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How does Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane?

Macbeth - Understanding the Text

This GCSE English Literature quiz checks how well you understand Macbeth’s plot, characters and key events, helping you turn classroom reading into confident exam-ready knowledge.

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Fascinating Fact:

Malcolm and Macduff represent restoration and justice, offering an alternative model of leadership based on loyalty and moral duty.

In GCSE English Literature, understanding Macbeth means following the plot, tracking how characters change and linking key scenes to themes such as ambition, guilt, kingship and justice. This quiz helps you check that knowledge.

Key Terms

Plot: The main events of a text, including how Macbeth rises to power, commits crimes and finally loses everything.
Tragic hero: A central character whose own flaws, like Macbeth’s ambition, lead to downfall and suffering.
Structure: The way a play is organised, including scenes, acts, turning points and how tension builds or is released.

Frequently Asked Questions (click to see answers)

How can I understand the plot of Macbeth for GCSE?

Start by breaking the play into key stages: the witches’ prophecies, Duncan’s murder, Banquo’s death, Macbeth’s tyranny and his defeat. Summarise each act and link events to major themes.

What should I focus on when revising Macbeth for exams?

Focus on plot, themes, key characters and a short bank of quotations. Make sure you can explain what happens in key scenes and how Shakespeare presents Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

How do Malcolm and Macduff help my understanding of Macbeth?

Malcolm and Macduff show a different kind of leadership based on loyalty and moral duty. Comparing them with Macbeth helps you analyse justice, kingship and the restoration of order.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

How does Duncan, King of Scotland, reward Macbeth's role in the battle against Sweno?

He awards him the title, Thane of Cawdor

He appoints Macbeth to be his heir

He makes Macbeth King of Scotland

He rewards Macbeth by treating him with suspicion

Macbeth defeats the Thane of Cawdor, who traitorously supported the King of Norway's invasion of Scotland

2 .

From whom does Macbeth first learn he shall be the new Thane of Cawdor?

Banquo

Duncan

Ross

The witches

Because the witches' prophecy proves to be true when Ross informs him of the King's favour, Macbeth more easily believes their prophecy that he shall be also be king

3 .

Lady Macbeth learns of the witches' prophecy in a letter from her husband. What does she decide to do in response?

Encourage him to be patient and hope that the prophecy comes true

Persuade her husband to act to take the crown

Discourage her husband from fruitless ambitions

Encourage her husband to attempt to win the crown by noble deeds

Lady Macbeth describes her husband as a man who would be content to have achieved his ambitions by foul means, but who does not wish to take the necessary actions

4 .

In Act Two, Scene Two, Lady Macbeth says, "My hands are of your colour." Why do the hands of Lady Macbeth come to resemble those of her husband?

Her hands are covered with blood when she helps to murder the King

Her hands are covered with blood when she plants the bloody daggers on the grooms as incriminating evidence

Her hands are covered with blood when she murders the grooms

Macbeth does not participate in the murders; therefore Lady Macbeth's bloody hands do not resemble her husband's

Lady Macbeth reports that she found herself unable to murder the king herself. She is, however, able to look upon his dead body when she returns the daggers to the chamber after Macbeth fails to plant them on the grooms

5 .

Malcolm and Donalbain flee Macbeth's home after their father's murder. What is the effect of this action?

Neither son can challenge Macbeth for the throne

Both sons are suspected of the murder

They save their own lives

All of the above

The two sons suspect a plot and flee for their lives, leaving the succession open for Macbeth. Their actions leave them vulnerable to suspicion of plotting against their own father, an idea mentioned later both by Macduff and Lennox

6 .

What does Macbeth instruct the murderers to do?

To kill Banquo

To kill the King

To kill Lennox

To defeat Malcolm, Siward, Macduff and the other lords

Macbeth distances himself from the murder of Banquo, ordering the assassination of the man he sees as a rival. For the murderers he chooses men with a grudge against Banquo and whips up their resentment against him

7 .

Why does Macbeth see Banquo as a rival?

The witches prophesy that Banquo will be King after Macbeth

Macbeth knows that Banquo is plotting to overthrow him

The witches prophesy that Banquo's line of descendants will include kings

Macbeth has always been enemies with Banquo

In his determination to hold onto the power which he has achieved by treason, Macbeth becomes paranoid, viewing former comrades as enemies and usurpers

8 .

How does the prophecy that he shall not be defeated until 'Great Birnam Wood come to high Dunsinane Hill' make Macbeth feel?

Suspicious

Invincible

Angry

Cautious

Although he himself made the witches' unlikely prophecy that he should be king come true, Macbeth forgets the lesson that the seemingly impossible can be made to happen. He becomes complacent and believes himself to be invincible

9 .

What appears to cause Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking?

Guilt

Hatred

Scheming

The sounds of battle

Lady Macbeth reveals her innermost feelings while sleepwalking, both confessing her crimes and betraying her sense that she and Macbeth ought to be above judgement. In her dreams she cannot wash her hands clean of the blood of their victims

10 .

How does Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane?

'Birnam Wood' is the code name of the attacking army

The prophecy is false: Birnam Wood does not come to Dunsinane, but Macbeth is defeated nevertheless

The attacking soldiers carry tree branches

The wood is magical and can shift positions

The attacking army wishes to conceal its size by hiding behind the branches

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Macbeth

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)