Macbeth - Themes overview test questions - CCEA - GCSE English Literature Revision

Read the following extract in which Banquo thinks about what has happened in the first half of the play. Then answer the questions which follow.

Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,

As the weird women promised, and I fear

Thou played'st most foully for 't; yet it was said

It should not stand in thy posterity,

But that myself should be the root and father

Of many kings. If there come truth from them—

As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine—

Why, by the verities on thee made good,

May they not be my oracles as well

And set me up in hope?

(Act 3 Scene 1)

1

Which of the themes of the play does Shakespeare highlight in this extract?

Ambition and power

Evil and the supernatural

Appearances and reality

2

What does Banquo mean when he says "I fear thou played'st most foully for't"?

He thinks Macbeth deserves to have taken over as king

He wonders whether fear has motivated Macbeth

He thinks Macbeth may have committed murder to gain power

3

What ambition does Banquo reveal in this speech?

Banquo thinks that he should also become king

Banquo hopes that his descendants will become kings

Banquo thinks that Malcolm should become king

Read the following extract in which Macbeth has seen a vision of a bloody dagger and his head becomes filled with disturbing images. Then answer the questions which follow.

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. Witchcraft celebrates

Pale Hecate's off'rings, and withered murder,

Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,

With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design

Moves like a ghost.

(Act 2 Scene 1)

4

Which of the themes of the play does Shakespeare most highlight in this extract?

Ambition and power

Evil and the supernatural

Appearances and reality

5

Who is the goddess of the Witches who later appears in the play?

Tarquin

Lady Macbeth

Hecate

6

What is meant by "Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse / The curtained sleep"?

People are asleep but troubled by evil nightmares

It is winter time and things are hibernating

Nothing is natural and normal - life is just a bad dream

7

What is one of the main reasons that Shakespeare concentrates so much on the theme of evil and the supernatural in Macbeth?

It is not a subject that had been dealt with in plays before

Shakespeare himself was very superstitious

The then king, James I, was fascinated by the subject of witches and witchcraft

Read the following extract in which Lady Macbeth advises her husband. Then answer the questions which follow.

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters. 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. He that's coming

Must be provided for, and you shall put

This night's great business into my dispatch,

Which shall to all our nights and days to come

Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

(Act 1 Scene 5)

8

Which of the themes of the play does Shakespeare highlight in this extract?

Ambition and power

Evil and the supernatural

Appearances and reality

9

Lady Macbeth uses a simile to make her point. What is the simile she uses?

"Bear welcome in your eye"

"Look like th'innocent flower, But be the serpent under't"

"Your face, my thane, is a book"

10

Rather than use the words 'murder' and 'death' directly, Lady Macbeth uses words like 'provided for', 'great business' and 'dispatch'. She is covering up the truth of what they are planning by using words that are not quite so unpleasant. What is the technical term for a word like this?

Euphemism

Hyperbole

Rhetoric