Macbeth Act II Figurative Language

Name ____________________ British Literature Due date_________________
Macbeth Act II: Figurative Language

Identify the following examples of figurative language. Some lines have more than one answer;
several answers are used more than once.
__________________ 1. “The moon is down. … And she goes down at twelve.” (II.i.2-3)
__________________ 2. “… husbandry in heaven,” (II.i.4)
__________/___________/____________ 3. “A heavy summons lies like lead upon me/… yet I
would not sleep.” (II.i.6-7)
__________________ 4. “Merciful powers,/Restrain in me the cursed thoughts …” (II.i.7-8)
__________________ 5. “Hold, take my sword. … Give me my sword. (II.i.4,10) [Sidebar
clue: At the end of this speech, Duncan asks for his sword back, which
portends his future.]
__________________ 6. “Pale Hecate …” (II.i.52)
_________/_________ 7. “”With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, … /Moves like a ghost. (II.i.55-56)
__________________ 8. “Thou sure and firm-set earth,/Hear not my steps … (II.i.56-57)
__________________ 9. “The bell invites me.” (II.i.62)
__________________10. “… it is a knell/That summons thee to heaven or hell.” (II.i.63-64)
__________________11. “That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold,/What hath
quenched them hath given me fire.” (II.ii.1-2)
__________________12. “It was the owl that shrieked …” (II.ii.3)
__________________13. “… live or die …” (II.ii.8)
__________________14. “I have done the deed. Didst …” (II.ii.15)
__________________15. “These deeds must not be thought/After these ways. So, it will make us
mad.” (II.ii.33-34)
_________/_________16. “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does
murder sleep’ –the innocent sleep,/Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave
of care,” (II.ii.35-37)
_________/__________/______________17. “Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore
Cawdor/Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.” (II.ii.42-43)
__________________18. “The sleeping and the dead/Are but as pictures. (II.ii.53-54)
_________/_________19. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/… from my hand?”
(II.ii.60-61)
__________________20. “A little water clears us of this deed.” (II.ii.67)
__________________21. “Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!” (II.ii.74)
_________/_________22. “Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, I’ the name of Beelzebub?”
(II.iii.2-3)
__________________23. “Come in, tailor, here you may roast your goose.” (II.iii.9)
__________________24. “… it provokes and unprovokes.” (II.iii.19)
_________/_________25. “It makes him and mars him, it sets him on and it takes him off.
(II.iii.21-22)
__________________26. “I know this is a joyful trouble to you,” (II.i.ii35.)
__________________27. “O horror, horror, horror!” (II.iii.51)
_________/__________/__________28. “Confusion now hath made his masterpiece./Most
sacrilegious murder hath broke ope/The Lord’s anointed temple, and
stole thence/The life o’ the building.” (II.iii.53-56)
__________________29. “… With a new Gorgon.” (II.iii.59)
__________________30. “As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,” (II.iii.66)
__________________31. LM: “ Speak, speak!” Macduff: “O Banquo, Banquo!” (II.iii.69,74)
__________________32. “Oh gentle lady,/”Tis not for you to hear what I can speak.” (II.iii.70-
71) [Sidebar clue: From previous scenes, the audience definitely knows
that Lady Macbeth is NOT a “gentle lady.”]
__________/________33. “Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,/Loyal and neutral
…/…violet love …” (II.iii.96-98)
__________________34. “Help me hence, ho!” (II.iii.106).
__________/____________/__________35. “… Darkness does the face of earth entomb/When
living light should kiss it?” (II.iii.9-10) [Sidebar elucidation: This
darkness reference presages the future.]
_________/____________/___________36. “A falcon towering in her pride of place/Was by a
mousing owl hawked at and killed.” (II.iii.12-13) [Sidebar explanation:
bird omens were interpreted as bad portents, premonitions of impending
misfortune.]
__________________37. “Well, may you see things well done there.” (II.iii.37)
__________/__________/____________38. “Lest our old robes sit easier than our new.”
(II.iii.38)
__________________39. “Farewell, Father.” (II.iii.39)
__________/________40. “That would make good of bad and friends of foes.” (II.iii.41)
Intertextuality Extra Credit: “The fatal bellman (II.ii.3) is similar to

what pilgrim in The Canterbury Tales?
KEY
Macbeth Act II: Figurative Language
1. personification
2. alliteration
3. alliteration/simile/recurrent theme
4. personification
5. foreshadow
6. mythological reference
7. classical allusion/ simile
8. apostrophe
9. personification
10. contrast
11. parallel structure/contrast
12. onomatopoeia
13. contrast
14. alliteration
15. foreshadow
16. recurrent theme/ personification
17. personification/parallel structure/recurrent theme
18. simile
19.classical allusion/symbolism
20. understatement
21. irony
22.repetition/biblical allusion
23. pun
24. contrast
25. parallel structure/contrast
26. oxymoron
27. repetition
28. personification/metaphor/imagery
29. classical allusion
30. simile
31. repetition
32. irony
33. contrast/oxymoron
34. alliteration
35. personification/alliteration/foreshadow
36. symbolism/bird imagery/foreshadowing
37/pun
38. contrast/personification/recurrent theme
39. alliteration
40. contrast/alliteration
Extra credit: The Summoner

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Name ____ British Literature Due date_

Macbeth Act II: Figurative Language

Intertextuality Extra Credit: “The fatal bellman (II.ii.3) is similar to

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