Hello, my name is Mr. Barnsley.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson, Macbeth and the Dagger Hallucination.

So, let's look at today's outcome.

So, by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to use Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 1 to justify your opinions on him.

Three key words in today's lesson.

These are hallucinations, soliloquy, and subsequent.

the definitions of each of the three words are about to appear on screen.

Do take your time to read each one of them carefully, pausing the video if you need to, as these words are really gonna help us unlock the content of today's lesson.

Okay, let's look at the lesson outline for today's lesson.

Two learning cycles today.

In the first one, we're gonna look at the importance of the dagger.

So, we're looking at the dagger hallucination, we're gonna really think about the importance of the dagger there.

And in the second half of the lesson, we are gonna use the dagger as evidence to justify our opinions.

So, let's get started with the first learning cycle, shall we? The importance of the dagger.

Now, we're gonna start by reading Act 2, Scene 1 from "Macbeth".

In particular, we are gonna focus on Macbeth's soliloquy in from lines 33 to 64.

Now, as we read, you're gonna be prepared to discuss how is the presentation of Macbeth in this scene different from earlier presentations, particularly the ones we saw at the beginning of Act 1? And I also want you to think about whether this dagger is real and whether you think Macbeth is aware that this dagger is real.

I also want to share some context with you, some phrases that you are going to see in this extract, in this scene that'd be really helpful for understanding a little bit of a wider context.

So, the first is Hecate, who's the goddess of the moon.

The Hecate was also infamous for their sorcery, their supernatural, the witchcraft.

And the second is a reference to Tarquin, and this is actually a reference to Sextus Tarquinius, who was a tyrannical king in 6 BCE Rome.

He committed some appalling acts, including an act of sexual assault, of rape, and this led to the whole overthrowing of the monarchy in Rome.

So, do look out for those references as you reread Act 2, Scene 1 because they will hopefully give you a little bit of context about what Shakespeare is trying to make his audience think about.

So, pause the video, reread that scene, and as you're reading, make sure you discuss those two questions.

How is Macbeth being presented differently to how he was in Act 1? And what do you think about the dagger? Is it real? And is Macbeth aware of this? Pause the video, read the scene and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, it is time for a check for understanding.

So, thinking about that second question that I set you as you were reading, Macbeth recognises that dagger as a hallucination, true or false? Pause the video, decide what you think the correct answer is there and press Play when you are ready for the response.

Well done If you said that was true, Macbeth does recognise that the daggers are hallucination.

Let's justify our response there.

Does Macbeth blame witchcraft for the hallucinations or does he acknowledge that the hallucinations are tricks of his own mind? Which of those is the correct justification here? Pause the video, give yourself some time to think and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Well done if you said b, Macbeth here actually in this scene acknowledges that he knows these hallucinations are tricks of his own mind.

He isn't blaming witchcraft for them, he isn't blaming the supernatural, he knows they are tricks of his mind.

Okay, let's have a look at this soliloquy in a little bit more detail.

So, we're gonna read it through again together and then I'm gonna ask you some very specific questions to make sure we really understand what Shakespeare is telling us about Macbeth and the importance of the dagger here.

"Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

are thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight, or are thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable as this which now I draw." Okay, I'm gonna dive in a little bit deeper here with some targeted questions.

First of all, let's think a bit bigger picture here.

Why do you think this hallucination is a dagger rather than a sword? What's the difference? What's the difference between as weapons, the difference between a dagger and a sword? Why do you think it's interesting that Macbeth is seeing a dagger here or Shakespeare's chosen that Macbeth would see a dagger here? Pause the video, have a discussion, press Play when you're ready to continue.

I heard some really, really great ideas there.

Well done to those of you who were saying that actually in comparison, a dagger is a much more sly weapon to use.

If you're gonna kill someone with a dagger, you're gonna be really at close range, potentially behind their back, stabbing them behind their back, or, as we know, Macbeth murders Duncan in his sleep.

Whereas a sword represents kind of bravery, courage, a noble warrior who fights nobly.

So, it's really interesting that the weapon that Macbeth sees isn't a sword, but is in fact a dagger.

Well done if you said any of those things.

Okay, let's look at this second question then.

