Act 1

Lesson 3

Lesson 3 – The world of men (Act 1 Scenes 2-4)

Starter activities
 Medieval warfare: Consider why Shakespeare avoids showing the battle scenes on stage.
Instead we only hear people talking about it. What sounds would they use to suggest a battle
happening close by? (AO1)

 How fair?

Imagine that you and your friend had both played in a football match, both played
brilliantly, but your friend scored the winning goal. How would you feel if your
friend was given a try out for a professional team, but you just had a pat on the
back from the coach? And another friend, who was playing a different match, was
given a place on a professional team, because his father was the manager of it.
What would you feel and do?

Make the connection between this scenario and the situation in Act 1 Scene 4. Elicit the
three rewards given by Duncan: Malcolm is made Duncan’s heir and will inherit the throne,
Macbeth has already been made Thane of Cawdor and Duncan is thinking of promoting him
further and Banquo is given a hug.

Banquo offers his loyalty to Duncan. What does this suggest about him? (AO1)

Main activities
 Comprehension Act 1 Scene 2: Read the scene then consider the questions below.

1. Why is the Thane of Cawdor being executed?

1. How does he reward Macbeth for killing the rebel Macdonald? What about Banquo?

2. Make a list of quotations which show how Macbeth is seen by others.

3. What impression do we get of King Duncan? Is he a good king or not? Consider how
fair he has been in giving Macbeth his new title. (AO1)
 Act 1
Lesson 3

 Prophecies for Macbeth and Banquo: Act 1 Scene 3 (Resource 4) Read the scene, then
sort the prophecies for Macbeth and Banquo and their responses using the sorting task in the
resource. (AO1)

 ‘Stars, hide your fires’ freeze frame: Act 1 Scene 4 (Resource 5) Explore Macbeth’s
aside in Act 1 Scene 4. For each of the other characters there, write a short aside – what
might they have said to the audience? (AO1)

Plenary activities
 Tweet the news: Students write a tweet to announce Cawdor’s execution. Tweets cannot be
more than 140 characters.
Ask students to show their knowledge of the text by referring to the information about him
at the start of Act 1 Scene 4. (AO1)

 Award ceremony: Following up on the activities based on Act 1 Scene 4, you could hold a
mini award ceremony for small groups or volunteers acting as Macbeth, Banquo and Malcolm,
who receive their awards from King Duncan. (AO1)
 Lesson 3
Resource 4

Prophecies for Macbeth and Banquo: Act 1 Scene 3

Task one

Which of these prophecies are for Macbeth and which for Banquo? Complete the table.

Prophecy Macbeth or Banquo?

You will be king.

Your title is Thane of Glamis.

Your children will be kings, but you won’t.

You are not going to be as happy as your

friend in one way, but in another way you
will be much happier.

You are getting a new title, Thane of

Cawdor.

You’re not as important as your friend but

in another way you are more important.

Whose fortune do you think is the best? Why?

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How do Macbeth and Banquo react to the prophecies?

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 Lesson 3
Resource 4
Task two

Cut up the quotations and their modern meanings, then match pairs together.

Banquo

You have given my friend such

Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear a brilliant prediction that he is
Things that do sound so fair? now taking his time to think it
over.

My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction Can we believe what wicked
Of noble having and of royal hope, people tell us?
That he seems rapt withal.

To me you speak not.

If you can look into the seeds of time Sometimes the devil tempts us
And say which grain will grow and which will not, to do wicked things by telling
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear us something true.
Your favours nor your hate.

Were such things here as we do speak about?

Or have we eaten on the insane root, Macbeth is lost in thought.
That takes the reason prisoner?

He needs time to get used to

What, can the devil speak true?
what just happened.

But ’tis strange,

If you really can tell the
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
future, tell me mine? I am not
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
afraid of you and won’t worry
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
too much what you say.
In deepest consequence.

It’s good news, so why do you

Look how our partner’s rapt.
seem so afraid?

New honours come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their Did that really happen or have
mould, we gone crazy?
But with the aid of use.
 Lesson 3
Resource 4

Macbeth

If the first two prophecies are

true, then the best one is still
Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more.
to come, so yes! I am going to
be king!

Perhaps we can believe them

now, because they were right
By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis,
about me being Thane of
But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives
Cawdor. Aren’t you excited
A prosperous gentleman,
that your children could be
kings?

Hang on a minute, where did

to be king you get that idea from? And
Stands not within the prospect of belief, why have you come to tell us
these things?

Well yes, I am already Thane

Say from whence
of Glamis, that part is true,
You owe this strange intelligence, or why
but someone else is Thane of
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
Cawdor and I can’t inherit
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.
from someone who isn’t dead.

The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me Wait, don’t go. I want to hear
In borrowed robes? more.

Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor: I can’t believe you say I am

The greatest is behind. going to be king!

Do you not hope your children shall be kings, The Thane of Cawdor is alive
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me and well. What are you talking
Promised no less to them? about? That’s not my title.

This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success, Maybe I don’t need to do
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. anything? Just let being king
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion, happen to me like being Thane
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair of Cawdor did.
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature?
 Lesson 3
Resource 4

Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
I am confused. If all this is
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
good news, which it is, why do
Shakes so my single state of man that function
I feel so scared?
Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is,
But what is not.

If chance will have me king, why chance may crown Oh well, let’s see how I feel
me tomorrow; what will happen
Without my stir. will happen.

What if I have to do something

Come what come may,
terrible to become king, like a
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
murder?
 Lesson 3
Resource 5

‘Stars, hide your fires’ freeze frame

Macbeth tells the audience in an aside (where he speaks to us but the other characters cannot
hear him):

Macbeth: The Prince of Cumberland: that is a step

On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires,
Let not light see my black and deep desires,
The eye wink at the hand. Yet let that be,
Which the eye fears when it is done to see.

Now that Duncan has given Malcolm

the title of the Duke of Cumberland,
Macbeth has realised that he is not
going to be King without taking
action. Malcolm is in his way. He tells
the stars not to shine so no one can
see what he is thinking – his thoughts
are evil.

However, we are not told what Malcolm or Banquo are thinking. The other lords too may have
some private thoughts.

Imagine the scene where Duncan is giving out his rewards. For each of the other characters
there, write a short aside – what might they have said to the audience?

Extension task

Macbeth has been given a new title, land and a second castle. But he is still not happy. He wants
more. What advice would you give Duncan at this point? Each character can answer this in role.
 Act 1
Lesson 4

Lesson 4 – Lady Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 5)

Starter activities
 Who would marry Macbeth? Consider: from what we know of Macbeth, what might his wife
be like as a character? (AO1)

 Send the message: Macbeth writes his wife a letter about what has happened to him. Write
a text message from Macbeth to his wife with the news he needs to tell her. (AO1)

Main activities
 First impressions: Use the resource Impressions of Lady Macbeth (Resource 7) which
compares our earlier understanding of Macbeth with her opinions of him. (AO1)

 Exploring the imagery: Read from Macbeth’s entrance in Act 1 Scene 5 to the end of the
scene. Use the resource O, never shall sun that morrow see! (Resource 8) to examine the
language used by Lady Macbeth and the relationship between the pair. (AO1, AO2)

Plenary activities
 Illustrate the imagery: In Lady Macbeth’s speech beginning ‘Oh never / shall sun that
morrow see’ (explored in the activity above), choose one of the following images to
illustrate, discussing the relevance and impact of the imagery:

1. Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters
4. Look like th’innocent flower
But be the serpent under’t. (AO2)

 Who is the most dangerous? Consider who is the most dangerous: Macbeth or Lady Macbeth?
(AO1)
 Lesson 4
Resource 7

Impressions of Lady Macbeth

1. Read from the start of Act 1 Scene 5 to ‘To have thee crown’d withal.’
Lady Macbeth reads aloud Macbeth’s letter, then she comments on it. How does
Shakespeare make the letter and the comments different?
2. What impression do we gain from Lady Macbeth about her husband, compared to the idea we
have of him so far? Add your ideas around the images below.

Macbeth before

Macbeth now

3. Work with a partner and jot down your responses to these questions:
 Would she know him best?
 Why does she intend to ‘chastise’ him?
 Does she want him to be king? Can you find any evidence for her wanting Macbeth to
kill the king?
4. Read the conversation with the attendant. Why does she think the servant is ‘mad’ to say the
king is coming to the Macbeths’ castle that very night?
 Lesson 4
Resource 8

‘O, never shall sun that morrow see!’

Task one

Read the duologue from the entrance of Macbeth to the end of the scene, then answer the
questions below.

1. What advice is she giving Macbeth in her speech

beginning ‘O, never shall sun that morrow see!’
and why? Does the way she expresse it help the
audience remember what she said? Why has she
used this imagery?

2. How does Lady Macbeth indicate she wants Duncan

to be killed?

3. How does Macbeth reveal his reluctance to comply

with her wishes?

4. Who do you think has the upper hand in this

relationship? Back up your idea with evidence from
the play.

Task two

Consider the different moods Lady Macbeth shows in the whole of Act 1 Scene 5 and answer the
following question:

How does Lady Macbeth’s mood change as the scene progresses?

You could use some of the words below to help you answer.

excited evil vindictive manipulative

calm controlled business-like determined

persuasive calculating optimistic spiritual

valiant cowardly scheming selfish