Macbeth – Act 3 Scene-wise MCQs

Act 3, Scene 1
1. What is the main reason Macbeth fears Banquo?

 a) Banquo wants to take the throne

 *b) Banquo’s children are prophesied to be kings
 c) Banquo is plotting with Macduff
 d) Banquo knows about Macbeth’s past crimes

2. Why does Macbeth hire the murderers instead of killing Banquo himself?

 a) He wants to test their loyalty

 *b) He wants to appear innocent to others
 c) He is afraid of Banquo
 d) Lady Macbeth tells him to do so

3. What does Macbeth say about Banquo's nature?

 *a) He has a royal nature and dauntless temper

 b) He is reckless and emotional
 c) He is weak and submissive
 d) He is obsessed with power

4. How does Macbeth manipulate the murderers into killing Banquo?

 a) By promising them land

 *b) By blaming Banquo for their misfortunes
 c) By threatening their families
 d) By offering them freedom from prison

Act 3, Scene 2
5. What tone does Lady Macbeth express at the beginning of this scene?

 a) Confident and powerful

 *b) Uneasy and anxious
 c) Joyful and content
 d) Regretful and mourning

6. What does Macbeth mean when he says, “We have scorched the snake, not killed it”?

 a) They’ve angered the nobles

 *b) The threat to their power is not yet over
 c) They have killed Duncan
 d) The witches are not trustworthy

7. What shift is evident in Macbeth’s character in this scene?

 a) He depends more on Lady Macbeth’s guidance

 b) He shows signs of remorse
 *c) He becomes more independent and secretive
 d) He decides to confess

8. What does Macbeth mean by “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck”?

 a) He is teasing Lady Macbeth playfully

 b) He doesn’t trust her anymore
 *c) He is planning Banquo’s murder but won’t tell her
 d) He thinks she will ruin the plan

Act 3, Scene 3
9. What is the result of the murderers’ ambush?

 *a) Banquo is killed, Fleance escapes

 b) Both Banquo and Fleance are killed
 c) Both Banquo and Fleance escape
 d) Fleance is killed, Banquo escapes

10. What does Fleance’s escape signify in the play?

 a) Macbeth’s reign is secure

 *b) The prophecy may still come true
 c) The witches were lying
 d) Banquo will be avenged

11. What is unusual about the third murderer?

 a) He refuses to kill Banquo

 b) He turns against the other two
 *c) His identity is never clearly explained
 d) He is actually Fleance in disguise

12. How does this scene deepen the theme of fate vs. free will?

 a) Banquo’s murder ends the prophecy

 b) The murderers act on their own
 *c) Fleance’s escape suggests fate still plays a role
 d) Macbeth controls every event completely
Act 3, Scene 4
13. How does Macbeth react to Banquo’s ghost?

 a) Calm and indifferent

 b) Amused and mocking
 *c) Terrified and paranoid
 d) Angry and violent

14. What does Lady Macbeth do when Macbeth starts hallucinating?

 *a) She tries to dismiss the guests and cover up his behavior
 b) She accuses him of madness
 c) She calls the doctor
 d) She reveals the truth

15. What does the ghost of Banquo symbolize?

 a) The witches’ betrayal

 *b) Macbeth’s guilt and paranoia
 c) Lady Macbeth’s fear
 d) Duncan’s murder

16. Why is the banquet scene a turning point in the play?

 *a) Macbeth publicly loses control, revealing his mental state

 b) Banquo returns from the dead
 c) Lady Macbeth dies
 d) The witches appear to the guests

Act 3, Scene 5
17. Why is Hecate angry with the witches?

 a) They failed to warn Macbeth

 *b) They acted without her permission
 c) They told Macbeth the whole truth
 d) They tried to help Banquo

18. What is Hecate’s plan for Macbeth?

 a) To help him succeed

 b) To forgive him
 *c) To trick him into overconfidence and his downfall
 d) To protect him from Macduff

19. According to Hecate, what is man’s chiefest enemy?

 a) Fear
 *b) Overconfidence
 c) Greed
 d) Fate

20. What does Hecate plan to do?

 a) Help Banquo return

 b) Tell Macbeth the full truth
 *c) Deceive Macbeth with illusions
 d) Punish the witches

Act 3, Scene 6
21. What is Lennox’s tone in this scene?

