Macbeth
Characters
Macbeth:
Aiden Cain
Lady Macbeth:
Maddie Burks
Murderer:
Rachel Tarentino
Lennox(Lords):
Parker Makowski
Servant | Ross(Lords): Nick Schnelbach
Act III Scene IV
Banquo’s Ghost: Jack Kropinak
Q. Lines 9-23: What evidence in Macbeth’s conversation with the murder reveals
Macbeth’s abrupt change in tone and attitude regarding the events surrounding
Banquo’s murder?
A. He is first happy about the murder. You know this when he says, “If thou didst it,
thou art the nonpareil.” (If you cut both throats, you are the absolute best) Then all of
the sudden his tone changes abruptly after Florence escapes. You know this when he
says, “But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in/ Too saucy doubts and fears
(Now I’m all tangled up with doubts and fears.) He is now scared and worried.
P&R
Thing to Note:
Q: In Scene 4, lines 29-30, Macbeth says of Fleance, “There the grown serpent
lies. The work that’s fled / Hath nature in that time will venom breed.” In what way
does Macbeth see Fleance as an antagonist?
A: Macbeth predicts that Fleance will grow up into a dangerous enemy.
Q. Lines 21-25: Which sentences are spoken by Macbeth as an aside? How can
you tell where the aside begins and ends?
A. An aside is whenever someone is talking and is kind of meant for the audience
to hear it but not the characters in the play. The aside starts whenever he says
“Then comes my fit again.” The aside ends whenever he asks the murderer about
Banquo. You know the aside ends because there are “--” indicating the aside
ends. He asks the murderer, “--But Banquo’s safe?”
P&R
Q. Sc. 4, Lines 21-25: Point out and analyze the words Macbeth uses to
indicate his feelings about the news of Fleance?
A.
“Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect,/ Whole as a marble, founded as the rock, As broad
and as general as the casing air./ Out now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in/ To saucy doubts
and fears...” (III.iv.22-25 GB)
To be inconspicuous, Macbeth goes into great detail using similes to voice the
emotions of anxiety and fear he has towards the partial failure of his plan to
murder Banquo and Fleance, while in company. Macbeth alluded to have felt
grounded and otherwise fine, but because of the failure, is feeling weighed down,
crushed even, by uneasy feelings of anxiety, fearfulness, and dread.
M&A
Q. The ghost of Banquo sits in Macbeth’s seat, but only Macbeth can see him.
Are we to believe Banquo’s ghost is there of that Macbeth is losing his mind?
A. We are to believe that Macbeth is having illusions, but the theme of the
supernatural is still present. What we believe is that shakespeare wants us to use
our imaginations- {is the ghost just a vision? Did the witches send it to haunt
Macbeth? Do supernatural entities exist?} He puts it in his own perspective, to
make his audiences think. Initially we believe that it is his way of letting the
audience know of his own insanity.
M
Q. Macbeth says he fears nothing, except the ghost. Why does he fear the ghost
over anything else? What else should he fear?
A. Macbeth states that “this haunting business is even stranger than murder”. He
thinks ghosts are more sketchy than actually committing murder. Also, the ghost
might be a symbol of guilt, which messes with his conscience. He should also fear
that Fleance might try to get revenge or try to overthrow Macbeth because he was
able to escape.
N
Q. Macbeth is growing increasingly desperate. Why? He is king, finally… but
what does he fear at the scene’s end?
A. He is desperate to find out the witches’ prophecies about what will happen to
him. He is very uncertain of what will happen because of his hallucinations and the
fact that Fleance escaped. One of Macbeth’s spies heard that Macduff refuses to
come see Macbeth. Also, he fears that someone such as Fleance is plotting to
overthrow him.
N
Q. Sc. 4, Line 26: What does Macbeth mean when he uses the word safe to
describe the plan?
