AQA · English Literature · 8702
GCSE English Literature: Macbeth
Shakespeare's tragedy — ambition, the supernatural, guilt, key quotations and Jacobean context.
19 flashcards · Free to study · No account needed
Study this deck
Preparing your cards…
All questions and answers
Read through the full deck, or practise recalling each answer above.
What is Macbeth's fatal flaw (hamartia)?
Show answer
Ambition. This flaw drives him from being a brave, respected soldier to becoming a tyrant.
The witches' paradox in Macbeth is: 'Fair is foul, and foul is ?'.
Show answer
fair
What is regicide and why was it particularly serious in Jacobean England?
Show answer
Regicide is killing a king. It was seen as a sin against God and the natural order because of the Divine Right of Kings—the belief that the king was chosen by God.
How does Lady Macbeth manipulate Macbeth into killing Duncan?
Show answer
She attacks his masculinity, calling him a coward and saying that when he dared to do it, then he was a man.
Before killing Duncan, Macbeth hallucinates a ? floating in the air pointing toward Duncan's chamber.
Show answer
dagger
What does blood symbolize in Macbeth?
Show answer
Guilt. The blood motif represents guilt that cannot be washed away, as shown when Macbeth questions whether all of Neptune's ocean could clean his hands.
What is a foil character and how does Banquo function as one for Macbeth?
Show answer
A foil is a character whose contrast highlights the qualities of another. Banquo hears the same prophecy but doesn't act on it and stays loyal, showing that Macbeth had a choice.
How do the witches' prophecies use equivocation to deceive Macbeth?
Show answer
They tell truths designed to deceive. 'No man of woman born' shall harm him, but Macduff was born by caesarean; Birnam Wood 'comes' to Dunsinane when soldiers carry branches as camouflage.
What is the Great Chain of Being and how does Duncan's murder affect it?
Show answer
The idea that everything from God down to the lowest creature has its ordained place. When Duncan is murdered, nature goes haywire—horses eat each other, an owl kills a falcon, darkness at noon—showing the natural order is broken.
What is the function of the Porter scene after Duncan's murder?
Show answer
It provides comic relief that actually intensifies the horror through contrast. It's also thematic—the Porter imagines guarding hell's gate, and Macbeth's castle has become a kind of hell.
What is a soliloquy and what does it reveal in Macbeth?
Show answer
A soliloquy is when a character alone on stage speaks their inner thoughts aloud to the audience. In Macbeth, soliloquies reveal his conscience and ambition wrestling, showing the gap between his private guilt and public face.
How does the ending of Macbeth restore order?
Show answer
Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm, the legitimate heir, is crowned. The Great Chain of Being is healed—the rightful, God-appointed king is back on the throne and Scotland can recover.
What famous line does Lady Macbeth say while sleepwalking and trying to wash imaginary blood from her hands?
Show answer
"Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"
How does Lady Macbeth's character arc contrast with Macbeth's by the end of the play?
Show answer
Their roles swap: she was strong and ruthless at the start but becomes broken by guilt, while he becomes a cold tyrant.
What does Macbeth's "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" speech reveal about his state of mind?
Show answer
He's become nihilistic, realising his ambition got him nothing; the crown and life itself are meaningless. His ambition led him to emptiness.
Macbeth describes life as "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying ?."
Show answer
nothing
Why is witchcraft so central to Macbeth?
Show answer
King James I had a strong interest in witchcraft, so Shakespeare made the supernatural central to appeal to the king.
Macbeth admits he has "no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only ?, which o'erleaps itself."
Show answer
vaulting ambition
What is Macbeth's first line in the play, and what does it echo?
Show answer
"So foul and fair a day I have not seen." It echoes the witches' "fair is foul, foul is fair," linking him to them before he's even met them.
Want to create your own cards? Create a free account. AI generation uses credits.