1. LESSON ONE

2. THE EXAM
This unit will prepare you for the Shakespeare question in your GCSE Literature exam. The exam format is similar to ‘A Christmas Carol’ in that you will receive an extract to look at.
The question will require you to analyse the extract but also to comment on the play as a whole. Any part of the play could be given as an extract so it is important you know the play very well as you will not have the text with you in the exam.
AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Use textual references, including quotations, to support ideas.
AO2: Analyse language, form and structure using the correct subject terminology.
AO3: Show an understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.
AO4: Use a range of vocabulary for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar.

3. Consider the CONTEXT of ‘Macbeth’.
YOUR STARTER
Look at the pictures depicting the opening scene of William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’.
Consider what emotions these pictures evoke and discuss the mood they create. What themes/ideas do you think the play will explore?
EXTRA
CHALLENGE
Consider the CONTEXT of ‘Macbeth’.
How can you link the pictures on the right to the play’s social and historical context?

4. TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
YOUR TASK: HISTORICAL CONTEXT
I have given each of you a piece of card. Each card contains a QUESTION and an ANSWER.
Find someone in the room and ask them your question. If they know the answer, great! If they don’t, tell them.
Now let your partner ask you their question. Once you have completed your questions and answers, swap cards and find some one else in the room. Repeat the process!
I will remind you of these social/historical points throughout this unit.
LEARNING
CHECK
Define the following terms and explain how they relate to ‘Macbeth’:
- Daemonologie
TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
Can I understand the social and historical context of ‘Macbeth’ and discuss its influence over Shakespeare’s writing?
Can I understand and discuss how Shakespeare uses language to create character?
Can I produce a GCSE level response to a Literature question?

5. Help each other in your groups! TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
YOUR TASK
Using the knowledge from the QUIZ QUIZ TRADE task, fill out this grid with notes on the social and historical context of ‘Macbeth’. Try and be as detailed as possible.
We will return to these sheets throughout this module to refer to past notes or add to them.
Help each other in your groups!
TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
Can I understand the social and historical context of ‘Macbeth’ and discuss its influence over Shakespeare’s writing?
Can I understand and discuss how Shakespeare uses language to create character?
Can I produce a GCSE level response to a Literature question?

6. Be prepared to share your ideas! TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
YOUR TASK: LET’S READ
Read Act 1, Scene 1 from ‘Macbeth’. Consider HOW Shakespeare has opened the play and WHY he has opened it in this way.
What is the effect he is trying to achieve.
Complete the ‘Increasing Challenge’ activities as annotations on your copy of the text. You do not need to write in full sentences.
Be prepared to share your ideas!
TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
Can I understand the social and historical context of ‘Macbeth’ and discuss its influence over Shakespeare’s writing?
Can I understand and discuss how Shakespeare uses language to create character?
Can I produce a GCSE level response to a Literature question?

7. Trochaic tetrameter (four metric feet): TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
MAKE A NOTE
Trochaic tetrameter is a rapid meter of poetry consisting of four feet of trochees.
A trochee is ONE stressed syllable followed by ONE unstressed syllable.
DAdum/DAdum/DAdum/DAdum (8 syllables total)
The witches in Macbeth speak in incomplete trochaic tetrameter (7 syllables instead of 8). Shakespeare uses this to show they are different/not ‘normal’ as a trochaic meter is the opposite of an iambic meter (and most of the play is iambic).
Trochaic tetrameter (four metric feet):
When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning or in rain?
TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
Can I understand the social and historical context of ‘Macbeth’ and discuss its influence over Shakespeare’s writing?
Can I understand and discuss how Shakespeare uses language to create character?
Can I produce a GCSE level response to a Literature question?

8. Questions and answers (hypophora) Use your knowledge of the context!
YOUR TASK
What should my work look like?
How does Shakespeare present the characters of the witches in Act 1 Scene 1?
Firstly, Shakespeare presents the witches as dark, manipulative and supernatural figures. He uses these characters to establish the play’s dramatic premise, creating a dark mood that permeates throughout the rest of the play. His use of pathetic fallacy in the opening stage directions (‘thunder and lightning’) suggests…
Furthermore, …
How do I start? S
Statement: Firstly, Shakespeare presents the witches as _______. A
ANALYSIS: This is effective because _____. A contemporary audience may have thought _________. Qu
EVIDENCE/QUOTATION: He creates this impression by _________. D
LINK: Perhaps Shakespeare presents the witches in this way because _______.
Stuck? Consider this! T
Questions and answers (hypophora)
Final two lines
Rhyme scheme
References to nature
Use your knowledge of the context!
Analyse TECHNIQUE: Shakespeare’s use of ________ is effective because ________.
EXTRA CHALLENGE: Can you include the following terms?
Trochaic tetrameter
Pathetic fallacy
Paradoxical Couplets

9. TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
YOUR TASK: SWAP YOUR BOOKS!
How does Shakespeare use language to present the characters of the witches?
Has my partner…
made a clear point?
used quotations to back up their ideas?
explained why Shakespeare has made certain language choices?
discussed the effect of these language choices and included multiple
interpretations of their ideas?
discussed how a contemporary audience may feel?
included a point regarding the social/historical context?
Swap books with your partner and read through their answer.
Write a WHAT WENT WELL and an EVEN BETTER IF for their response.
EBI: EBI:
Neater handwriting See if you can add another point
Make better points Use quotations (3-5 words)
TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
Can I understand the social and historical context of ‘Macbeth’ and discuss its influence over Shakespeare’s writing?
Can I understand and discuss how Shakespeare uses language to create character?
Can I produce a GCSE level response to a Literature question?

10. TO FINISH If the answer is ________, then what is the question?
A: King James
A: Burnt or drowned
A: 1611
Now come up with some of your own!
TODAY’S KEY QUESTIONS:
Can I understand the social and historical context of ‘Macbeth’ and discuss its influence over Shakespeare’s writing?
Can I understand and discuss how Shakespeare uses language to create character?
Can I produce a GCSE level response to a Literature question?

12. RESOURCES

13. MISSED ANYTHING? CONSOLIDATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE!
Witchcraft: Up until the 1700’s most people in England believed in witches and witchcraft. This way of life was related to Pagan (non-Christian) beliefs, and had been tolerated for many years. But from the mid 1500’s religious leaders tried to stamp out these beliefs to make sure that people were following the right religious practices.
This led to a period of witch hunting where people were tried and often executed for being witches. This was happening all throughout Europe and America too, and the witch hunts lasted for more than 150 years.
So if people behaved in a slightly odd way or were around when bad things happened, they were likely to be accused of being a witch. Suspected witches were burnt at the stake or drowned.
King James I wrote a book called Daemonologie in which he supported and encouraged the trials of witches. He believed the witches were being controlled by the devil.

14. MISSED ANYTHING? CONSOLIDATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE!
The Globe Theatre: It is important to remember that Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed on the stage. The atmosphere, setting and props within the theatre would have had a big impact on the audiences’ reaction and understanding to a play. Macbeth was performed at the Globe in April 1611.
The Globe theatre on banks of the River Thames was a hugely popular theatre in the 1600s, visited by more than 20,000 Londoners a week! Anyone could go to the theatre and tickets started at a penny. The lower class citizens or servants would stand in the yard or ‘pit’ in front of the stage.
Women were not allowed to act on stage, so men would play their parts. As well as performing on stage, actors would also have to work behind the stage with props and special effects.
The Globe burnt down in 1613 by a cannon fired during a performance. The current Globe is an exact replica of the original: it has a thatched roof and walls made from goat’s hair.

15. MISSED ANYTHING? CONSOLIDATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE!
King James I: When Elizabeth I died without any children in 1603, her cousin King James VI of Scotland became king of England. He was given the title King James I. It was the first time that England, Scotland and Ireland were ruled under a single monarch.
James I was highly intelligent and developed a love of learning. He enjoyed poetry and reading, and wrote two books.
He also had an interest in plays. James I became the patron of the King’s Men – the playing company that Shakespeare belonged to for most of his career.
In 1590, James I had heard there were witches in North Berwick who were plotting to kill him. Reports said that they had thrown cats they had ritually sacrificed and bits of dead human bodies into the North Sea as he was sailing across it. This raised a storm which almost wrecked James’ ship. One ship was sunk, The Queen of Scotland, but the rest survived.

16. MISSED ANYTHING? CONSOLIDATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE!
The Gunpowder plot:
Firstly, many of Macbeth’s themes resonate with the attempted revolt: it’s a play about treason, the overthrow of a King, and the downfall of his murderers. Even more importantly, King James was commonly believed to be descended from Banquo the thane of Lochquhaber, the historical counterpart of Shakespeare’s Banquo, the friend who Macbeth betrays and has murdered. With this in mind the witches’ prophesy that Banquo’s ancestors will be kings takes on a new meaning: it is referring to Banquo’s ancestor James Stuart, King of Scotland and England. By extension, it has been suggested that the escape of Fleance, Banquo’s son, from Macbeth’s murder plot is designed to echo James’s own escape from the Gunpowder plot and to subtly compliment the House of Stuart as legitimate and truly-descended rulers.
Further information: