Multiple Choice Question Test

LADY MACBETH: Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou’dst have, great Glamis,
That which cries ‘Thus thou must do, if thou have it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone.’ Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown’d withal.

[Enter MESSENGER]
What is your tidings?

MESSENGER: The king comes here to-night.

LADY MACBETH: Thou’rt mad to say it:
Is not thy master with him? who, were’t so,
Would have inform’d for preparation.

MESSENGER: So please you, it is true: our thane is coming:
One of my fellows had the speed of him,
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.

LADY MACBETH: Give him tending;
He brings great news.

[Exit MESSENGER]

The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry ‘Hold, hold!’

[Enter MACBETH

INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Underline all phrases to do with ambition (or which indicate an ambitious, determined tone).
2) Annotate the text with hashtags (at least 10) to summarize what is being said. The first one has been done for you.
3) Find and label any links to the topic of the supernatural.
4) Take a different colored pen, and underline any words with negative / dark connotations.
5) Identify a line which foreshadows what is to come, and label it.
6) Identify and label 2 examples of metaphor.
7) Annotate the whole passage with stage directions for Lady Macbeth (when should she move? Any props? Standing? Sitting? Etc.)
8) Go back to Page 3, and add to the character profile.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1) What are your first impressions of Lady Macbeth in this scene?

2) What is the tone of this piece? If you were the director, how would you instruct Lady Macbeth to verbally recite these lines? Would there be a change at any point? If so, where and what would it be?

3) Are you surprised by Lady Macbeth’s reaction to Macbeth’s letter? Explain why or why not.

4) When Lady Macbeth calls on the spirits to “unsex” her, she wants them to take away her femininity: why?