A Study Guide for Act 3 (Pp. 77-113)

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth A Study Guide for Act 3 (pp. 77-113)

Be able to define (and read for the ideas of):

Fate Loyalty Free Will Honor Ambition Destiny Guilt Fear Power Deception

Name: - ______(This guide may be collected— fair warning) 

In another example of elision (meaning “to omit or leave out)”, Shakespeare does not show us the scene in which Macbeth is made king. Just as he denied us the scene of Duncan’s murder, he now skips over its most direct consequence, Macbeth’s crowning. But gaining the crown is not enough for Macbeth. Now he needs to try to keep it.

Scene 1: 1. Banquo has a strong reaction to his friend Macbeth becoming king. Describe his reaction—and how he illustrates the idea of appearance vs. reality.

2. What news has Macbeth heard regarding the king’s sons?

3. What concerns does Macbeth express in his soliloquy once Banquo leaves?

4. Instead of just hiring men to kill Banquo, Macbeth goes to the trouble of finding men who are down on their luck and convinces them that Banquo is the cause of their problems. Why do you think he does this? (Notice how he implies that if they were real men, they would commit murder, the same suggestion Lady Macbeth

1 successfully uses to convince Macbeth to murder King Duncan.) Who else are these men supposed to kill?

Scene 2: 1. At the beginning of this scene, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth express the same sentiments regarding the way things are going. What do they say?

 Lady Macbeth

 Macbeth

2. Notice that Macbeth does not share his plan with his wife. He has now taken over as the one who plots and plans. What does he tell Lady Macbeth about the murder of Banquo and Fleance?

Scene 3: 1. Explain the following quote: “O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!” (III.iii.27)

Scene 4: 1. After his first confrontation with the witches, Macbeth worried that he would have to commit a murder to gain the Scottish crown. He seems to have gotten used to the idea, as by this point the body count has risen. Who has been murdered so far?

2. When Macbeth hears that Banquo is dead, he’s thrilled, but when he learns that Fleance lives, he has a hard time being a host to his guests. Why does he refuse to sit in his chair at the dinner table?

2 3. Describe what Lady Macbeth says to her husband when he starts raving in front of his guests:

4. Why does Macbeth decide to go back to see the three witches?

Scene 5: 1. Discuss why Hecate is angry and what her plan is:

Scene 6: 1. What does Lennox reveal in his first speech?

2. Where has Macduff gone, and why does it anger Macbeth?

The appearance of the ghost and the reappearance of the witches may represent the political disorder in Scotland after Duncan’s assassination and the moral disorder within Macbeth and his wife. It seems appropriate that Banquo haunts Macbeth and not Duncan because (1) Banquo has a larger role in the play, (2) he was an ancestor of King James, and (3) he was also intrigued by the witches’ prophesies, but he never did anything criminal to achieve his ambitions. In this light he is a FOIL to Macbeth (foils are characters that are so similar that they warrant comparison, but the comparison highlights how different they really are).

Student Section:

1. Write the most significant quote in the space below (including Act.scene.line)—and state how/why it is the most significant quote in this Act.

2. Write down one question you find worthy of discussion from this Act.

3 3. Select one of the ideas listed on the cover of this study guide to discuss in a brief paragraph of 3-5 sentences).

Act III: Quotable Quotes: Several of these will resurface on quizzes—be ready— (this means you need to understand them AND be able to relate them to literary devices; a few, for example, contain a type of irony…) 1. “Thou hast it now—King, Cawdor, Glamis all, / As the weird women promised; and I fear / Thou play’dst most foully for’t” (III.i.1-3).

2. “Our fears in Banquo stick deep, / And in his royalty of nature reigns that / Which would be feared… / He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor / To act in safety. There is none but he / Whose being I do fear… / Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, / And put a barren scepter in my gripe… / For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind; / For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered” (III.i.53-70).

3. “What’s done is done” (III.ii.14).

4. This one is done for you  Macbeth again mentions “terrible dreams” (III.ii.21) and is even jealous of King Duncan, who, in his grave “after life’s fitful fever he sleeps well” (III.ii.26). Yet his wife insists “You must leave this,” to which he says “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!” (41). There seems to be a distance between them here, although he calls her “dearest chuck”; he tells her not to worry about what will happen next (he does not want to tell her about the coming murders of Banquo and Fleance).

5. “O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!” (III.iii.27).

6. “Are you a man? (III.iv.73). “What, quite unmanned in folly?” (III.iv.91).

7. “What man dare, I dare” (III.iv.124). “I am a man again” (III.iv.134).

4 8. “I hear it by the way; but I will send. / There’s not a one of them but in his house / I keep a servant fee’d” (III.iv.165-167).

9. “Blood will have / blood” (III.iv.154-5). Note: Yes, this quote is before quote #8, but it goes with the next quote: “I am in blood / Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as to o’er. / Strange things I have in head, that will to hand, / Which must be acted ere they may be scanned” (III.iv.171-5).

10. “Thither Macduff / Is gone to pray the holy King upon his aid / To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward; / That by the help of these (with Him above / To ratify the work) we may again / Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights / Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives” III.vi.31-37).