Macbeth’s First Soliloquy Act 1, Scene 3
This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion (145)
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, (150)
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.
Answer the following questions. Your answers should be written in complete sentences and be as thorough as possible.
1. What happened immediately before this soliloquy?
2. What happens immediately after this soliloquy?
3. What is Macbeth’s psychological state in this soliloquy?
4. Macbeth speaks of a “horrid image (that) doth unfix my hair/And make my seated heart knock at my ribs.” What is that image in his mind?
5. At this point, who does Macbeth doubt more: the witches or himself? Give your belief and two reasons for your belief.
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