it is not so.
The expedition my violent love
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with ROSS
His silver skin laced with his golden blood;
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature
MACBETH
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
Had I but died an hour before this chance,
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
I had lived a blessed time; for, from this instant,
Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,
There 's nothing serious in mortality:
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;
Courage to make 's love known?
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of. LADY MACBETH
Help me hence, ho!
Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN MACDUFF
Look to the lady.
DONALBAIN
What is amiss?
MACBETH
You are, and do not know't:
The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.
Revision Activities for Extract 5
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

In describing Duncan’s skin as ‘silver’ and his blood as

‘golden’, Shakespeare may be

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/ establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. How do Macbeth and Lady Macbeth present a picture of their innocence?

2. Macbeth kills Duncan’s guards. What is the reason he gives the others for doing this? What is the actual
reason?

3. Do you think the others are convinced by Macbeth’s story? Explain your ideas.

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see an example of regicide? How Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
do the two situations differ? 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:
Consider both characters in the play who commit regicide. With this in mind, is regicide seen as forgivable or
unredeemable?
 Extract 6: Act 2, Scene 4 – Ross and the Old Man
The following extract has been taken from Act Two of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Ross and an
old man discuss unnatural things that have been happening since Duncan’s murder.
Enter ROSS and an old Man
Old Man
Threescore and ten I can remember well:
Within the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.
ROSS
Ah, good father,
Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp:
Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,
That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
When living light should kiss it?
Old Man
'Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last,
A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.
ROSS
And Duncan's horses--a thing most strange and certain--
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.
Old Man
'Tis said they eat each other.
Revision Activities for Extract 6
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Through the conversation between Ross and the old

man, Shakespeare highlights unnatural occurences

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. What are the unnatural things that have been happening since Duncan’s death?

2. Why are these things happening? Consider contemporary beliefs around hierarchy in your answer.

3. Do you think these events actually happened or do you think Ross is teasing the old man? Explain your
ideas.

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see unnatural occurrences? Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
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 activity:

Discuss Shakespeare’s presentation of order and disorder in ‘Macbeth’.

 Extract 1: Act 3, Scene 1 – Banquo’s Concerns
The following extract has been taken from Act Three of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Banquo
questions whether Macbeth has played ‘foully’ for the crown.
BANQUO
Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promised, and, I fear,
Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said
It should not stand in thy posterity,
But that myself should be the root and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them--
As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine--
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
May they not be my oracles as well,
And set me up in hope? But hush! no more.

Sennet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as king, LADY MACBETH, as queen, LENNOX, ROSS, Lords, Ladies, and
Attendants

MACBETH
Here's our chief guest.
LADY MACBETH
If he had been forgotten,
It had been as a gap in our great feast,
And all-thing unbecoming.
MACBETH
To-night we hold a solemn supper sir,
And I'll request your presence.
BANQUO
Let your highness
Command upon me; to the which my duties
Are with a most indissoluble tie
For ever knit.
MACBETH
Ride you this afternoon?
BANQUO
Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH
We should have else desired your good advice,
Which still hath been both grave and prosperous,
In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow.
Is't far you ride?
BANQUO
As far, my lord, as will fill up the time
'Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better,
I must become a borrower of the night
For a dark hour or twain.
MACBETH
Fail not our feast.
Revision Activities for Extract 1
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Through Banquo’s concerns, Shakespeare aims

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 Banquo link Macbeth to the witches in his opening lines?

2. How can we tell Macbeth’s status has elevated through the language he uses?

3. What is the significance of Macbeth’s line, ‘fail not our feast’.

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see the word ‘foul’ and what is Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
the significance of this? 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:

‘Although they do not appear physically in every scene, the witches are always present’. To what extent do you
agree?
 Extract 2: Act 3, Scene 1 – Macbeth’s Fear
The following extract has been taken from Act Three of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth is
fearful of Banquo and the fact he has been hailed as ‘father to a line of kings.’
MACBETH
Bring them before us.

