1. Macbeth Key Scenes analysis
Revision

2. Act 1 sc 1: The 3 Witches Possible question:
Thunder and lightning. Enter three WITCHES 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. THIRD WITCH That will be ere the set of sun. Where the place? Upon the heath. There to meet with Macbeth. The WITCHES hear the calls of their spirit friends or “familiars,” which look like animals—one is a cat and one is a toad. I come, Graymalkin! Paddock calls. Anon. ALL Fair is foul, and foul is fair Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt
Possible question:
Starting with this extract, explain how Shakespeare presents the witches as evil characters.
Write about:
How Shakespeare presents the witches in this extract
How Shakespeare presents the witches in the play as a whole.

3. Act 2 scene 1: The dagger Possible question:
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-oppressèd 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' th' 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 half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep.
Possible question:
Starting with this extract, explain how Shakespeare presents the Macbeth as a conflicted character.
Write about:
How Shakespeare presents the Macbeth in this extract
How Shakespeare presents the Macbeth in the play as a whole.
Find this extract in your texts.
Discuss what has happened just before and what happens just after.

4. Translation
Is this a dagger I see in front of me, with its handle pointing toward my hand? (to the dagger) Come, let me hold you. (he grabs at the air in front of him without touching anything) I don’t have you but I can still see you. Fateful apparition, isn’t it possible to touch you as well as see you? Or are you nothing more than a dagger created by the mind, a hallucination from my fevered brain? I can still see you, and you look as real as this other dagger that I’m pulling out now. (he draws a dagger) You’re leading me toward the place I was going already, and I was planning to use a weapon just like you. My eyesight must either be the one sense that’s not working, or else it’s the only one that’s working right. I can still see you, and I see blood splotches on your blade and handle that weren’t there before. (to himself) There’s no dagger here. It’s the murder I’m about to do that’s making me think I see one. Now half the world is asleep and being deceived by evil nightmares.

5. How does Shakespeare present Macbeth?
In this extract
In the rest of the play
As Macbeth starts to get closer to murder, nature seems to go haywire – the supernatural takes over
When has Macbeth been affected by the supernatural elsewhere in the play?
Macbeth seems tormented by the idea of murdering the king
When has Macbeth been unsure/tormented elsewhere in the play?
Themes
Context
Language/structure/form
Nature and the supernatural
Ambition
Fate
violence
Elizabethan attitudes towards the supernatural and fate.
The Divine Right of Kings
Chain of Being
Christian beliefs about murder, sin heaven and hell
Soliloquy
Rhetorical questions
Addressing the dagger directly
Metaphor
personification
Violent imagery
Iambic pentameter
Symbolism of sleep

6. Homework
Complete this question in timed conditions at home. Focus on language and context.
45 mins

7. Key scenes Act 1 sc 1: the three witches
Act 1 scene 2: the captain’s report of the battle
Act 1 sc 3: Macbeth’s aside about the prophecies
Act 1 sc 5: Lady Macbeth reads the letter
Act 1 sc 5: Lady Macbeth calls on spirits to ‘unsex’ her.
Act 1 sc 5: Lady Macbeth takes control ‘look like the serpent’
Act 1 sc 7: Macbeth’s soliloquy – should he kill the King?
Act 1 sc 7: Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth by calling him a ‘coward’
Act 1 sc 7: If we should fail? The plans are laid
Act 2 sc1: Is this a dagger? Macbeth’s soliloquy
Act 2 sc 2: The ‘deed’ is done
Act 2 sc 2: Macbeth feels guilty and Lady Macbeth takes control (again!)

8. Key scenes Act 2 sc 2: Someone’s knocking! The hand washing scene
Act 2 sc 3: The comedy scene – the pissing porter
Act 3 sc 1: Macbeth’s 3rd soliloquy – planning Banquo’s death
Act 3 sc 2: We have scorched the snake, not killed it
Act 3 sc 2: Lady M warns Macbeth to ‘leave this’ (she gets cold feet)
Act 3 scene 4: Macbeth sees the ghost at the banquet
Act 3 sc 4: Macbeth plans to see the witches again
Act 3 sc 6: Lennox recaps everything
Act 4 sc 1: Toil and Trouble
Act 4 scene 1: The Apparitions
Act 4 sc 2: Ross and Lady Macduff chat, she gets murdered
Act 4 sc 3: Malcolm and Macduff brainstorm Scotland’s plight, Macduff proves loyal to Scotland. Ross tells Macduff his family is dead. Macduff vows to slay Macbeth

9. Key scenes
Act 5 scene 1: Lady Macbeth sleepwalks ‘out damned spot!’ Doctor and gentlewoman realise she’s mad.
Act 5 sc2: The English army arrives in Scotland to attack Macbeth. Scottish nobles also join them. They agree to get rid of Macbeth.
Act 5 sc 3: Macbeth feels invincible but a messenger tells him things have gone bad. Doctor reports Lady M is also mad. Macbeth realises he’s in trouble.
Act 5 sc4: Macbeth’s enemies plot to cut down the branches of Birnam wood as their cover. Macbeth still thinks he can win thanks to the witches.
Act 5 sc 5: Macbeth still feels safe in his castle. Lady Macbeth kills herself. ‘she should have died hereafter’. ‘Life is but a walking shadow’. Macbeth receives the news that the wood is moving! He decides to go down fighting.
Act 5 sc 6: Army attacks, led by Siward, Malcolm and Macduff.
Act 5 sc 7: Big fight. Siward’s son dies. Macduff searches for Macbeth.
Act 5 sc 8: Macbeth, alone will not be the ‘roman fool’ (ie kill himself). Macduff arrives and calls him a ‘hell-hound’. They fight. Macduff kills Macbeth. Malcolm says anyone who helped the ‘dead butcher and his fiend-like queen’ are in trouble. Malcolm is pronounced King.
(NB: scene 8 is really long!, sometimes it’s split into 4 scenes: 8,9,10,11)