Welcome to our blog post ISC Macbeth Workbook Answers : Act 2, Scene 3 of William Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, “Macbeth.” As dedicated learners and educators, we recognize the importance of unraveling the nuances of Shakespearean literature, which is why we’ve curated this comprehensive guide specifically tailored to the ISC curriculum.
Within this blog, we’ll explore Act 2, Scene 3, utilizing the meticulously crafted workbook provided by Morning Star publishers. Our objective is to not only present multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and detailed answers but also to foster a deeper comprehension of the play’s themes, characters, and linguistic complexities.
While our responses are structured based on the workbook, we encourage students to use this resource as a springboard for their own exploration. Shakespeare’s works offer rich layers of interpretation, inviting individual analysis. Therefore, feel empowered to adapt and personalize our insights to suit your unique learning style and needs.
Whether you’re striving for academic excellence or simply eager to unravel the depths of “Macbeth,” join us on this enlightening journey through Act 2, Scene 3. Let’s embark on an adventure where Shakespeare’s words transcend time, captivating minds across generations.
Table of Contents
Workbook Summary :
The scene is divided into two parts:
1. The Porter’s Speech
2. The Discovery of Duncan’s murder
1. The Porter’s scene
The Porter, after attending the feast in honour of King Duncan the night before, is woken up from his drunken sleep by the loud knocking the audience heard at the gates in the scene before. As he wakes up he fancies himself as the Porter standing at the gates of Hell. He has visions of himself admitting the souls of sinners, condemned to suffer in Hell, entering through the gates. In this way, a farmer, a tailor and an equivocator enter Hell and the porter regales the audience with his witty comments on each of them. By now the effect of the wine is wearing off and he begins to feel cold so he says that he will, ‘devil-porter it no longer. The knocking at the gates persists and so he goes and eventually opens the gates to admit, not souls, but the living Macduff and Lennox.
2. The Discovery of Duncan’s murder
Macduff and Lennox have come to Macbeth’s castle to wake up the king in the morning according to their duties. Macbeth, in his dressing gown, comes to welcome them and Macduff goes to the king’s chamber where he is fast asleep. Lennox, while standing with Macbeth tells him that the has never experienced such a tumultuous night with the chimneys being blown down from the roofs where they stayed, the terrible laments and eerie screams, the shaking of the earth and the continuous screech of the night owl. He says that such abnormal happenings usually happen when a king dies.
Macduff who has gone to the king’s chamber meets the most horrific sight of King Duncan lying murdered upon his bed. He is horrified and in a high-pitched voice cries out, ‘O horror! horror! horror! The entire castle is woken up and thrown into confusion. Macbeth and Lennox rush to the chamber. Lady Macbeth enters and pretends to be horrified that the king was murdered in her house. The others, Banquo, Malcolm and Donalbain are all in shock. Macbeth returns and expresses his grief in a poetic lecture.
When Lennox describes the horrific scene in Duncan’s bedchamber, describing the two grooms lying dead, Macbeth confesses to having killed the two grooms with the excuse that he was too full of rage, whereas he wanted to shut their mouths forever. Lady Macbeth faints and is carried out.
Malcolm and Donalbain, suspecting treachery on the part of Macbeth fear for their lives and flee from there-one to England and one to Ireland.
Workbook MCQs :
1.The Porter’s Scene is important as it:
1. provides comic relief after the murder scene.
2. fills the time gap for Macbeth and his wife to go change their clothes and remove the signs of crime
3. is taking place in Macbeth’s castle.
4. Throws light on the ghastly murder of Duncan.
a. 1 and 2
b. 2 and 3
c. 3 and 4
d. 1 and 4
Answer :- a. 1 and 2
2. What is the very first sentence of the porter?
a. If a man were porter of hell-gate
b. Here’s a knocking indeed
c. Knock, knock, knock!
d. Knock, knock! Who’s there?
Answer :- b. Here’s a knocking indeed
3. The scene opens with:
a. a loud knocking as was in the previous scene.
b. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth leaving the stage
c. The entry of the farmer
d. The entry of the tailor
Answer :- a. a loud knocking as was in the previous scene.
4. The porter fancies himself to be the porter of
a. the gates of Heaven
b. the gates of Hell
c. the castle
d. King Duncan
Answer :- b. the gates of Hell
5. Who is Belzeebub?
a. A God
b. Satan
c. A fallen angel, next in crime to Satan in Hell
d. Macbeth’s cousin
Answer :- c. A fallen angel, next in crime to Satan in Hell
6. Are the three characters the porter mentions real?
a. Yes
b. No
c. No, for the porter imagines or sees visions of them.
d. Yes, because they are Macbeth’s relatives.
Answer :- c. No, for the porter imagines or sees visions of them.
7. Who are these numerous visitors to the gates of Hell?
a. the souls of good people
b. the souls of sinners condemned to burn in Hell.
c. angels from Heaven
d. Satan and his followers
Answer :- b. the souls of sinners condemned to burn in Hell.
8. Who is an equivocator?
a. One who sells clothes
b. One who swears one thing but means another.
c. A judge
d. A priest
Answer :- b. One who swears one thing but means another.
9. How is Macbeth compared to an equivocator?
a. Macbeth has played foul with his king after swearing loyalty to him.
b. Macbeth has been loyal to Duncan till the end.
c. Macbeth has given of his very best to King Duncan
d. Macbeth has concealed certain facts from Duncan.
Answer :- a. Macbeth has played foul with his king after swearing loyalty to him.