 a) Admiring
 b) Fearful
 *c) Sarcastic and skeptical
 d) Regretful

22. Where has Macduff gone at the end of Act 3?

 a) Norway
 *b) England, to seek help from King Edward
 c) Ireland
 d) Inverness

23. What does Lennox sarcastically imply about Duncan’s death?

 a) Macbeth is completely innocent

 *b) Everyone Macbeth suspects conveniently dies
 c) The guards were definitely guilty
 d) Malcolm killed his own father

24. What is Macduff planning in England?

 a) To join Macbeth’s army

 b) To take the throne himself
 *c) To rally support against Macbeth with Malcolm and King Edward
 d) To escape to Ireland
 In Act IV, Scene 1, the three witches summon three ghosts in order to answer Macbeth’s
questions about his future as the king of Scotland. These apparitions each offer a
different warning about the circumstances that will lead to his downfall, although like
the witches’ earlier prophecies, their words are ambiguous and misleading. The first
vision that appears takes the shape of a head wearing a military helmet, and it warns
 Macbeth to watch out for Macduff. While this ghost offers no specifics about why
Macbeth should fear Macduff, the fact that it manifests itself in the image of a man ready
for battle emphasizes that the two men will eventually meet in combat. This message
confirms one of Macbeth’s fears, but the remaining two apparitions give prophecies that
lead him to believe he will ultimately be invincible.
 The Second Apparition, which takes the form of a bloody child, explains that “none of
woman born” can harm him. These words are particularly misleading as they appear to
suggest that no human being is capable of defeating Macbeth. As the final act of the play
reveals, however, this message refers only to people born naturally and does not
account for babies born via caesarean section. The vague language of the Second
Apparition begins to lure Macbeth into a false sense of security. When the final ghost
appears in the form of a child wearing a crown and holding a tree branch, it begins by
imploring Macbeth to be proud and fearless of others.
 The Third Apparition then prophesizes that he will only be beaten when the Great
Birnam Wood, a nearby forest, arrives at Dunsinane to fight. Given how absurd the
literal image of trees arriving for battle is, Macbeth feels even more secure in his
position. He fails to imagine the metaphorical side of this prediction, and Macduff’s army
eventually descends on Dunsinane while hiding behind branches from the forest.
Together, the Three Apparitions highlight the connection between Macbeth’s hubris and
his tragic downfall. They correctly describe the conditions that will lead to his
destruction, but his unwillingness to see the multiple meanings in their words makes it
impossible for him to escape his fate.
 Because we first hear of Macbeth in the wounded captain’s account of his battlefield
valor, our initial impression is of a brave and capable warrior. This perspective is
complicated, however, once we see Macbeth interact with the three witches. We realize
that his physical courage is joined by a consuming ambition and a tendency to self-
doubt—the prediction that he will be king brings him joy, but it also creates inner
turmoil. These three attributes—bravery, ambition, and self-doubt—struggle for
mastery of Macbeth throughout the play. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show the
terrible effects that ambition and guilt can have on a man who lacks strength of
character. We may classify Macbeth as irrevocably evil, but his weak character
separates him from Shakespeare’s great villains—Iago in Othello, Richard III
in Richard III, Edmund in King Lear—who are all strong enough to conquer guilt and
self-doubt. Macbeth, great warrior though he is, is ill equipped for the psychic
consequences of crime.
 Before he kills Duncan, Macbeth is plagued by worry and almost aborts the crime. It
takes Lady Macbeth’s steely sense of purpose to push him into the deed. After the
murder, however, her powerful personality begins to disintegrate, leaving Macbeth
increasingly alone. He fluctuates between fits of fevered action, in which he plots a
series of murders to secure his throne, and moments of terrible guilt (as when Banquo’s
ghost appears) and absolute pessimism (after his wife’s death, when he seems to
succumb to despair). These fluctuations reflect the tragic tension within Macbeth: he is
 at once too ambitious to allow his conscience to stop him from murdering his way to the
top and too conscientious to be happy with himself as a murderer.
 As things fall apart for him at the end of the play, he seems almost relieved—with the
English army at his gates, he can finally return to life as a warrior, and he displays a kind
of reckless bravado as his enemies surround him and drag him down. In part, this stems
from his fatal confidence in the witches’ prophecies, but it also seems to derive from the
fact that he has returned to the arena where he has been most successful and where his
internal turmoil need not affect him—namely, the battlefield. Unlike many of
Shakespeare’s other tragic heroes, Macbeth never seems to contemplate suicide: “Why
should I play the Roman fool,” he asks, “and die / On mine own sword?” (5.10.1–2).
Instead, he goes down fighting, bringing the play full circle: it begins with Macbeth
winning on the battlefield and ends with him dying in combat.