Exam: 01.05 Macbeth Language and Themes Quiz

Which of the following is a theme from Macbeth?

Ambition unchecked can lead to corruption.

In a response of three to five sentences, explain how Macbeth changes throughout the scene in this lesson. Use the lines from Group A, when he first hears the weird sisters' greeting, and Group B, the aside he makes after he learns he has been named Thane of Cawdor, to support your answer. You must cite from and explain these lines in your response. Group A By Sinel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis;But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,A prosperous gentleman; and to be KingStands not within the prospect of belief,No more than to be Cawdor. Group B [Aside.] Two truths are told,As happy prologues to the swelling actOf the imperial (royal) theme-...If good, why do I yield to that suggestionWhose horrid image doth unfix my hairAnd make my seated heart knock at my ribs,Against the use of nature? Present fearsAre less than horrible imaginings:My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,Shakes so my single state of man that functionIs smother'd in surmise, and nothing isBut what is not.

Macbeth finds it beyond belief that he should be called Cawdor's King or Thane. It is very strange, he thinks, and demands to know why. However, once he learns that he has inherited both of these titles miraculously, he only wonders if the weird sisters are right about the third. He then gets greedy and less grateful of the good news and wants to be king faster by murdering the king. "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is But what is not."

Which theme from Macbeth do these lines support?Say from whenceYou owe this strange intelligence, or whyUpon this blasted heath you stop our wayWith such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

Things are not always what they seem.