Exit Attendant

To be thus is nothing;
But to be safely thus.--Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear'd: 'tis much he dares;
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear: and, under him,
My Genius is rebuked; as, it is said,
Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters
When first they put the name of king upon me,
And bade them speak to him: then prophet-like
They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so,
For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come fate into the list.
And champion me to the utterance! Who's there!
Revision Activities for Extract 2
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Although Macbeth has the crown, he is now fearful of

losing his power, suggesting Shakespeare wishes

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. What about Banquo’s nature and the way he carries himself, threatens Macbeth?

2. Why does Macbeth describe his crown as ‘fruitless’ and his sceptre as ‘barren’?

3. What does Macbeth say has happened to his mind and what is the significance of this?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see the issue of Macbeth’s lack of Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
lineage appear? 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 activity:

Discuss how a lack of lineage is seen as a failure of Macbeth as a man.

 Extract 3: Act 3, Scene 2 – ‘O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’
The following extract has been taken from Act Three of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth
shares how he is tormented by what he is doing and what he is about to do.
LADY MACBETH
You must leave this.
MACBETH
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.
LADY MACBETH
But in them nature's copy's not eterne.
MACBETH
There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
LADY MACBETH
What's to be done?
MACBETH
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
So, prithee, go with me.
Revision Activities for Extract 3
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

In presenting audiences with Macbeth’s torment,

Shakespeare may be

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. Macbeth says his mind is full of scorpions. What does this metaphor mean?

2. What does Shakespeare’s use of dark, natural imagery suggest to audiences about what is happening to
him?

3. Macbeth refuses to tell Lady Macbeth his exact plans. What is happening to their relationship?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see Macbeth as a tormented Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
figure? 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 activity:

Discuss Shakespeare’s allusions to nature throughout the play.

 Extract 4: Act 3, Scene 4 – Banquo’s Ghost
The following extract has been taken from Act Three of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth,
having sent murderers to kill Banquo, is haunted by Banquo’s ghost.
LENNOX
May't please your highness sit.

The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place

MACBETH
Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,
Were the graced person of our Banquo present;
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
Than pity for mischance!
ROSS
His absence, sir,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness
To grace us with your royal company.
MACBETH
The table's full.
LENNOX
Here is a place reserved, sir.
MACBETH
Where?
LENNOX
Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your highness?
MACBETH
Which of you have done this?
Lords
What, my good lord?
MACBETH
Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
ROSS
Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.
Revision Activities for Extract 4
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Banquo’s ghost, arguably, is a manifestation of

Macbeth’s guilt, meaning Shakespeare is

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. Towards the end of this extract, the lengths of the lines are short. What does this tell you about the pace of
the scene?

2. How do you think Macbeth would deliver the line, ‘Which of you have done this?’

3. What can audiences infer about the appearance of Banquo’s ghost based on Macbeth’s words?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see manifestations of guilt? Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
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 activity:

Guilt. Discuss.
 Extract 5: Act 3, Scene 4 – Banquo’s Ghost (Part 2)
The following extract has been taken from Act Three of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth,
having sent murderers to kill Banquo, is haunted by Banquo’s ghost.
LADY MACBETH
Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well: if much you note him,
You shall offend him and extend his passion:
Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?
MACBETH
Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appal the devil.
LADY MACBETH
O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear:
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
Impostors to true fear, would well become
A woman's story at a winter's fire,
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
You look but on a stool.
MACBETH
Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
how say you?
Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
If charnel-houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.

GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes

LADY MACBETH
What, quite unmann'd in folly?
MACBETH
If I stand here, I saw him.
LADY MACBETH
Fie, for shame!
Revision Activities for Extract 5
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Through Macbeth’s suffering, Shakespeare is

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. What does Lady Macbeth mean when she asks, ‘Are you a man?’

2. Is Lady Macbeth trying to calm her husband throughout this extract or is she more frustrated by his
actions? Does she feel anything else? Explain your ideas.