"The handle toward my hand," why is the handle pointing towards Macbeth's hand? Pause the video, have a discussion, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Some really great ideas there.

Well done to those of you who said things that this is actually tempting Macbeth, it's trying to encourage Macbeth to grab the handle and to commit the murder.

Some of you here were arguing, "Okay, this could be evidence that the witches, the supernatural is at play and the supernatural is trying to force Macbeth to commit regicide." Well done if you said any of those things.

Okay, "Come let me clutch thee," why is it important that immediately as the handle is offered to Macbeth, he wants to hold the dagger? Pause the video, discuss, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Great ideas there.

I heard lots of things about saying that we're seeing how keen Macbeth is, how he doesn't stop to think about this, he is so keen to grab the dagger, which shows that in comparison to Act 1, where he was very against the idea of regicide and he needed some persuading by his wife, here we're seeing there's a lot less persuading going on, he is very keen to just reach out and grab that dagger.

Well done if you said that.

Okay, a few quotations now that I want to draw our attention to.

Why is it also important that Macbeth recognises this is a hallucination? And when he calls it this fatal vision, who is the vision gonna be fatal for? Pause the video, have a discussion, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, really nice conversations going on there.

I really liked when people were saying things about actually this shows Macbeth is very aware these are hallucinations.

You know, he knows that this is not real, therefore the fact that he uses this as a justification to kill King Duncan shows that this is completely in his control.

You know, he's not being tricked into doing this, he's choosing to do this.

And that idea that he calls it a fatal vision, well, yes, it is fatal, but he's not fatal for him, this vision is fatal for King Duncan.

Last question now, what does the phrase heat-oppressed brain tell us about what Macbeth is feeling and thinking? So, pause the video, discuss or think through your response to yourself and press Play when you are ready to continue Some more great discussions and ideas floating around there.

Well done to everyone who was kind of on the topic of the idea of stress, this talking about Macbeth's stress.

In the Renaissance era, heat was considered a fluid that actually could literally press on the brain and it could cause a fever or delirium.

So, perhaps what Macbeth is saying here is that he feels under so much stress that he's almost, he's very aware that his brain is creating this image.

And why is he under this stress? Well, maybe he's under this stress 'cause he's constantly thinking about the murder of Duncan, he's constantly thinking about the witch's prophecies.

So, he's aware at this point that the dagger isn't real, it's a creation of his own brain, but it's being created perhaps because he is thinking about his potential crime so much.

Check for understanding now.

I want to look at the following quotations.

One of them cannot be used to justify the interpretation that Macbeth knows that the hallucination is his own mind playing tricks on him.

So, three of these quotations we can use to say, look, Macbeth is very, very aware that his mind is playing tricks on him, but one of these we can't.

So, let's just look at these then.

Is this a dagger which I see before me, I have thee not, and yet I see thee still, art thou not, fatal vision, are thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation.

Pause the video and select the quotation which cannot be used to justify the interpretation that Macbeth is aware that these are hallucinations.

Press Play when you are ready to continue.

Well done to everyone who selected a, is this a dagger which I see before me? This is probably the most famous quotation or one of the most famous quotations from "Macbeth", certainly from this soliloquy.

But actually, it's not that useful, it doesn't tell us very much, it doesn't prove to us very much about Macbeth's intentions.

There are much, much better quotations in this soliloquy that we can use that will help prove or support or justify our argument.

So, yes, this is a famous quote, but don't feel that you always have to use it, there might be better quotation or you to use.

Okay, now over to you.

I want you to reread the rest of Macbeth's soliloquy and I would like you to highlight any more quotations which illustrate that Macbeth is using the hallucination to justify the murder of King Duncan.

So, you're gonna pause the video, reread, highlight and annotate, and say that this quotation shows that Macbeth is using this vision to justify the murder.

Try and annotate and say like what you think is happening in those lines as well.

All right, pause the video, give this task a go and press play it when you are ready to continue.

Okay, great job on that.

There are many things you could have picked out.

I'm gonna share with you some of the quotations that you may have highlighted.

So, you might have highlighted this quote, "Thou marshall'st me the way I was going." So, marshall'st means to almost kind of, you might bring has connotations of the army where you are giving orders, you're trying to direct people.

