Macbeth: Study Questions

The class came up with this list of questions on Macbeth. Any question on Macbeth on the final exam will be based on these, although they may appear in different form on the test.

Study Questions

1. How does it happen that leadership turns to tyranny and bloody murder in the play? Which factors help to change Macbeth's character?

2. How did Lady Macbeth convince Macbeth to kill the king? He seemed devoted to the king and the country at the beginning, but after the prophecy his devotion was gone? Was it Lady Macbeth who convinced him to kill the king or was it his hunger for power?

3. My question is about the character of Macbeth. I'm wondering how much influence his wife has on him. Do you think that Macbeth would have killed Duncan even if Lady Macbeth had not persuaded him to do so by reminding him of his promise and calling him a coward? Or is the desire to kill Duncan and become king to inherent in him?

4. What happens to Fleance? Don't the witches say that he will become king? All of the other things the witches said came true.

5. How were battle scenes acted on the stage? When the army takes over the castle, it seems like it would be too large for a stage production.

6. Is the sleep walking of Lady Macbeth because of her guilt or because of madness. When she kills herself at the end, it seems to me to be a desperate act to get rid of the guilt, but I also think that suicide is an act of madness.

7. Was Macbeth a good man before he plotted to kill the king?

8. My question is about the role of the witches. It is obvious that they are of major importance in the play, for they symbolize the negative and Macbeth’s pact with the evil. However, I was wondering if Macbeth would not also have decided to kill the king only by the obviously strong influence of his wife? I mean: could the play not have developed the same way if Shakespeare had just left the witches out?

9. Why the enmity between Macbeth and Macduff?

10. I noticed that there was a lot of foreshadowing in Act 1. Does the foreshadowing remain an important element throughout the rest of the play? If so where?