Question

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. (10 points) 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 King Stands 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 act Of the imperial (royal) theme-... If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings: 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. I need help please.

Answer 1

When Macbeth is greeted by the weird sisters as Thane of Cawdor and the future king he is speechless. Then, when he learns that he was named Thane of Cawdor, he thinks that the witches have to be right in everything they say, and he starts imagining that he murders King Duncan.  That fantasy is less important for him than the things that are not yet true.