But Macbeth interesting says the dagger is directing him to do something that he was already going to do, "that I was going." So, this quotation shows that actually potentially highlights that the dagger didn't change his mind, it's just convinced him further that he should do this.

It is the bloody business which informs thus to mine eyes, so he's saying, "Look, you're telling me the things that I want to see, you're showing me the things that I want to see.

"With Tarquin's ravishing strides towards his design moves like a ghost.

Thou sure and firm-set earth, hear not my steps." So, he makes reference to this king who committed terrible, terrible crimes.

He's almost comparing himself, he's acknowledging that he's gonna commit terrible crimes, but he's saying, "hear not my steps," I don't want to get caught.

"Words, to the heat of deeds, too cold breath gives," so he is saying, "We need to stop talking about it, we now need to start doing this." "The bell invites me.

Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or hell." So, he actually hears a bell as well and he ties this, the hearing of the bell that's ringing in his castle, to this vision.

And he says, "This bell," it's not a bell, you know, it could be a bell going off for many reasons in a castle.

But for him, he's saying this signifies Duncan's death knell, and a death knell is a bell that is rung to make people aware that someone has died.

So, here he is linking that to the vision, to the hallucination of the dagger and basically saying, "My decision has been made and Duncan is about to die." All right, we're now gonna move on to using the dagger as evidence.

So, two students, Jun and Izzy, are expressing their opinions about "Macbeth".

Jun says, "Clearly the witches use their supernatural powers to influence Macbeth." Whereas Izzy says, "I disagree, Macbeth is led by his desires, he's completely in control of his own actions." Let's have a discussion then, how might each pupil use Macbeth's soliloquy to justify their interpretation? So, which evidence might they pick from this soliloquy to prove that they are right? Pause the video, have a discussion, or if you're by yourself, you can just make some notes, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Fantastic job there.

I just want to pick out some of the things that I heard some of you saying.

So, for Jun, he might use the fact that the dagger is not real, therefore it is supernatural.

So, he can definitely tie that to the witches because we know that they throughout the play use apparitions to kind of to persuade Macbeth and to manipulate Macbeth.

But also, the fact that the handle is offered towards him suggests someone or something is trying to convince Macbeth to commit this crime.

What about Izzy then? How can Izzy use this scene? Well, she can argue that actually Macbeth is very aware that the dagger is not real.

And we looked at some of those quotations, "Fatal vision," which suggested this.

And also, thinking about what you did in Task A, we know that he uses this to justify his decision to murder.

So, he was already looking to murder King Duncan, he just uses this as further justification.

So, I think Izzy more so than Jun can use lots of extract, lots of quotation from here to justify her thoughts.

Okay, it's time for another check for understanding.

This time, you're gonna match the inference on the left-hand side of the screen with the quotation that could be used to justify it on the right.

Pause the video, give this activity a go, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, let's look at the responses then.

So, let's start with the first one, some may argue that the hallucination is just another example of how Macbeth is influenced by external supernatural forces.

Which quotation could be used to justify that? Well, that one is, "The handle toward my hand," so as if someone's trying to convince him to kill King Duncan.

Okay, let's look at the second one then.

Macbeth is completely aware that this hallucination has been created by his own desire to kill Duncan.

Well done if you said, "A false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain." Yes, Duncan is aware that.

Sorry, Macbeth is aware that all of these thoughts he's had about killing Duncan has made him feel very stressed.

And perhaps this stress is what is creating this false creation, this image, this hallucination of the dagger.

And finally, Macbeth uses the hallucination as justification for murdering the king.

Well, we can use that quotation, "Thou marshall'st me the way I was going." Well done if you've got all of those correct.

Okay, we are now gonna help Jun and Izzy formalise their ideas.

To do this, we're gonna use topic sentences and embedded quotations.

So, before we do that, let's remind ourselves what these words mean.

What is a topic sentence and how do we form them? And what does it mean to embed a quotation? Pause the video, have that discussion, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Well done, I heard lots of you getting the right answer there.

So, a topic sentence goes at the start of a paragraph, an analytical paragraph, and it basically outlines our overarching argument for that paragraph.

And embedding quotations is when we use quotations from the text.

So, in this case, Shakespeare and Shakespeare's "Macbeth", but we build them in and make them part of our sentences rather than just tagging them on at the end.

