MacbethAct 1, scene 3

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, we will have studied Act 1, scene 3, focusing on how the witches predictions start to have an affect on Macbeth.

Recap

What type of man is Macbeth?

The Three WitchesScene 3 On the moor

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

First Witch: Where hast thou been, sister?Second Witch: Killing swine.Third Witch: Sister, where thou?First Witch: A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,

And munch’d, and munch’d, and munch’d: ‘Give me,’ quoth I.

‘Aroint thee, witch!’ the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’the Tiger But in a sieve I’ll thither sail, And, like a rat without tail, I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.Second Witch: I’ll give thee a wind,First Witch: Th’art kind.Third Witch: And I another.

What impressi

on do you get of the

Witches?

Readers Theatre

The following roles need to be read : Macbeth Banquo First Witch Second Witch Third Witch Ross Angus

Questions

At the end of Act 1, scene 1 the witches say ‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air’.

Similarly, Macbeth enters the play saying ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’.

Why?

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something that one or more characters does not.

How are the witches predictions to Macbeth an example of dramatic irony?

Questions

How does Macbeth feel when he hears the predictions?

How does Banquo feel when he hears the predictions for Macbeth?

What do the witches predict for Banquo? What do they mean in modern terms?

Whose predictions are better?

Questions

When the witches leave, Macbeth says ‘would they have stayed’. Why do you suppose he wanted them to stay?

Banquo states that they have ‘eaten on the insane root, that takes the reason prisoner’. What does this tell us about how he feels about the witches predictions?

Ross brings news that Macbeth is to become Thane of Cawdor. How does Shakespeare show us that Macbeth is now taking the witches predictions more seriously?

Similarly, how does Shakespeare show us that Banquo is much more honest, and does not trust the witches?

Macbeth thinks through what has happened on lines 126 – 141.

He starts out very doubtful, but at the end of his soliloquy he’s made a decision (of sorts).

What does this tell us about how he’s feeling about the witches and their predictions?

This supernatural soliciting/ Cannot be ill, cannot be good…

My thought, whose murder is but fantastical,/ Shakes so my single state of man that function/ Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is/ But what is not.

If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me/ Without my stir

Despite saying that ‘chance’ is the only thing that will crown him king, there are six instances where Macbeth uses expressions that could be thoughts of him killing himself or Duncan.

Can you find these points in his soliloquy?

Before they leave to see Duncan, Macbeth asks Banquo to

Think upon what hath chanced and at more time,The interm having weighed it, let us speakOur free hearts each to other.

What does he want Banquo to consider?

Recap

Let’s watch a shortened version of Act 1, scene 3 here (stop at 2 minutes into video).

Plenary

What have we learnt about Macbeth in this scene?

Add any new points to your outline of Macbeth