1. For the following question, consider the classical definition of tragedy from Aristotle's Poetics: a drama about a noble hero with a tragic flaw (hamartia) that causes his/her downfall. The tragic hero's fate evokes pity and terror and creates a catharsis (an emotional release or purging) for the audience: Analyze Macbeth's character. Is he a complete villain? Does he have a conscience? What are his admirable qualities? What do the wounded captain's comments (1.2) reveal about his character? Can Macbeth be seen as an Aristotelian tragedy? What basic human flaws or weaknesses does Macbeth display? How do they contribute to his downfall? Remember, too, that a tragic hero should provoke our sympathy. Do you sympathize with Macbeth? Does his downfall evoke pity and/or terror? In other words, does he fit Aristotle's definition of the tragic hero?

2. Macbeth begins with three witches chanting "fair is foul and foul is fair" (1.1.10), a line which evokes a world upside down and the reversal of the natural order. Look for other indications of nature gone awry within the play. Where does natural imagery occur? Likewise, note references to weather and vegetation, animals and birds, sterility and fertility, disease and health.  What is the connection between this imagery and the events in the play?

3. For Shakespeare, "natural" behavior includes love for one's family and the loyalty between subject and liege lord; mistreating kinsmen or betraying one's rightful leader is "unnatural" (see Claudius in Hamlet; Edmund, Goneril, and Regan in King Lear). Note examples of such "natural" and "unnatural" behavior (as well as occurrences of these words and of "nature") in Macbeth. Since treachery and betrayal play significant roles in the plot, look also for the familiar Shakespearean themes of the difficulty of distinguishing between appearance and reality (allusions to disguises, masks, clothing, etc.) and the power of language to deceive (flattery, lies, double meanings, ambiguity). What’s the significance of these references in Macbeth? How do outward appearance, reality, and the nature terminology figure into the action of the play?

4. In many ways, Banquo can be read as a foil to Macbeth in that both are the subjects of prophecies concerning the future kingship of Scotland, but they react to these prophecies differently. How does each respond to his encounter with the witches? How important is Banquo's character (see 1.3.118-24, 3.1.1-18, and 3.4 as ghost)? Evaluate his politics and morals and compare/contrast them with Macbeth’s.5. What, ultimately, are the forces that determine Macbeth's destiny? To what degree are the witches responsible for Macbeth's downfall? And what roles do fate and free will play in Macbeth's destruction?

6. Apart from the Weird Sisters, there are only two significant female characters in the play.  Compare/contrast Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff. Are they foils to one another? Why or why not? What do they have in common? How do they differ? 

7. At the end of the play, Macduff kills Macbeth in a scene easily read as the victory of good over evil. But would that be an accurate characterization? Is Macbeth wholly evil? (Consider his initial heroism in the war against Norway; his love for his wife; any other factors that may serve to make him seem more "human" or believable.) By the same token, is Macduff wholly good? (Is he really blameless? What mistakes has he made? Of what is he guilty?) What is the effect of this moral ambiguity?

8. In some respects, Macbeth is a meditation upon "manhood." It explores "natural" and "unnatural" gender behavior, offering varying views on what constitutes real "manhood." Note statements throughout the play that deal with "manliness," masculine identity, being a man, etc.  Discuss the definitions of "manhood" proposed by characters throughout the play: Contrast Malcolm's and Macduff's views of manhood (4.3.213-235); does Malcolm's view of manhood seem to contradict his earlier description of himself (4.3.125-132); what is Lady Macbeth's definition of manhood (1.7.35-59); and how does Macbeth espouse this definition in his conversation with Banquo's murderers (3.1.75-142)? How do these definitions shift over the course of the play? And why is this important?

9. Visions and ghosts often symbolize some terrible truth about the hero's psyche. What do the following visions tell us about Macbeth's character: the bloody dagger (2.1.33 -64), Banquo's ghost (3.4.38-127), the visions in the witches' cauldron (4.1.50-1, 56). Discuss Macbeth’s visions and hallucinations. What role do they play in the development of his character?

