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| An RSC production of Macbeth |
Though there are 5 questions here (I couldn't help myself), you still only have to answer TWO of them.
Q1: Act 3.5, the scene with Hecate, is largely considered to
be the work of Thomas Middleton, a contemporary playwright who wrote a play
about witches at roughly the same time of Macbeth (he adapted Macbeth
after Shakespeare’s retirement to make more money). In reading this scene, does
anything strike you as different from the rest of the play? The language?
Metaphors? Characterization? Or would you have assumed that Shakespeare wrote
this, too?
Q2: How informed is Lady Macbeth about the murder of Banquo and the attempted
murder on Fleance (his son)? Is she still the mastermind of the play, or has
Macbeth usurped her role? Is there any way to tell who’s calling the shots at
this point?
Q3: The “Murderers” that Macbeth hires in 3.1 aren’t really murderers at this
point in the play (it’s clear that they haven’t murdered before, and are not
professional assassins). How does Macbeth convince them to murder Banquo and/or
how does he justify it to himself? Why, too, does he hire murderers now instead
of doing the job himself, as he did with
Q4: In Act 4, scene 3, Malcolm tells Macduff that "black Macbeth/will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state/Esteem him as a lamb, being compared/With my confineless harms...there's no bottom, none/In my voluptousness" (143). Why does he threaten to be an even worse ruler than Macbeth, and vow to debauch women, ruin men, and destroy order?
Q5: In Scene 2, Lady Macduff tells her son that Macduff (who has fled lest he be killed by Macbeth) is "dead" and "a traitor." Why does she say this, especially as her son knows that neither of them are true? Is she joking with him, or being deadly serious? You might also account for her line, "Why, I can buy me twenty [husbands] at any market."
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