| How does Lady Macbeth’s behaviour in Act 5, scene 1 affect the way the audience sees her? | She has totally weakened, she realizes that she can’t escape what she has done in the past. All of her wrong doings have caught up with her. * Irony that her words are coming back to haunt her, as she gave advice to Macbeth she can’t even follow it. |
| Angus says that Macbeth’s royal title is “…like a giant’s robe/Upon a dwarfish thief” (Act 5, scene 2, lines 21-22). Explain, in your own words, what this means, and whether it is a fair description of Macbeth. | Macbeth is too small to be king now, he has been belittled to nothing. *Elements of a king is just, fair, honesty, confidence, and leadership skills. while Macbeth is liar, deceiving, fearful, traitor, lacking accountability, |
| Why does Macbeth say (Act 5, scene 3) “that he must not look to have… that which should accompany old age”? What tare these things and what does he expect to have “in their stead”? | He’s saying that he doesn’t have any things that normal old people would have like friends and relaxation. Instead he has enemies and stress and anxiety. Unknown to him, theres an army marching to kill him. Ironically, people who are old and retired have lots of time, while Macbeth’s time is running out as the army is marching toward his castle. * he would have had happiness if he kept living his life, instead of trying to become king. |
| Why does Malcolm order his soldiers to cut boughs from the trees of Birnam Wood? Explain the ways in which the audience and (later) Macbeth see more in this action that Malcolm has intended in giving the order. | The strategy was to hold up the branches to hide the true amount of soldiers marching words him. Unknown to Malcolm and early Macbeth, it fulfills the prophecy about the trees marching towards him. |
| Macbeth claims that ht has “almost forgotten the taste of fears”. Is this a convincing claim? Give reasons for your answer. | he deemed himself immortal because of the witches * he really has no feelings about it, when he hears the shrieks of the women who see that Lady Macbeth has killed herself. |
| Perhaps the most famous speech in the play is the one that begins “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”. In your own words, summarize the main points that Macbeth makes in this speech. | he feels like the days ahead of him has nothing left for him to look forward to. Brief candle- metaphor for life. Talking about the vulnerability of life and how we think that our lives are so important but in Macbeth’s view there is really nothing important. |
| When Macbeth fights young Siward he is very confident of the outcome. Why is this? Is he right to be confident? | nobody woman born could kill him, so he’s like bring it on dude. probably makes his fighting style reckless and powerful until he learns that macduff is going to kill him. // if macduff hadn’t told macbeth about that. |
| Macduff believes that he alone should kill Macbeth. Why does he think this? What other reason emerges, when he speaks with Macbeth, for his being the only person who should do this? | He thinks this because macbeth killed his whole family. |
| How does Macbeth feel about fighting Macduff? what makes up his mind to do so? | — |
| How does Old Siward feel about the death of his son? He makes a joke at this point – does this suggest that he doesn’t care, or that he is controlling his feelings? | — |
Macbeth Act5 Questions
September 5, 2019