3. Macbeth says the appearance of Banquo’s ghost would ‘appal the devil’. What does this tell us about the
ghost’s appearance and the level of sin Macbeth is steeped in?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see Lady Macbeth attacking her Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
husband’s masculinity? 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:
‘Shakespeare’s many references to Hell are not coincidental. He makes it very clear that this is where Macbeth is
headed.’ To what extent do you agree?
 Extract 6: Act 3, Scene 4 – Banquo’s Ghost (Part 3)
The following extract has been taken from Act Three of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth,
having sent murderers to kill Banquo, is haunted by Banquo’s ghost.
Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO ROSS
What sights, my lord?
MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide
I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and
thee!
worse;
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Question enrages him. At once, good night:
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Stand not upon the order of your going,
Which thou dost glare with!
But go at once.
LADY MACBETH
LENNOX
Think of this, good peers,
Good night; and better health
But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
Attend his majesty!
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
LADY MACBETH
MACBETH
A kind good night to all!
What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves MACBETH
Shall never tremble: or be alive again, It will have blood; they say, blood will have
And dare me to the desert with thy sword; blood:
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me Stones have been known to move and trees to
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! speak;
Unreal mockery, hence! Augurs and understood relations have
By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought
GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes forth
The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?
Why, so: being gone,
I am a man again. Pray you, sit still. LADY MACBETH
Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
LADY MACBETH
You have displaced the mirth, broke the good
meeting,
With most admired disorder.
MACBETH
Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
Without our special wonder? You make me
strange
Even to the disposition that I owe,
When now I think you can behold such sights,
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
When mine is blanched with fear.
Revision Activities for Extract 6
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Macbeth realises he is now stuck in a cycle of

violence, suggesting Shakespeare is

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. What other forms does Macbeth beg Banquo’s ghost to take? Why does he do this?

2. How does Lady Macbeth try and gain control of the situation?

3. Why is Macbeth’s outburst in front of the other lords dangerous? How will it affect his kingship?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see Macbeth as a vulnerable Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
character? 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:
Why do you think, at this point in the play, Lady Macbeth shows little sign of guilt whereas Macbeth is completely
consumed by it?
 Extract 1: Act 4, Scene 1 – The Apparitions
The following extract has been taken from Act Four of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth seeks
out the witches to hear more of his future.
Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head MACBETH
Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?
MACBETH But yet I'll make assurance double sure,
Tell me, thou unknown power,-- And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live;
First Witch That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,
He knows thy thought: And sleep in spite of thunder.
Hear his speech, but say thou nought.
Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned,
First Apparition
with a tree in his hand
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware
Macduff; What is this
Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. That rises like the issue of a king,
Enough. And wears upon his baby-brow the round
And top of sovereignty?
Descends
ALL
MACBETH Listen, but speak not to't.
Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, Third Apparition
thanks; Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care
Thou hast harp'd my fear aright: but one Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers
word more,-- are:
First Witch Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until
He will not be commanded: here's another, Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
More potent than the first. Shall come against him.

Thunder. Second Apparition: A bloody Child Descends

Second Apparition
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!
MACBETH
Had I three ears, I'ld hear thee.
Second Apparition
Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.

Descends
Revision Activities for Extract 1
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Unlike the first time, Macbeth actively seeks out the

witches in this scene, meaning Shakespeare is aiming

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. Why do you think each apparition appears in the form it does?

2. Which prophecy or prophecies in particular will heighten Macbeth’s sense of arrogance?

3. The witches command Macbeth to listen to the apparitions and not to speak to them. Why do you think
this is?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see thunder and why? Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
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:

‘This scene only goes to show how powerless Macbeth actually is’. To what extent do you agree?
 Extract 2: Act 4, Scene 1 – The Eight Kings
The following extract has been taken from Act Four of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth is
presented with an apparition of his greatest fear, that of Banquo’s lineage.
First Witch
Show!
Second Witch
Show!
Third Witch
Show!
ALL
Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;
Come like shadows, so depart!

A show of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; GHOST OF BANQUO following

MACBETH
Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo: down!
Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair,
Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.
A third is like the former. Filthy hags!
Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes!
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no more:
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
Which shows me many more; and some I see
That two-fold balls and treble scepters carry:
Horrible sight! Now, I see, 'tis true;
For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me,
And points at them for his.

