Macbeth Trivia Quiz Questions And Answers

Macbeth trivia quiz questions with answers.

Macbeth Trivia Quiz Questions And Answers

What is Macbeth?
A: Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare; it is thought to have been first performed in 1606.

It dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of what?
A: Political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake.

Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, who was patron of Shakespeare's acting company, Macbeth most clearly reflects what?
A: The playwright's relationship with his sovereign.

It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's what?
A: Shortest tragedy.

A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from whom?
A: A trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland.

Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, what does Macbeth do?
A: He murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself.

He is then wracked with what?
A: Guilt and paranoia.

Forced to commit more and more “what” to protect himself from enmity and suspicion?
A: Murders.

He soon becomes a what?
A: A tyrannical ruler.

What is Shakespeare's source for the story?
A: The account of Macbeth, King of Scotland; Macduff; and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587).

The events of the tragedy are usually associated with the execution of whom?
A: Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

In the backstage world of theater, some believe that the play is what?
A: Cursed, and will not mention its title aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish Play".

Over the course of many centuries, the play has attracted some of the most renowned what?
A: Actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

The play opens amid what?
A: Thunder and lightning, and the Three Witches decide that their next meeting will be with Macbeth.

In the following scene, a wounded sergeant reports what to King Duncan of Scotland?
A: That his generals Macbeth, who is the Thane of Glamis, and Banquo have just defeated the allied forces of Norway and Ireland, who were led by the traitorous Macdonwald, and the Thane of Cawdor.

Macbeth, the King's kinsman, is praised for his what?
A: His bravery and fighting prowess.

In the following scene what do Macbeth and Banquo discuss?
A: The weather and their victory.

As they wander onto a heath, the Three Witches enter and greet them with what?
A: Prophecies.

Though Banquo challenges them first, they address Macbeth, hailing him as what?
A: "Thane of Glamis," "Thane of Cawdor," and that he will "be King hereafter."

When Banquo asks of his own fortunes, the witches respond paradoxically, saying what?
A: That he will be less than Macbeth, yet happier, less successful, yet more.

He will father a line of what?
A: Kings, though he himself will not be one.

While the two men wonder at these pronouncements, the witches vanish, and another thane, Ross, arrives and informs Macbeth of his newly bestowed title which is what?
A: Thane of Cawdor.

The first prophecy is thus fulfilled, and Macbeth, previously skeptical, immediately begins to harbor what?
A: Ambitions of becoming king.

King Duncan welcomes and praises Macbeth and Banquo, and declares that he will do what?
A: Spend the night at Macbeth's castle at Inverness; he also names his son Malcolm as his heir.

Macbeth sends a message ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her about what?
A: The witches' prophecies.

Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband's uncertainty and wishes him to do what?
A: To murder Duncan in order to obtain kingship.

When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides all of her husband's objections by challenging his manhood and successfully persuades him to do what?
A: Kill the king that very night.

He and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan's two chamberlains drunk so that they will black out; the next morning they will do what?
A: Blame the chamberlains for the murder.

While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a number of supernatural portents, including a hallucination of a what?
A: A bloody dagger.

He is so shaken that Lady Macbeth has to do what?
A: Take charge.

In accordance with her plan, she frames Duncan's sleeping servants for the murder by doing what?
A: By placing bloody daggers on them.

Early the next morning who arrives?
A: Lennox, a Scottish nobleman, and Macduff, the loyal Thane of Fife, arrive.

A porter opens the gate and Macbeth leads them to the king's chamber, where Macduff discovers what?
A: Duncan's body.

Macbeth murders the guards to prevent them from what?
A: Professing their innocence.

Duncan's sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to where?
A: England and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever killed Duncan desires their demise as well.

The rightful heirs' flight makes them suspects and Macbeth assumes the throne as what?
A: The new King of Scotland as a kinsman of the dead king.

Banquo reveals this to the audience, and while spectacle of the new King Macbeth, he remembers the witches' prophecy about how his own descendants would what?
A: Inherit the throne; this makes him suspicious of Macbeth.

Despite his success, Macbeth, also aware of this part of the prophecy, remains what?
A: Uneasy.

