Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's lesson.

In this lesson, you will be building on your knowledge of the historical context of a play.

Now, before we begin the lesson, I'd really like you to use this time to go and grab a pen or paper or anything that you choose to write with or on.

And also I'd like you to reduce any distractions that are going to be around you.

For example, if you've got your phone near you, make sure you put that away, and if the TV is on, turn it down or, off preferably.

Also, if you can, try and find a quiet space where you won't be distracted or disturbed by anyone.

So, when you're ready, we can begin the lesson.

Okay, so let's look at the agenda for today.

First, we're going to start off looking at the author of the play that we're going to be studying over the course of this unit, and it's going to be William Shakespeare.

Then we will look at a timeline of which the play was written.

Then we will go into the types of plays that William Shakespeare has written.

And lastly, a little insight into what "Macbeth" is about.

So, in this lesson, as I've already mentioned before, you will need an exercise book or paper and a pen or pencil or anything to write with, and of course you'll need your thinking brain switched on.

Okay, William Shakespeare.

Who was he? I've got a picture of him on the right there for you to have a look at, of him in his younger days in a very fancy outfit.

Who was he then? If you ask anybody, that'd be able to tell you that he is the greatest writer of the English language.

He was born in 1564 in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

He wrote "Romeo and Juliet", "Macbeth" and "King Lear", to name a few.

If you've been lucky enough to go to the Globe Theatre, that was built in 1599 and it was the playhouse where audiences watched his plays.

Timeline.

Let's look at the timeline.

So, Shakespeare, he was born in 1564 and he died in 1616.

So, according to the timeline, he was born in Queen Elizabeth I's reign and he died during James I's reign.

And then I wonder if you can work out who that person is on the far left, in box number one and what box number four could be representing.

Why don't you have a quick go? Pause the video and have a quick go at labelling each of those pictures.

On your sheet, you could write one, two, three, and four and then use the captions that have just popped up to have a go at labelling.

Okay, so the answers are at the top of the timeline.

So, for number one is Henry VIII, number two, Queen Elizabeth I, number three, James I, and number four, of course it was the Great Fire of London.

Now, see if you can remember, when was "Macbeth" written? Was this 1564, 1666, 1606 or 1595? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done.

Yes, the answer was 1606.

Okay, let's move on to types of plays.

So, the three types of Shakespeare's plays.

The first one we'll look at is tragedy.

So, if you have a look on the far left, what do you think? What could you predict might the play be if you look at the picture? If it's a tragedy, what would it be? Okay, so it's a play that traces the main character's downfall.

Moving onto the second box.

Look at the picture, what do you think it could be? Comedy.

So everyone knows what comedy means.

It's a play that ends happily, and usually contains many humorous events.

And in the third category of play that he writes is history.

So, it'd normally be a play about the life of an English monarch.

So, someone that ruled the land.

Okay, so we're going to move on to look at "Macbeth", which is going to be the main unit, our writing unit.

So firstly, I'd like you to think about what type of play "Macbeth" is.

Do we think that it is a tragedy, comedy or historical play? Now, when we look at some of the images on the next sides, they will help us to predict some of the themes in the play, and then that will then help us to answer that question.

Okay.

So, let me just turn the camera off.

So, this first picture shows you Macbeth with the three witches, okay? So, that comes up in the opening scene.

So in the opening scene, there are three witches on a heath.

Okay, and so the first theme here, what do you think it could be? Okay, so it's looking at the supernatural.

Okay, so this theme of supernatural.

So, within that theme, there are prophecies, there is the word possess and the word invincible.

And I'm going to go through what those words mean.

So, a prophecy is basically a prediction of what will happen in the future.

So when Macbeth visits the witches on the heath, they tell him a prophecy, okay? So, they imagine or you give him a prediction of what will happen to him in the future.

Then the word possess means you're completely controlled by an evil spirit, okay? So, you will see later on, that is what happens to Macbeth.

And invincible means that you're too powerful to be defeated.

So, again, later on in the play, you will see that Macbeth suddenly thinks that he is invincible, okay? So, one of the major themes here is the supernatural.

It's the idea that there are mysterious forces controlling what's happening in our lives.

And it's the witches' prophecies that drive the story forward.

Now, why is this important? It's important because during Shakespeare's time, belief in witchcraft was very strong, okay? And these so-called witches, during the time, were burnt at stake.

So, it's not surprising that his audience would have taken this theme of supernatural and having witches seriously.

