Macbeth Good vs Evil

Themes
Good and evil
Good Evil
Loyalty Lack of Morality
Courage Dishonesty
Honourable Gullible
Generosity Manipulative
Nobility Coward

“Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it”
“let not light see my deep and dark desires”
“to alter favour ever is to fear”
“The service and the loyalty I owe”
“Point against point, rebellious arm ‘gainst arm”

1. How are they corrupted by the evil in them?
After reaching the highest level success Macbeth still desires more and is willing to fall to any level to achieve it. When the evil presents Macbeth with the opportunity, he puts all his trust in it later to find out evil has played a double game.
2. Is Lady Macbeth totally evil?
Lady Macbeth is not evil she is only trying to help her husband in his ambition, she takes support of evil to fulfil her ambition when she pushes Macbeth to kill Duncan and challenges his manhood that she forgets her morals because she is too lost in her ambition.
3. Find examples in the play in which characters try to hide the truth from around them?
Macbeth hallucinates about Banquo’s ghost who symbolises Macbeth’s goodness but to hide his guilty conscious he becomes cruel towards others.
Banquo hides the prophecy from the rest of the kingdom because he doesn’t believe them to be true, but still doubts Macbeth for Duncan’s murder.
4. Why do they do it?
Macbeth hid his 3 prophecies from others because he didn’t know whether it would be true or not and because once he heard that Malcolm will inherit his father’s throne. He and Lady Macbeth planned to kill the king therefore, if people knew about his prophecies they would have suspect him in an instant the King is dead.
5. What does this tell us about the world around them? The world is very small and they would go to any limits to protect themselves and achieve their goals.
6. Macbeth and Banquo’s reactions to the witches’ prophecies are very different. In what ways?
Macbeth doesn’t believe at first but when he is promoted he starts to believe and uses the prophecies as guide towards his ambition whereas Banquo never believed in the witched and always thought they were evil.
7. What are the different consequences of their attitudes?
Macbeth believed in evil and let it guide him into an instant of success which eventually leads him to his own destruction, death. Banquo doesn’t believe in evil and let good guide his way, but is murdered by Macbeth because he was so good that Macbeth got scared for his safety.
8. Would you consider Macbeth’s ambition to be flaw in his character?
Macbeth ambition is too great for him to handle, and he put all of his trust on those prophecies which lead to his downfall. Those prophecies can be seen as hallucination and instead of trusting his surroundings, his friends.
9. What about Lady Macbeth’s ambition? Is she ambitious for herself or her husband?
Lady Macbeth’s ambition only started when she got the letter from Macbeth and she wanted to help her husband make the prophecies come true. The only thing that’s in the way to make the prophecy came true is Malcolm.
10. What has the play got to tell us about selfish, unchecked ambition?
The play tells the audience that being selfish will display and illusion success would disappear if the person stops to feel human emotions.
11. Why does Banquo’s ghost only appear to Macbeth during the banquet?
Banquo’s ghost only appeared to Macbeth during the banquet is because it was Macbeth’s conscience and guilt that take shape to form Banquo’s ghost. No one else in the banquet knew that it was Macbeth who plotted his friend’s death.
12. What does this tell us about Macbeth’s conscience?
It tells us that Macbeth is guilty of the crimes he had committed, and soon realises that once his left alone no one he could trust, like Banquo.
13. Find examples in the play to comment on this theme
When Duncan is King of Scotland, it seems that the place is peaceful and everyone can trust each other. Whereas when Macbeth is King there are chaos everywhere and people couldn’t trust each other because they afraid that the other person might be Macbeth’s spies and their lives would be in danger if they said anything against Macbeth.
14. Consider Banquo’s sense of honour
Banquo might as well be a little responsible for Duncan death because he hide the prophecies from the kingdom though he always remained loyal to his serving king.
15. Why is Malcolm so suspicious of an honourable character like Macduff?
Malcolm was so suspicious of Macduff because the former Thane of Cawdor was an honourable man and yet he betrayed Duncan. Malcolm wanted to make sure that when he would be surrounded by trustworthy and loyal Thanes and not the ones that would be power hungry like Macbeth.
16. Review and list again the qualities Shakespeare thinks are needed by a king to govern a country
Honesty
Kind
Fair
Loyalty
Generosity
Courage

17. List the things that are not what they seem to be, and people whose reality is different from their appearance
• Duncan visits Macbeth’s castle and was amazed at the view of the castle but didn’t know that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plotted to kill him.
• The old Thane of Cawdor seems like he’s very noble but he ended up being a traitor.
A dagger – A
A wood – B
False promises - A
A ghost - A
Two guilty grooms - A
A wicked prince- A
A ‘foul and fair’ day - B