A. Similar to the rest of the conversation with the murderer, Macbeth mustn't let
his company know of his wrongdoings. Using a rather verbally ironic phrase,
Macbeth asks if Banquo is ‘safe’. By safe, Macbeth clearly means slain due to the
context of the events that have been laid out before the reader, but out of context,
in the eyes of the Lords and Thanes, it remains inconspicuous, maintaining his
'innocence’.
A
Thing to Note:
The ghost at dinner in Scene 4 causes Macbeth to become very agitated, and
profusely upset, causing an uproar in front of his guests
Q. Sc. 4, Lines 53-68: Describe what Lady Macbeth tells her guests about
Macbeth’s outburst. What evidence supports the dramatic irony that Lady
Macbeth believes Macbeth’s fears are still about Duncan?
A. Lady Macbeth assures her guests that Macbeth’s behavior is “normal”, the fit he
is having recurs but is only momentarily, and that nobody should be concerned
with how he is behaving. Lady Macbeth knows that he is hallucinating, much like
he did when he hallucinated a dagger leading him to Duncan’s chamber, and
discourages him by asking him if he is a man.
J
Thing to Note:
“Can such things be,/ And overcome us like a summer’s cloud,/ Without our special wonder? You make
me strange/ Even to the disposition that I owe” (III,iv,111-113)
These lines reveal that Macbeth thinks that the ghost of Banquo is visible to Lady
Macbeth. Phrases such as ‘overcome us...’, ‘our special wonder’, ‘you make me
strange’, and other similar dialogue bring us to this conclusion.
Q. Sc. 4, Lines 74-96: Contrast the way the guests at the table would interpret
Macbeth’s lines to the way the audience would interpret them?
A.
The guests think he is acting strangely because they cannot see what
Macbeth is upset about, but the audience knows that he is upset from guilt
and hallucinations of ghosts of those he is responsible for the death of.
J
Q. Sc. 4, Lines 136-138: Which words indicate that Macbeth has gone too far in
his quest for power? Which theme is being developed in this scene?
A.
Lady Macbeth says “What, has your foolishness paralyzed you completely?”
Lady Macbeth mistakes Macbeth’s foolishness for his feelings of guilt. The
theme of ruthless ambition is expressed in this quote because Lady Macbeth
thinks that Macbeth is acting dumb and that he should stop acting strange so
that the guests don’t suspect anything, which means for him to stop feeling
guilty about what he did.
J
Thing to Note:
After the banquet, a discussion between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth supply the
reader with knowledge of Macduff’s unloyalty to be punished, the fact that
Macbeth has planted spies within other Thane’s castles, of Macbeth’s plan to go
see the witches in the morning to receive more information about his fate, and that
he has more plans he wishes to put into action.
Thing to Note:
When Lady Macbeth declares that “what’s done is done” to Macbeth referring to
Duncan’s death, it is dramatically ironic, because the viewers know that she is not
as calm as she appears to have led on.
Important Quotes:
“I hear it by the way; but I will send./ There’s not a
one of them but in his house/ I keep a servant fee’d.
I will tomorrow. I will tomorrow-/ and betimes I
will-to the weird sisters./More shall they speak, for
now I am bent to know,/ By the worst means, the
worst. For mine own good, All causes shall give
away. I am in blood/ Stepped in so far should I
wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go
o’er./ Strange things I have in head, that will to
hand,/ Which must be acted ere they may be
scanned.”
Macbeth, conversing to Lady Macbeth, speaks of
his current plans, and his future endeavors. He has
hired spies in every castle of every thane, and also
plans to visit the wëird sisters to prepare to keep his
crown. He also foreshadows future plots.
“We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it…”
Originating from Scene 2 of Act 3, this quote greatly
foreshadowed
Macbeth, says that they have scotch’d, or hurt the
snake, meaning fate. They have not killed it,
meaning both Banquo and Fleance are not dead,
stopping fate. Fleance escaping still allows the
snake, or fate, to live on. Fate of Macbeth losing his
crown to Banquo’s descendants.