Revising Macbeth
Our GCSE revision guide for students studying Macbeth covers all the key acts, characters and themes with active revision strategies and practice exam questions and answers for all exam boards.
Perfect for independent study and remote learning, it includes a helpful overview of the play, an act by act summary of events and guidance on key quotations.
Revising Macbeth also helps to build students’ confidence and develop their understanding through self-checks, quizzes and a detailed exploration of character, setting, Shakespeare’s language and the play’s tragic structure.
What's included?
- Covers key themes (ambition, the supernatural, guilt, gender and relationships, appearance and reality) plus a summary of the play.
- Includes practice exam questions for all exam boards and suggested answers.
- Features active revision strategies to build students’ knowledge.
What's inside?
Introduction (pages 3-4)
Synopsis of the play (pages 5-8)
Overview revision activities (pages 9-20)
Theme: ambition (pages 21-31)
- Revision activity - Arguments for and against killing Duncan
- Revision activity - Tale of two kings
- Revision activity - Why does Macbeth kill Duncan?
- Revision activity - Exploding quotation
Theme: the supernatural (pages 32-42)
- Revision activity - Animal imagery
- Revision activity - Banquo’s version of the meeting with the witches
- Revision activity - The witches
- Revision activity - Writing an incantation
Theme: guilt (pages 43-53)
- Revision activity - Exploding quotation
- Revision activity - Innocence
- Revision activity - The murder: before, during and after
- Revision activity - Blood and symbolism
Theme: gender and relationships (pages 54-65)
- Revision activity - Family circle
- Revision activity - How to be a man/woman
- Revision activity - Tale of two marriages: the Macbeths and the Macduffs
- Revision activity - Exploding quotation
Theme: appearance and reality (pages 66-75)
- Revision activity - How to be a perfect hostess
- Revision activity - The power of asides and soliloquies
- Revision activity - That’s ironic
- Revision activity - That’s sensational
An example revision activity from the revision pack:
Exploring key quotations
Read the quotations below and then answer the question underneath each.
‘That I may pour my spirits in thine ear’ (Act 1 Scene 5).
- What does this quotation suggest about the Macbeths’ relationship?
‘Come, you spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here …’ (Act 1 Scene 5).
- What does this quotation suggest about Lady Macbeth’s attitude towards being a woman?
'Bring forth men-children only,
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males.’ ( Act 1 Scene 7)
- What does Macbeth think of Lady Macbeth’s strength?
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