Apparitions vanish
Revision Activities for Extract 2
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

In putting Macbeth in a position to face one of his

greatest fears, Shakespeare aims

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. What does Macbeth say about the appearance of these kings? Who do they look like and what does their
appearance do to Macbeth?

2. What is the ‘crack of doom’ Macbeth references?

3. What is Shakespeare saying about Banquo’s lineage in this scene?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see Macbeth as haunted by Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
Banquo’s lineage? 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 activity:

Discuss the presentation of the issue of descendancy in ‘Macbeth’’.

 Extract 3: Act 4, Scene 2 – Lady Macduff and Young Macduff
The following extract has been taken from Act Four of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Lady Macduff
is warned by a messenger that she is in danger. Macduff has travelled to England and is not
present to protect his family.
Messenger
Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,
Though in your state of honour I am perfect.
I doubt some danger does approach you nearly:
If you will take a homely man's advice,
Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.
To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;
To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!
I dare abide no longer.

Exit

LADY MACDUFF
Whither should I fly?
I have done no harm. But I remember now
I am in this earthly world; where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas,
Do I put up that womanly defence,
To say I have done no harm?

Enter Murderers

What are these faces?

First Murderer
Where is your husband?
LADY MACDUFF
I hope, in no place so unsanctified
Where such as thou mayst find him.
First Murderer
He's a traitor.
Son
Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain!
First Murderer
What, you egg!

Stabbing him

Young fry of treachery!

Son
He has kill'd me, mother:
Run away, I pray you!

Dies
Revision Activities for Extract 3
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

In presenting audiences with the murder of Macduff’s

family, Shakespeare is

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. Lady Macduff says ‘to do harm is often laudable’ under Macbeth’s reign. What does she mean and where
do we see an example of this in the play?

2. How does Lady Macduff shun the idea of putting up a ‘womanly defence’? What does she do instead of
protesting her innocence that she has done nothing wrong?

3. Consider the end of the extract. How does Young Macduff become a man who is willing to protect his
family in his father’s absence?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play is infanticide (the killing of children) Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
explored? 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:

Lady Macduff exists ‘only to disappear’. To what extent do you agree?

 Extract 4: Act 4, Scene 3 – Macduff and Malcolm
The following extract has been taken from Act Four of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macduff has
travelled to England to discuss Scotland’s situation with Malcolm.
MALCOLM
Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there
Weep our sad bosoms empty.
MACDUFF
Let us rather
Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men
Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom: each new morn
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out
Like syllable of dolour.
MALCOLM
What I believe I'll wail,
What know believe, and what I can redress,
As I shall find the time to friend, I will.
What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest: you have loved him well.
He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young;
but something
You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom
To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb
To appease an angry god.
MACDUFF
I am not treacherous.
MALCOLM
But Macbeth is.
A good and virtuous nature may recoil
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave
your pardon;
That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose:
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell;
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
Yet grace must still look so.
MACDUFF
I have lost my hopes.
Revision Activities for Extract 4
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Through the character of Macduff, Shakespeare may

be

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/ establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. According to Macduff, what is happening in Scotland?

2. Why is Malcolm wary of Macduff?

3. How does Malcolm allude to the idea of ‘fair is foul, and foul is fair’?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see Malcolm as a character Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
who distrusts others? 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:

‘Macduff is clearly an ally. Malcolm is wrong to see him as a threat.’ To what extent do you agree?
 Extract 5: Act 4, Scene 3 – Tyranny vs Kingship
The following extract has been taken from Act Four of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Malcolm is
tricking Macduff into thinking he would be a worse king than Macbeth.
MALCOLM
It is myself I mean: in whom I know
All the particulars of vice so grafted
That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state
Esteem him as a lamb, being compared
With my confineless harms.
MACDUFF
Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd
In evils to top Macbeth.
MALCOLM
I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name: but there's no bottom, none,
In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters,
Your matrons and your maids, could not fill up
The cistern of my lust, and my desire
All continent impediments would o'erbear
That did oppose my will: better Macbeth
Than such an one to reign.