Macbeth invites Banquo to a royal banquet, where he discovers what?
A: That Banquo and his young son, Fleance, will be riding out that night.

Fearing Banquo's suspicions, Macbeth arranges what?
A: To have him murdered, by hiring two men to kill them, later sending a Third Murderer.

The assassins succeed in what?
A: Killing Banquo, but Fleance escapes.

Macbeth becomes furious: he fears that his power remains insecure as long what?
A: As long as an heir of Banquo remains alive.

At a banquet, Macbeth invites his lords and Lady Macbeth to what?
A: A night of drinking and merriment.

Banquo's ghost enters and sits where?
A: In Macbeth's place.

Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his guests, as the ghost is what?
A: Only visible to him.

The others panic at the sight of Macbeth raging at an empty chair, until a desperate Lady Macbeth tells them what?
A: That her husband is merely afflicted with a familiar and harmless malady.

The ghost departs and returns once more, causing what?
A: The same riotous anger and fear in Macbeth.

This time, Lady Macbeth tells the lords what?
A: To leave, and they do so.

Macbeth, disturbed, visits whom?
A: The three witches.

He asks them what?
A: To reveal the truth of their prophecies to him.

First, they conjure an up what?
A: An armored head, which tells him to beware of Macduff.

Second, a bloody child tells him what?
A: That no one born of a woman will be able to harm him.

Thirdly, a crowned child holding a tree states what?
A: That Macbeth will be safe until Great Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill.

Macbeth is relieved and feels secure because he knows what?
A: That all men are born of women and forests cannot move.

Macbeth also asks whether Banquo's sons will ever reign in Scotland: the witches conjure a procession of what?
A: Eight crowned kings, all similar in appearance to Banquo, and the last carrying a mirror that reflects even more kings.

Macbeth realizes that these are all Banquo's descendants having done what?
A: Acquired kingship in numerous countries.

Macbeth orders Macduff's castle be seized, and, most cruelly, sends murderers to do what?
A: To slaughter Macduff, as well as Macduff's wife and children.

Although Macduff is no longer in the castle, everyone in Macduff's castle is what?
A: Put to death, including Lady Macduff and their young son.

Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth becomes what?
A: Racked with guilt from the crimes she and her husband have committed.

At night, in the king's palace at Dunsinane, a doctor and a gentlewoman discuss what?
A: Lady Macbeth's strange habit of sleepwalking.

Suddenly, what happens?
A: Lady Macbeth enters in a trance with a candle in her hand.

Bemoaning the murders of Duncan, Lady Macduff, and Banquo, she tries to do what?
A: Wash off imaginary bloodstains from her hands, all the while speaking of the terrible things she knows she pressed her husband to do.

Her belief that nothing can wash away the blood on her hands is an ironic reversal of her earlier claim to Macbeth that what?
A: "A little water clears us of this deed".

When this news of his family's execution reaches him, Macduff is what?
A: Stricken with grief and vows revenge.

Prince Malcolm, Duncan's son, has succeeded in raising an army in England, and Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland to do what?
A: To challenge Macbeth's forces.

While encamped in Birnam Wood, the soldiers are ordered to do what?
A: Cut down and carry tree limbs to camouflage their numbers.

Before Macbeth's opponents arrive, he receives news that Lady Macbeth has what?
A: Killed herself.

He is certain that the witches' prophecies guarantee what?
A: His invincibility, but is struck with fear when he learns that the English army is advancing on Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood, in apparent fulfillment of one of the prophecies.

A battle culminates in Macduff's confrontation with whom?
A: Macbeth, who kills Young Siward in combat.

Macbeth boasts that he has no reason to fear Macduff, for he cannot be what?
A: Killed by any man born of woman.

Macduff declares that he was what?
A: Born by Caesarean section and is not "of woman born", fulfilling the second prophecy.

Macbeth realizes too late that he has what?
A: Misinterpreted the witches' words.

Macduff kills and beheads him, thus fulfilling the remaining prophecy.
Malcolm, now the King of Scotland, declares what?

A: His benevolent intentions for the country and invites all to see him crowned at Scone.