Macbeth Take-Home Exam, Acts I-II
Choose three of the following quotations from Macbeth and (a) identify the speaker, (b) identify to whom he or she is speaking, (c) explain what is happening in the play when the words are spoken, (d) explain what the lines mean, and (e) explain what reversals, paradoxes, or opposites are revealed.
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He’s here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself.
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To beguile the time,
Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue. Look like th’ innocent flower,
But be the serpent under ‘t.
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The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
On which I must fall down or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
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Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty.
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No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest. Go, pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.
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Fair is foul and foul is fair,
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
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Example:
We will proceed no further in this business.
He hath honored me of late, and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss
Not cast aside so soon.
(a)-(b) MACBETH to LADY MACBETH – (c) Macbeth speaks these words to Lady Macbeth after his soliloquy in which he has produced reasons not to murder Duncan. (d) In the quote Macbeth rebukes his wife’s urging of the murder by saying there will be no further discussion on the subject. He then provides a rationale, stating that Duncan has given him honor, and people now give him favorable recognition for his good deeds. He concludes by explaining that he wishes to bask in his present glory and not forget his honored position so soon (by immediately murdering Duncan). (E) Since Macbeth is not king now, murdering Duncan would result in a completion of his rise to ultimate power – a reversal from being lower in power. In these lines, Macbeth appears to refuse evil by succinctly informing his wife the murder will NOT happen, and he wishes to hear no more about it. These words order his wife to change her course, also a reversal from her current purpose. At present, he feels his fortunes have improved significantly enough, that he has experienced a kind of reversal already. A few lines later, however, his wife has goaded him back into a murderous mind, illustrating that in this part of the play Macbeth vacillates and reverses his own thoughts multiple times.
TEACHER COMMENTS: Notice that the first three aspects are rather quick, and the emphasis is placed on items D and E. This student looked for more than one possible reversal and discussed every way reversals could be seen not only in the specific quote, but in the action that surrounds the quote as well. Well done.
(Vocab Builder)
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