10. Consider the use of the dream/sleep motif in Macbeth. Bad dreams and disturbed sleep often represent psycho1ogical turmoil. Identify and analyze examples of disturbed sleep in the play. Look in particular at the famous sleepwalking scene in 5.1.  What do Lady Macbeth's dreams reveal about her character?

11. Blood is mentioned over 100 times in Macbeth. What are the most significant references to blood in the play? As a psychological symbol, what does blood represent for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth? By the same token, analyze how storms, omens, and prophecies are used as psychological symbols in the play? For this, you need to consider the context within which these references occur.

12. What is the purpose of the Porter scene (2.3.1-45)? Does it seem out of place in the play? What’s going on here?

13. Discuss the following characters as doubles of Macbeth: Duncan, Malcolm, Banquo, the Thane of Cawdor, and the King of England. How would you compare each character to Macbeth? If we interpret these characters as reflections of various facets of Macbeth's personality, what facet would each character represent?

14. The RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) has just called you and assigned you to direct their next production of Macbeth. As director, discuss your vision of the play. You could, for example, select one of the controversial points about the play (the nature of the witches; or Macbeth’s free will—or lack thereof) and discuss the handling of it in two or three productions of the play. How would you’ve handled it? What would you do differently? Which aspects would you stress? Are there any scenes you’d leave out entirely? How come?

15. Consider Malcolm's character closely, especially in the scene where he pretends to be dissolute, full of vice and appetite (4.3). What does he reveal about himself here? What kind of king will he become? Are his lies justified?

16. Compare the English Doctor (4.3.142) to the Scottish Doctor (5.3.39ff.). What are their views on what ails individuals and the state?

17. Analyze the contexts, comparisons, and qualities mentioned in the Captain's report of Macbeth's defeat of Macdonwald (1.2.8-23), Macbeth's and Banquo's courage (1.2.35-40), and Ross's account of Macbeth's defeat of Norway and "that most disloyal traitor/ The Thane of Cawdor" (1.2.52). What kinds of service, relationships, and values seem to be emphasized and endorsed? In other words, what’s important in Macbeth’s Scotland?

18. Review Macbeth's internal debate over the witches' "supernatural soliciting," his preoccupation with "horrible imaginings" (1.3.129ff.), his "black and deep desires" (1.4.51), and his extended meditation on the prospect of murdering Duncan (1.7.1-28). How does he attempt to articulate and resolve upon a course of action and reconcile himself to it?

19. In 1.4.25, Macbeth responds to Duncan's praise by comparing a subject's duty to his king as that expected of children and servants. Explore the play's treatment of filial duty, kinship relations, and politics. Is the murder of Duncan not only a regicide but a patricide?

20. As in the history plays, the issues of justifying rebellion against a monarch and one's right to usurp the throne are crucial to this play. What is the significance of Macdonwald's and Cawdor's treason, and Duncan's usurped life/position? Does Macbeth eventually lose his crown because he is a criminal usurper who is damned by his deeds, or because he is a poor dissembler and a hesitant Machiavellian?

21. What do you think of Macduff? In fleeing to England he leaves his family unguarded, and he seems remarkably tolerant of Malcolm's feigned vices (4.1-4.3). Yet he finally kills Macbeth, declaring that Malcolm is king and the "time is free" (5.8). What values, prospects, and problems does his character present? In answering this question, consider, too, his wife and son's conversation, especially the son's comments on "liars and swearers" (4.2.56-57).

22. One of the important themes in Macbeth is the idea of political legitimacy, of the moral authority that some kings possess and others lack. With particular attention to Malcolm’s questioning of Macduff in 4.3, try to define some of the characteristics that grant or invalidate the moral legitimacy of absolute power. What makes Duncan a good king and Macbeth a tyrant?

23. The fantastical and grotesque witches are among the most memorable figures in the play. How does Shakespeare characterize the witches, physically and symbolically? What is their thematic significance? And is 1.1 necessary in setting up their role in the play?

