Working in groups of three, please respond to the following questions. You'll also be acting out this scene, so assign parts, practice lines, and have some fun.
- How do the witches enter?
- How do they move? Are they old? young? male? female?
- How are the witches different from each other?
- How do they speak?
- How are they dressed?
- In what ways do the actual words of the witches in the first scene help to create the feeling of a nightmare world of evil and confusion? What particularly is the effect of the antithesis and paradox in the last lines?
- What impressions of Macbeth's character are created, before his actual appearance in the play, by the details of the battle accounts of the sergeant and Ross in Scene 2?
- What do Banquo's remarks about "the instruments of darkness" tell the reader about his character at this point? (1.3.23) Relate Banquo's ideas to the thoughts included in Macbeth's soliloquy.
- The most significant insight about Macbeth's secret thoughts comes in the soliloquy (first of seven), "This supernatural soliciting ..." (1.3.129-141).
- What is the suggestion "whose horrid image doth unfix my hair"?
- What moral conflict appears to exist in Macbeth's mind? Reference and explain the lines in which this conflict is expressed.
- What conclusions about Macbeth's character can you draw from this soliloquy?
- Why does the thought of killing Duncan so strongly affect a man (Macbeth) who has killed so many others on the battlefield?
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