Macbeth 7

Study Guide Questions for Act 4, Scene 3

If you are looking for the beginning of the study for Shakespeare’s Macbeth then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Despotism, Vice, Indulgence, Virtue, Despair, Prudence vs. Gullibility

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What did Macduff tell Malcolm that “each new morn” brings to the people of Scotland?

2. What did Malcolm say would be the case if he should “tread upon the tyrant’s head?”

3. What vices did Malcolm claim to suffer from which he thought worse than those of Macbeth?

4. How did Macduff respond when Malcolm asked “if such a one” as he has described himself should “be fit to govern?”

5. What did Macduff say Malcolm’s parents were like?

6. What did Malcolm reveal to Macduff about himself and his plans once he realized that Macduff was a “child of integrity?”

7. According to Malcolm, what “Miraculous work” was the good king of England doing?

8. What awful news did Ross deliver to Macduff?

9. What did Malcolm tell Macduff to take “comfort” in?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Why did Malcolm say to Macduff, “That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose. Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell?”

2. What did Macduff mean by saying, “Boundless intemperance in nature is a tyranny?”

3. What did Macduff mean when he told Malcolm the avarice of Macbeth “sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root then summer-seeming lust?”

4. Why did Malcom try to convince Macduff that he would be a worse king than Macbeth just to later reverse this claim about himself?

5. Why did Ross not tell Macduff about his family the first time he was asked about them?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. In this present reading we see that the King of England, who is a just and good king, is able to perform acts of miraculous healing. This idea of righteous kings being healers is seen in various other stories throughout history as well (including Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings in the person of Aragorn). Why might there be an association between the idea of righteous kingship and bringing healing to a people? Do you think there is any truth in this claim or is it merely a metaphor of some sort? If it is only a metaphor, in what way is it a metaphor?

2. What are some pros and cons concerning a country being governed by a monarchy? In what ways might a monarchy be more effective than other forms of government like a Republic or a Democracy? In what ways might a monarchy suffer where those other forms of government would not? All things being equal, what kind of government should we desire for our nation and why?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read 1 Samuel 8. How should this reading affect our thinking about the concept of being governed by a monarchy?