Historical Context
Macbeth was written for this monarch.
Who is James I?
The witches greet Macbeth with these three titles.
What are (thane of) Glamis, (thane of) Cawdor, and (king of) Scotland?
Macbeth tells Banquo that he has not thought about them.
Who are the weird sisters / three witches?
"Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair" contains repetition of initial consonant sounds, which is an example of this technique.
What is alliteration?
"Fair is foul and foul is fair"
Who are the weird sisters?
Shakespeare's plays and poems were written in this dialect of English.
What is Early Modern English?
Scotland is being attacked by these two allied nations.
What are Norway and Ireland?
Macbeth and his wife frame these characters for Duncan's murder.
Who are the sleeping guards?
This is when the audience knows something the characters do not.
What is dramatic irony?
"He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust."
Who is King Duncan?
This character was thought to be an ancestor of King James I around the time Macbeth was performed.
Who is Banquo?
He will not be king but his descendants will be.
Who is Banquo?
In a panic, Macbeth brings these things to his wife after murdering Duncan.
What are bloody daggers?
Many of the scenes in Macbeth end in a two-line, end-rhymed grouping, which is an example of this type of poem.
What is a rhyming couplet / heroic couplet?
"Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o' the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way.
Who is Lady Macbeth?
Due to the lack of artificial lighting, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre used what to light the stage?
What is sunlight?
The sound Macbeth hears that "invites" him to kill King Duncan.
What is a ringing bell?
She doesn't do this because he reminds her of her father.
Why doesn't Lady Macbeth kill Duncan?
The type of speech when only one person is standing on stage and speaks for a long time.
What is a soliloquy?
"Bring forth men-children only, / For thy undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males."
Who is Macbeth?
First performed in about 1606 and published in 1623, this is the year in which Macbeth takes place.
What is 1040 CE?
King Duncan grants Malcolm this title.
What is Prince of Cumberland?
Macbeth cannot say this word after murdering King Duncan.
What is "Amen"?
A technique where the action is already underway when a play begins, as in Macbeth, where the battle is already almost over when the first scene opens.
What is in medias res?
"Knock, knock! Never at quiet. What are you? But this / place is too cold for hell."
Who is the porter?
By 1707, the Acts of Union had combined these two kingdoms.
What are Scotland and England?
After learning of her husband's prophecy, Lady Macbeth calls up evil spirits to do this.
What is strip her of her feminine traits / "unsex [her] here"?
The purpose of the porter in the play.
What is comic relief?
Various Scottish lords comment on the weather at pivotal points in Macbeth. This literary technique (which is a type of personification) sets the mood and deepens the audience's understanding of the narrative.
What is pathetic fallacy?
"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 knowing."
Who is the / an Old Man?
A word that means the killing of a king
What is "regicide"?