Okay? So then let's look at the next thing.

So here, we've got the theme of ambition and good versus evil.

So, another theme is ambition.

So, we see that both in Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, okay? Later on, you'll see that they're tempted that Macbeth will become king.

So one of the prophecies is that Macbeth will become king.

And so, the witches tell him this and then him and Lady Macbeth, not sure what to do, but Lady Macbeth is ruthless in getting what she wants.

And she basically leads Macbeth to murder Duncan in the end.

So, the theme of ambition here leads them to become evil.

Ambition also eventually kills Macbeth as well because he becomes a tyrant.

And so, he loses the support of his friends.

And here, you see good and evil.

Macbeth himself isn't totally an evil man, and you see the there is much about him that is good, and that he struggles with his conscience of doing the wrong thing.

There are many symbols in the play where evil is shown.

For example, the witches are the linked with the devil and some of the evil thoughts that the characters have are seen during the play as well.

And obviously, the evil deed of the murder of Duncan and Macduff's family.

Okay, another theme that is quite strong as is loyalty, guilt and betrayal.

So loyalty and guilt are also strong themes in "Macbeth".

So, you will see that King Duncan clearly values loyalty, that he has the first thane of Cawdor executed, and he rewards Macbeth by making him the new thane.

And you will see that loyalty is also important to Banquo, who's another character in the play.

He doesn't deserve Duncan.

Macbeth, however, has quite an odd idea of loyalty.

He knows that he's doing the wrong thing, but he still goes ahead with it.

But then later on, you will see that Macbeth shows his guilt and he's unsure before the murder of Duncan, but immediately regrets it afterwards.

Okay.

So, after knowing all of those things, I would like you now to pause the video and point to the type of play you think "Macbeth" is.

Is it a tragedy, a comedy or a history based on the things and information that I've just told you? That's right, it is a tragedy.

My turn tragedy, your turn? A play that traces the main character's downfall, okay? So, what I would like you to do now is I'd like you to use the sentence stem below and the key vocabulary on your screen to complete the sentence.

I think "Macbeth" is a play about tragedy because.

And you can use the words ambition, downfall, violence, betrayal, any other words that you can come up with.

I'd like you to pause the video and have a go now.

Brilliant.

Okay, so, I've got a sentence that I could say.

I think "Macbeth" is a play about tragedy because Macbeth starts off somewhat of a hero at the start of the play, but because of his hunger for power, he ends up being evil and that is his downfall.

Okay, so let's find out a little bit about the play now, and where it's set.

So, you can see here, I've got a map of the United Kingdom.

And on that, you can see that the play is set in Inverness, which is in Scotland and I've circled it in yellow.

And that's exactly where Inverness is.

And it was written for the time of 1040.

The opening scene of the play is on a heath.

I've got a picture of a heath.

So, it's an area of a land where there's not many trees or bushes.

The main characters, I've already talked about Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, the three witches, Banquo and King Duncan.

Okay, so now I want you to do a fact recall using a mind map.

I'd like you to write down as many facts as you can remember about the play "Macbeth".

For example, when was it written? Who wrote it? What the themes are, if you can remember some of them, it doesn't matter if you don't have all of them, and where the play was set.

This is how you could lay your mind map out.

So, you would have "Macbeth" in the middle and have your lines of your facts moving out, okay? So, it was written in 1606.

It has themes such as loyalty, betrayal, power, ambition and the supernatural.

And then I just want you to write all around your main idea in the middle.

So, if you'd like to do that, grab a piece of paper or pen or pencil and pause the video to have a go.

Okay, so here's one that I did.

You can tick off on your sheet if you've got some of these facts.

But if you've got more than what I have, brilliant.

I have, it was written in 1606.

It was written by William Shakespeare.

It is a play about tragedy.

The opening scene is set on a heath.

The witches' prophecies drive the story forward.

The play is set in Scotland in Inverness.

And it was set in 1040.

It has themes such as loyalty, betrayal, power, ambition and supernatural.

Well done.

So, we've got to the end of our lesson.

And in this lesson, you have learnt about William Shakespeare.

You have looked at a timeline in which the plays were written.

You know about different types of Shakespeare's plays.

And you also now know a little bit about "Macbeth".

Brilliant.

So, you have reached the end of your lesson.

Congratulations.

If you would like to share your mind map, you can do so with your parent or carer.

In the next lesson, you'll be learning to investigate C, making soft and hard sounds.