Macbeth - Themes: Supernatural

English
GCSE
9 questions
~18 mins
1 views0 downloads

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An exam-style worksheet exploring the theme of the supernatural in Macbeth, featuring a substantial extract and a variety of analytical questions.

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Macbeth - Themes: Supernatural

Subject: EnglishGrade: GCSE
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Untitled Worksheet

Grade GCSE
A

Extract from Macbeth: Act 2, Scene 1

Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. / Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible / To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? / I see thee yet, in form as palpable / As this which now I draw. / Thou marshallest me the way that I was going; / And such an instrument I was to use. / Mine eyes are made the fools of the other senses, / Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood, / Which was not so before. / There’s no such thing: / It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half-world / Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse / The curtained sleep; now witchcraft celebrates / Pale Hecatomb; and withered murder, / Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf, / Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, / With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design / Moves like a ghost. / Thou sure and firm-set earth, / Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear / Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, / And take the present horror from the time, / Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives: / Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
1.
Identify and explain the use of a metaphor in this extract.
[2 marks]
2.
What technique is used when Macbeth describes the dagger as 'a false creation'? Describe its effect.
[2 marks]
3.
Analyse the significance of the imagery of blood on the dagger.
[6 marks]
4.
Identify the technique in the phrase ‘Witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecatomb,’ and explain how it contributes to the supernatural theme.
[2 marks]
5.
Describe how Shakespeare uses sound devices in the extract to build tension.
[2 marks]
6.
Explain the significance of the phrase 'Nature seems dead' in the context of the extract.
[2 marks]
7.
What does Macbeth’s hallucination reveal about his state of mind?
[2 marks]
8.
In your opinion, how does this extract contribute to the overall theme of the supernatural in Macbeth?
[6 marks]
9.
Create a short creative response: imagine you are Macbeth about to commit the murder. Write a brief monologue (10 lines) expressing your inner thoughts and feelings.
[10 marks]

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Details

Created
12/31/2025
Updated
12/31/2025
Type
worksheet