PREMIÈRE · UPPER SECONDARY · B1+ towards B2

Session 1: A king, witches and a plot: the world of Macbeth

Part 1. Why would a play about witches and the murder of a king fascinate and frighten audiences in 1606?

Objectives

Warm-up

Image analysis. Look at the painting for one minute in silence.
Henry Fuseli, Study for the Three Witches in Macbeth, about 1783, Auckland Art Gallery
Henry Fuseli, Study for the Three Witches in Macbeth, about 1783, Auckland Art Gallery. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  1. Describe the three figures: faces, gestures, light. What is striking?
  2. Fuseli paints them in profile, all pointing the same way. What effect does this create?
  3. Why does fear often start with an image?

Documents

Document 1: Jacobean England.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene 1, the three witches
Glossary: fair: beautiful, good · foul: ugly, evil · hover: float in the air
Document 2: verse. Most of the play is in blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter, ten syllables, five beats (da DUM da DUM...). The witches speak differently: short rhyming lines with four beats that start on a stressed syllable. Their language sounds like a spell.

Activities

  1. Context jigsaw: four groups (James I, Daemonologie, the Gunpowder Plot, equivocation) prepare a two minute presentation.
  2. Close reading of "Fair is foul": find the paradox, the chiasmus and the alliteration. What does it announce about the play?
  3. Scansion: clap the rhythm of the witches' lines, then of a pentameter line. What is the difference?
  4. Intermediary task (oral): present your context topic and explain why it would matter to Shakespeare's first audience.

Sentence starters

Role play

Pairs: a London theatre goer in 1606 and a foreign visitor. The theatre goer explains why a play about witches and regicide is thrilling and dangerous to watch with the king nearby.

Gap-fill worksheet

QR code to this worksheet
Word bank: paradox, treatise, regicide, equivocation, pentameter, plot, chiasmus, witchcraft
  1. James I wrote Daemonologie, a ______ on witches.
  2. The Gunpowder ______ failed in November 1605.
  3. Killing a king is called ______.
  4. Using ambiguous words to hide the truth is ______.
  5. "Fair is foul" is a ______: two opposites joined.
  6. "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" repeats the words in reverse order: it is a ______.
  7. A line of ten syllables and five beats is an iambic ______.
  8. James I was fascinated by ______.
Answer key
  1. treatise
  2. Plot
  3. regicide
  4. equivocation
  5. paradox
  6. chiasmus
  7. pentameter
  8. witchcraft

Homework

Write 150 words: "Why was Macbeth a political play in 1606?" Use three facts from the documents.

Watch the film at home

  1. The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), directed by Joel Coen, with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, in black and white. Where to watch: JustWatch France.
  2. Macbeth (2015), directed by Justin Kurzel, with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. Where to watch: JustWatch France.
  3. DVD: ask at your local library or médiathèque.
  4. Scenes to watch: the witches on the heath (Act I), the dagger and the murder of Duncan (Act II), the banquet and Banquo's ghost (Act III), the sleepwalking scene (Act V).

Watch with English subtitles if you can. The films contain violence.

Assessment grid

CriteriaLevel 1Level 2Level 3Level 4
Context knowledgeVagueSome factsAccurate factsAccurate facts linked to the play
Literary vocabularyAbsentSome termsAccurate termsPrecise and well used
Oral presentationReads notesSome pausesMostly fluentFluent and engaging
PronunciationHard to understandUnderstandableClearClear with good stress and rhythm

Links reminder