What happens in MacBeth?
Which characters in Greek mythology do the witches likely allude to?
The Fates
Definition of motif
What is the entire point of the Porter in Act 2 Scene 3?
Comic Relief
This line is written in which meter: "I conjure you by that which you profess"
Iambic pentameter
Assonance and consonance
Both involve repeated sounds throughout a line or sentence, but assonance refers to repeated vowel sounds, while consonance refers to repeated consonant sounds.
Who is Banquo's son?
Fleance
Which motif is emphasized in these lines: Hear it not Duncan, for it is a knell / That summons thee to heaven or to hell
Willingness to commit great acts of evil (murder, treason, etc.) on behalf of one's personal gain
Name the rhetorical device: All hail, MacBeth and Banquo! / Banquo and MacBeth, all hail!
Chiasmus
Which character(s) tend to speak in Trochaic Tetrameter?
The witches (and Hecate!)
Stressed and unstressed syllables
Stressed syllables are naturally emphasized or spoken slightly louder and longer than unstressed syllables, making them the building blocks for meter.
What happens to Lady MacBeth in the end?
She has an off-stage suicide that is assumed by the audience to have taken place.
Explain the paradox:
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Not so happy, yet much happier. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
Banquo will not be king (lesser, not so happy, "thou be none") but he will have descendants who are kings, making him also greater, happier, and the father of kings.
Name the rhetorical device: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds / Or memorize another Golgotha, I cannot tell
Allusion (to Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified)
Name the repetition device:
First Witch: When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch: When the hurly-burly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.
Anaphora (repetition of "when")
Anaphora and alliteration
Both use repetition to communicate, but anaphora repeats whole words or phrases, while alliteration only repeats beginning sounds in a sentence.
Which character becomes king after MacBeth?
Malcolm
Name the motif that goes with theses lines: Better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, than on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy.
It is better to die with clean hands and be at peace than to live a life of murderous ambition that leads to madness.
Name the rhetorical device: Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown / And placed a barren scepter in my grip
Pun (fruitless = pointless & childless)
Name the repetition device:
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark...
Consonance
Allusion and pun
While both of these devices require the reader to understand a double meaning or reference, an allusion specifically asks the reader to draw a connection to outside, shared knowledge, while a pun draws a connection between two different meanings of the same word.
Which object does the first witch show her sisters near the beginning of the play?
A pilot's thumb
In what way does Act 4 Scene 2 provide both a sense of both tragedy and comic relief (a kind of plot-embedded paradox)?
A little boy is sassy and witty, but then he gets murdered (because he is an egg).
Name the rhetorical device: Life is a tale told by an idiot.
Aphorism
Name the repetition device: Tis safer to be that which we destroy/Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
Parallelism (destroy, destruction)
Paradox and chiasmus
Both employ pairs of opposites. However, paradox places two mutually exclusive opposites and declares them both to be true, whereas chiasmus has more to do with the order in which the opposites are presented.