Starter quiz
- In the run up to the regicide in 'Macbeth', which adjectives best describe how Lady Macbeth feels?
- vulnerable
- determined ✓
- unwavering ✓
- chaste
- ambitious ✓
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- What happens to Lady Macbeth at the end of 'Macbeth'?
- She is hung, thought to be a witch.
- She and Macbeth split up.
- She chooses to kill herself. ✓
- We don't find out; after Act 5, Scene 1, she is never mentioned again.
- She is killed when the English army storm the Macbeths' castle.
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- In Act 1, Scene 5 of 'Macbeth', Lady Macbeth gives a soliloquy in which she asks spirits to 'stop up the access and passage to remorse'. What feeling is she trying to get rid of?
- femininity
- chastity
- guilt ✓
- obedience
- kindness
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- In order to commit the regicide in 'Macbeth', Macbeth and Lady Macbeth need to get past King Duncan's guards. How do they do this?
- Macbeth kills them.
- Lady Macbeth kills them.
- Macbeth drugs them.
- Lady Macbeth drugs them. ✓
- Macbeth kills Duncan when the guards are asleep.
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- In Act 1 of 'Macbeth', Macbeth brutally kills an enemy soldier. How did he feel after this deed and why?
- Proud because he defended King Duncan. ✓
- Confident in his ability to use this prowess to kill Duncan.
- Hesitant about his own brutality.
- Guilty for displaying the head on the battlements for all to see.
- Loyal to Scotland. ✓
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- In Act 1, Scene 5 of 'Macbeth', Lady Macbeth has a soliloquy. She asks 'thick night' to do two things for her. What are they?
- To not allow the heavens to see her commit the regicide. ✓
- To unsex her.
- To fill her with cruelty.
- To hide the knife wound she makes in King Duncan. ✓
- To turn her breastmilk to poison.
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Exit quiz
- How might you describe the change in Lady Macbeth's characterisation from Act 1 to Act 5 of 'Macbeth'?
- From demise to dominant.
- From diminished to dominant.
- From dominant to diminished. ✓
- From dominant to demise.
- From demise to diminished.
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- In Act 2 of 'Macbeth', what reason does Lady Macbeth give for not killing King Duncan?
- She is too 'drunk' to do it.
- She was frightened by the screeching owl and left his chamber.
- The spirits didn't 'unsex' her.
- He resembled her father. ✓
- She was too 'bold' to do it.
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- ______ is a literary device. It gives the reader or audience an indication of what might happen later in the story.
- 'Foreshadowing' ✓
- After the regicide, in Act 2, Scene 2 of 'Macbeth', Lady Macbeth orders Macbeth to stop thinking about the regicide: 'These deeds must not be thought After these ways, so it will make us ______'.
- 'mad' ✓
- In Act 5, Scene 1 of 'Macbeth', why does Lady Macbeth say, 'Here's the smell of blood still.'?
- She has blood on her hands.
- She enjoys having Duncan's blood on her hands.
- She believes she has blood on her hands. ✓
- She trying to reassure Macbeth by showing she also has blood on her hands.
- She's telling the Doctor why she feels unwell.
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- After the regicide, in Act 2, Scene 2 of 'Macbeth', Macbeth worries, 'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?'. What might this foreshadow?
- The over-whelming power of guilt. ✓
- The quantity of blood after Duncan's brutal murder.
- Macbeth will be convinced there is blood on his hands for the rest of the play.
- Lady Macbeth's pre-occupation with the idea of bloody hands in 5.1. ✓
- The gods' anger at Macbeth's regicide.
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Worksheet
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Lesson Details
Key learning points
- In Act 2, Scene 2, the audience might interpret some aspects of Lady Macbeth's characterisation as vulnerable
- The exploration of Lady Macbeth's guilt in this scene foreshadows her demise in Act 5
- Act 5, Scene 1 is her final appearance in the play and in it, she is consumed by guilt
Common misconception
Lady Macbeth's rejection of guilt in 2.2 means 5.1's characterisation is inconsistent.
The language in 2.2 foreshadows what is to come.
Keywords
Diminishes - If something diminishes, it reduces in importance.
Demise - A demise sees the end of something that was previously considered powerful.
Guilt - Guilt is an emotion you feel when you have done something bad to someone else. Guilt makes you feel worried and unhappy.
Foreshadowing - Foreshadowing is a literary device. It gives the reader or audience a hint or indication of what might happen later in the story.
Vulnerability - If you are vulnerable, you are in a position where you could be hurt easily.
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