MALCOLM
But I have none: the king-becoming graces,
As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no relish of them, but abound
In the division of each several crime,
Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.
MACDUFF
O Scotland, Scotland!
MALCOLM
If such a one be fit to govern, speak:
I am as I have spoken.
Revision Activities for Extract 5
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

By listing the qualities of a good king through the

character of Malcolm, Shakespeare is

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/ establishing

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. What is Malcolm saying Macbeth is guilty of?

2. Which of the tyrannical qualities listed by Malcolm is Macbeth seemingly innocent of?

3. What, according to Malcolm, are the qualities a good king should possess?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see discussion of what Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
makes a good king? 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:

Is Malcolm’s view of what makes a good king, a realistic one?

 Extract 6: Act 4, Scene 3 – Macduff’s grief
The following extract has been taken from Act Four of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, after realising
Malcolm has tricked him, Macduff hears news of his family’s murder.
ROSS
Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes
Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner,
Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer,
To add the death of you.
MALCOLM
Merciful heaven!
What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows;
Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break.
MACDUFF
My children too?
ROSS
Wife, children, servants, all
That could be found.
MACDUFF
And I must be from thence!
My wife kill'd too?
ROSS
I have said.
MALCOLM
Be comforted:
Let's make us medicines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.
MACDUFF
He has no children. All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?
MALCOLM
Dispute it like a man.
MACDUFF
I shall do so;
But I must also feel it as a man:
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!
MALCOLM
Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
Revision Activities for Extract 6
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

In having Macduff say he must ‘feel’ the loss of his

family ‘as a man’, Shakespeare is

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/
establishing/challenging

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. How does Malcolm expect Macduff to react to news of his family’s murder?

2. How does Macduff defy these expectations?

3. This is the first time we see genuine emotion connected to a death. Why does Shakespeare include this
moment in the play?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see an exploration of the Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
stereotypical views of masculinity? 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 activity:
Discuss Macduff as a construct who has adopted a transgressive gender role.
 Extract 1: Act 5, Scene 1 – Lady Macbeth’s guilt
The following extract has been taken from Act Five of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Lady Macbeth,
consumed by guilt, is attempting to wash her hands of blood which isn’t there.
LADY MACBETH
Yet here's a spot.
Doctor
Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from
her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
LADY MACBETH
Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,
then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my
lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
account?--Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him.
Doctor
Do you mark that?
LADY MACBETH
The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?--
What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o'
that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with
this starting.
Doctor
Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
Gentlewoman
She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of
that: heaven knows what she has known.
LADY MACBETH
Here's the smell of the blood still: all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh, oh, oh!
Revision Activities for Extract 1
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

In presenting Lady Macbeth as a woman consumed by

guilt, Shakespeare, perhaps, aims

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

to reveal the importance of/ to question/to establish/to
challenge

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. Which events from the play does Lady Macbeth recall in her mutterings?

2. In this scene, Lady Macbeth calls for light. How is this different to what she has called for before? Why the
change?

3. Lady Macbeth describes her hand as ‘little’ and yet her hands have caused so much damage. How is Lady
Macbeth presented as vulnerable here?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

When washing her hands before, Lady Macbeth says ‘a little Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
water clears us of this deed’. How is she being proven wrong relate to this extract and briefly explain your choices.
here?
1.

2.

Extra Challenge task

On a different piece of paper, write an extended response to the following activity:

What, ultimately, is Lady Macbeth’s role in ‘Macbeth’?

 Extract 2: Act 5, Scene 3 – Macbeth’s arrogance
The following extract has been taken from Act Five of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth, once
more, arrogantly believes that nobody and nothing can harm him.
MACBETH
Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,
I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly,
false thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures:
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.

Enter a Servant

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!

Where got'st thou that goose look?
Servant
There is ten thousand--
MACBETH
Geese, villain!
Servant
Soldiers, sir.
MACBETH
Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,
Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch?
Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
Servant
The English force, so please you.
MACBETH
Take thy face hence.
Revision Activities for Extract 2
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

In presenting Macbeth as an extremely arrogant

character, Shakespeare has chosen

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

to reveal the importance of/ to question/to establish/to
challenge

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. What does the term ‘hubris’ mean and how is Macbeth demonstrating it here?