24. It is often pointed out that the plan to murder Duncan is clearly longstanding; it was something that had occurred to Macbeth and his wife before he met the witches. With this in mind, consider the function of the three witches in the drama as a whole. (Terry Eagelton remarks, “To any unprejudiced reader—which would seem to exclude Shakespeare himself, his contemporary audience and almost all literary critics—it is surely clear that positive value in Macbeth lies with the three witches”!? Can you make any sense of what Eagleton is saying?) In connection with this, also notice the difference between Banquo’s and Macbeth’s responses to the witches, both in the first scene, and when they discuss the witches later.

25. Unlike Iago and Emilia, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are, at the beginning of the play, clearly fond of one another and used to confiding in each other. However, after he has murdered Duncan, Macbeth draws away from his wife; their estrangement thus becomes another unforeseen consequence of their crime. The motif of distorted sexuality (“Unsex me here” etc.) as a symbol of moral disorder, combined with their earlier intimacy has led to portrayals of Lady Macbeth that presents her marriage as highly sexually charged, using sexual charms to seduce Macbeth into evil. However, the play can also suggest that sex has been sublimated into political ambition. Note Lady Macbeth’s devotion to Macbeth, her threats of violence, her participation in the murder of Duncan, her inability to see Macbeth's visions, her willingness to smear the grooms with blood, her incessant attempts to wash up, and her growing isolation and ensuing madness—what might such behavior have to do with Renaissance attitudes towards women, towards the roles of wife and mother?

26. An important theme in Macbeth is the relationship between gender and power? How does Shakespeare subvert his characters’ perception of gender roles? In answering this question, notice that the play is replete with sexual and gender conflicts and contradictions: Macdonwald is associated with whorish Fortune (1.2.15); Lady Macbeth needs to "unsex" herself (1.5.39) in order to prepare for the murder of Duncan; she and Macbeth discuss at length what it means to be a "man" (1.7.49); Duncan is presented partially as a maternal nourisher to Macbeth (1.4.28) and his dead body is portrayed as a "new Gorgon" (2.3.68); Macbeth moves toward the sleeping king with "Tarquin's ravishing strides" (2.1.55); and Macduff turns out to be "none of woman born" (5.8). Try to make sense of such problematic representations.

27. Is Macbeth a moral play? Is justice served at the end of the play? Defend your answer.

28. Discuss Macbeth as a horror story. You scared?

29. Discuss Shakespeare’s use of the technique of elision, in which certain key events take place offstage. Why do you think he uses this technique?

30. Rewrite Macbeth's soliloquy—1.7.1-28: "If it were done when 'tis done"—in your own words while retaining the original meaning.

31. Find four examples of bird imagery, two of personification, and three of dramatic irony. Explain their importance within the play.

32. What significant parallels do you find between the various witches' scenes (1.1, 1.3, 4.1) and other events or characters (see, for example, 1.2.67, 1.3.36, 1.5.53)? How might, in Carolyn Merchant's words, the representation of women and witches further the "control and the maintenance of the social order and women's place within it?” Consider Terry Eagleton's contention that the witches are the "heroines" of Macbeth; they are the play's repressed unconscious who, by "releasing ambitious thoughts in Macbeth, expose a reverence for hierarchical social order for what it is, as the pious self-deception of a society based on routine oppression and incessant warfare." Speculate as well upon Peter Stallybrass's argument that witchcraft is used as a form of "ideological closure with Macbeth, a returning of the disputed ground of politics to the undisputed ground of Nature." Karin Coddon asks, are the witches "agents or effects of disorder?" How do these observations affect your response?

33. In Basilikon Doron, King James portrays the lawful, divinely ordained, good king as utterly antithetical to a usurping tyrant. As Alan Sinfield observes, both Elizabeth and James sought to sustain royal power and to suppress dissidents by relying upon a near absolutist ideology and the monarch's divine right. Consider Macbeth as a play interested in such issues, particularly the threat of a split between legitimacy and actual power, and the problem of distinguishing between absolutism and tyranny. In short, what distinguishes Macbeth's rule from that of many legitimate monarchs? Is this a play about politics, sexuality, or evil?