10. Why did the farmer commit suicide?
a. There was excess corn which led to the fall in prices.
b. Due to too little corn which led to the fall in prices
c. He could not grow other crops on his field.
d. He fell into debt.
Answer :- a. There was excess corn which led to the fall in prices.
11. The ‘primrose way’ refers to the:
a. path of comfort and luxury which may be lined with flowers.
b. garden path
c. A primrose garden.
d. Name of a street
Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
12. Who are knocking at the gates in reality?
a. Banquo and his son
b. The tailor
c. Macduff and Lennox
d. The farmer
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13. With what mission has Macduff come to Macbeth’s castle?
a. Duncan had given him the duty of calling on him
b. To see if Duncan is alive
c. To greet Macbeth
d. Duncan was to give him some important information
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14. Social calamities and disturbances occur in nature when:
a. something evil is to happen
b. a king has been murdered
c. a king has some fatal illness
d. a kingdom is attacked by enemies
Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
15. Who first learns of Duncan’s murder?
a. Ross
b. Lennox
c. Macduff Answer
d. The porter
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16. What is the obscure bird Lennox refers to?
a. An eagle soaring
b. A martlet in summer
c. The owl, the bird of darkness
d. A bird hidden from view
Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
17. One of the reactions of Macbeth when Duncan’s murder is revealed is:
a. Horror, horror, horror
b. Awake,awake!
c. He should have died an hour before the murder
d. See, and then speak yourselves.
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18. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them.
Lady Macbeth, on getting to know that Macbeth has killed the two grooms:
a. faints
b. becomes hysterical.
c. starts laughing hysterically.
d. becomes silent with shock.
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19. What is Banquo’s resolve?
a. To protect the lives of Malcolm and Donalbain
b. To see his son becomes the king
c. To expose the secret designs of malicious traitors.
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20. Murderous shaft’ refers to
a. The arrow of murder
c. Slip off secretly
b. Justification
d. The killer’s intention
Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
Workbook Questions :
(I) The farmer hanged himself because there was plenty of corn and the consequent fall in prices.
(II) Macbeth has been compared to the tailor, the farmer and the equivocator because all the three were disloyal in their respective professions like Macbeth.
(III) Lennox, describing the storm, says that he has never experienced such a stormy night
because chimneys were blown down from the roofs where they stayed, laments were heard in the air and there were terrible cries of death.
(IV) Macduff calls Duncan’s murder the ‘most sacrilegious murder because this murder is the most unholy act because the king is God’s anointed servant on earth.
(V) The horrified Macduff tells the others to go and see for themselves the dead Duncan because the sight would turn them into stone just as the sight of Medusa’s head turned one into stone.
(VI) Macduff rings the alarm bell because Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
(VII) Macbeth quickly kills the two guards because Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
(VIII) It is a fact that Lady Macbeth actually faints (not a pretence) because Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
(IX) We can compare Macbeth’s castle with the actual hell because it has become Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
(X) The two brothers decide to flee from there because Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
Question Answers :
(I) Why is the porter scene one of comic relief? What other three purposes does the scene serve? Give a brief account with examples. Write your answer in a short paragraph of about 100-150 words.
Answer :- The porter scene is one of the most enjoyable scenes of the play. It provides comic relief and relieves the tension of the play. Moreover it gives an opportunity to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to remove the traces of crime and change into night clothes. They do so to show to the people that they had slept through the murder. The porter’s speech is dramatically ironical. It draws a parallel between the real hell and the den of horror that Macbeth’s castle has become. The scene also throws light on guilt aspect of the play. The guilty souls of the three sinners are to rot in hell for their disloyalty to their professions. Macbeth too, terribly guilt ridden, feels the pangs of conscience and wishes that the murder were some how undone.
(II) How does Macduff seem to be the most affected at the discovery of the murder of his king? Write your answer in a short paragraph of about 100-150 words.
Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
(III) a. How does Macbeth express his grief at the discovery of Duncan’s murder? Why do his expressions of grief fail to impress the audience? Write your answer in about 200-250 words.
Answer :- When Macduff discovers Duncan’s murdered body, Macbeth overacts his grief in a way that feels unnaturally dramatic to the audience. He cries out “Horror! Horror! Horror!”, describing the murder as a sacrilegious act—Duncan’s body is a “temple” broken by treason, and the sight is so terrible it could “turn one to stone.” He theatrically urges others to “rise from sleep and face the horror,”* pretending to be shocked.
However, his expressions fail to impress because:
The Audience Knows the Truth: Unlike the other characters, we witnessed Macbeth’s guilt and hesitation before the murder, making his performance hollow.
Exaggerated Language: His lines (“Renown and grace is dead”) sound scripted, not genuine. The metaphor of Duncan’s “silver skin laced with golden blood” feels artistically excessive for a man who just killed him.
Contrast with Macduff’s Reaction: Macduff’s raw, unrehearsed horror (“O horror! horror! horror!”) makes Macbeth’s speech seem calculated.
Macbeth’s fake grief reveals his growing deceitfulness, but the audience sees through it—heightening the dramatic irony and making his eventual downfall feel deserved.
b. How does Lennox describe the scene inside the murdered Duncan’s chamber? How does Macbeth defend his action of killing the two grooms to Macduff? Why does Lady Macbeth faint?
Answer :- For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
Essay Question :
Q. Show how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth react differently to the discovery of the murder of Duncan.
Answer :- It is interesting to note the different manners in which Macbeth and Lady Macbeth react to the discovery of the murder of Duncan. Indeed the difference takes us into the very essence of the two characters. In the discovery scene Macbeth is perfectly at home, energetic action is needed and Macbeth rises to the occasion and deals with it in a very appropriate manner. For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View