2. How strong are the forces massing against Macbeth?

3. What evidence is there in this extract that Macbeth’s arrogance is making him erratic?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see examples of Macbeth’s Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
hubris? 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:

What plays a greater role in Macbeth’s downfall? His hubris or his ambition?
 Extract 3: Act 5, Scene 5 – ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’
The following extract has been taken from Act Five of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macbeth is
preparing for Malcolm and Macduff’s siege when he hears a cry.
MACBETH
Hang out our banners on the outward walls;
The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strength
Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie
Till famine and the ague eat them up:
Were they not forced with those that should be ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home.

A cry of women within

What is that noise?

SEYTON
It is the cry of women, my good lord.

Exit

MACBETH
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.

Re-enter SEYTON

Wherefore was that cry?

SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Revision Activities for Extract 3
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

In having Macbeth realise that everything that

happens in life is seemingly meaningless, Shakespeare
is

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/establishing/
challenging

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. Macbeth says there would have been a time when a cry like the one he has heard would have startled him.
This one, however, does not. What has happened to Macbeth over the course of the play to make this the
case?

2. What views does Macbeth express about life in this extract?

3. Macbeth compares life to a ‘poor player’, meaning an actor who is soon forgotten. Where in the play have
we seen Macbeth adopt the role of a ‘poor player’?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where in the play do we see examples of the ‘sound and fury’ Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
Macbeth references here? 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 activity:
Discuss the role of time in ‘Macbeth’.
 Extract 4: Act 5, Scene 8 – Macbeth vs Macduff
The following extract has been taken from Act Five of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macduff finally
confronts Macbeth.
MACBETH
Why should I play the Roman fool, and die
On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes
Do better upon them.

Enter MACDUFF

MACDUFF
Turn, hell-hound, turn!
MACBETH
Of all men else I have avoided thee:
But get thee back; my soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF
I have no words:
My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!

They fight

MACBETH
Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,
To one of woman born.
MACDUFF
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.
MACBETH
Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
MACDUFF
Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted on a pole, and underwrit,
'Here may you see the tyrant.'
Revision Activities for Extract 4
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Through Macbeth and Macduff’s confrontation,

Shakespeare is

criticising/ warning/ exposing/ teaching/ celebrating/

revealing the importance of/ questioning/establishing/
challenging

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. Macduff calls Macbeth a ‘hell-hound’. What is the effect of this image?

2. What is Macduff’s revelation?

3. What is Macbeth’s reaction to Macduff’s revelation?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play do we see confrontation? Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
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:
What, ultimately, is Macduff’s role in the play?
 Extract 5: Act 5, Scene 8 – The End
The following extract has been taken from Act Five of ‘Macbeth’. In this extract, Macduff kills
Macbeth.
Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's head

MACDUFF
Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands
The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:
I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL
Hail, King of Scotland!

Flourish

MALCOLM
We shall not spend a large expense of time
Before we reckon with your several loves,
And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honour named. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life; this, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
We will perform in measure, time and place:
So, thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.

Flourish. Exeunt
Revision Activities for Extract 5
Summary Writer’s purpose
In full sentences, briefly explain what is happening in this Pick three analytical verbs. Complete the following
extract. sentence three times, each time using a different
analytical verb. Can’t see the analytical verb you want to
use? Add it in!

Through Macbeth’s death, Shakespeare

criticises/ warns/ exposes/ teaches/ celebrates/ reveals

the importance of/ questions/establishes/ challenges

Extract specific questions

Answer the following questions in full sentences. Use quotations where you can to help you explain your points.

1. Macbeth is beheaded. Considering the Captain’s report in Act 1, scene 2, why is this a befitting way for him
to die?

2. How is order restored at the end of the play?

3. What does Malcolm intend to do now Macbeth is dead?

Links to other areas of the text Themes

Where else in the play have audiences heard the word ‘hail’? Choose two themes from the front of the booklet that
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:
‘Not everything is tied up neatly at the end of the play. There are still questions to be answered’. To what extent do
you agree?