And we don't say things like, "A quote which shows this is," okay, we really want to make these part of our sentence.

I'm gonna show you then a really good example here of a topic sentence and a use of embedded quotations.

Let's read through this together.

"In Act 2, Scene 1, an increasingly conflicted Macbeth suffers from hallucinations, seeing a vision of a dagger.

Arguably, Shakespeare utilises Macbeth's subsequent soliloquy to highlight Macbeth's lust for power.

More specifically, Macbeth's desire to 'clutch' the dagger and his exclamation that the 'fatal vision' had 'marshall'st' him to kill Duncan serves to illustrate that Macbeth has been seeking further signs that he should commit regicide." Pause the video and have a discussion, why is this response successful? Press Play when you are ready to continue.

Fantastic discussions there.

Let's dissect this a little bit further and see why it was so successful.

So, first of all, it uses a marker right at the beginning to indicate which part of the play is being analysed.

Okay, really clear for a reader which scene, which act, and which scene we're gonna be talking about here.

It also gives a little bit of contextualization about the scene.

It tells us a little bit about what's happening to the scene.

Yes, we can always assume that a reader should know the scene that we're talking about and what happens, but it's always helpful to give them a very short summary of what is happening in that scene, linking to whatever the question is that we're talking about.

Now, we also use some tentative language here, arguably.

When we're writing our responses to text, we ultimately cannot say for sure that our justification, our ideas are the correct one, or usually we can't.

Particularly, when we think about Shakespeare, there's no one who was alive in Shakespeare time who can tell us whether this is exactly what Shakespeare meant.

So, using tentative language acknowledges that sometimes some of our inferences are and our interpretations might not be something that everyone agrees with.

And then I have, as part of my topic sentence here, a very clear argument and it's all focused on what Shakespeare is trying to do.

I say, "So, Shakespeare is trying to use Macbeth's soliloquy to show how desperate Macbeth is for power." I then use a second discourse marker here to say to my reader, "Look, I'm gonna start introducing some quotations here." I've got a bigger argument, but now I'm gonna introduce you to some more specific arguments.

And those arguments, those are gonna be bits of evidence from the text.

So, I say more specifically, and next you can see I've really carefully selected my quotations here, clutch, fatal vision, marshall'st, all extracts from the soliloquy, all which are very interesting and I could dig deeper if I wanted to extend my analytical response here, I could do some language analysis on any of these words, but ultimately, they're all helping prove my argument that actually Macbeth is really keen to grab hold of this dagger because he wants to use it as justification to murder Duncan.

Another check for understanding now.

Which of the following would you not expect to see in a topic sentence? Is it markers to indicate which scene has been analysed? Is it contextualization of the scene? Is it reference to language devices that an author or writer has used? Or is it clear argument focused on author's intention? Pause the video, have a think, select your response, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Yes, well done if you said c, there is a time and place in our analytical writing to refer to specific language devices and subject terminology, but I wouldn't say that's the topic sentence.

The topic sentence is all about explaining what you're analysing and what argument you are going to be following.

It's time for another task then.

I would like you to write your own sentences about Act 1, Scene 2.

You'll need a topic sentence and you'll need to make sure your topic sentence is followed up by a sentence which includes embedded quotations.

Here's my success criteria that I want to see you trying to use in your writing.

First of all, make sure you use markers to indicate which part of the play is being analysed.

Make sure you add a little bit of context, contextualise the scene, tell me a little bit more about what's happening in that scene.

Use tentative language to acknowledge there might be more than one interpretation.

Your argument might not be the only way that this can be interpreted.

Make sure you have a really clear argument that's focused on the author's intention.

Make sure you use discourse markers to indicate that you're about to zoom in onto specific quotations.

And make sure your quotations are carefully selected and they are embedded into your argument.

Pause the video, give this activity a go, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Great work on that tricky task.

We're really trying to write now in a really sophisticated manner, but I think you all did a really, really good job.

Now it's time for us to do a bit of reflection here, so we're gonna reread our work and we're gonna identify where we've included the success criteria.

So, all of the success criteria is on the screen, reread your work, highlight, underline, annotate, but make sure you just identify where you have done those six things.

Pause the video, give yourself some time for reflection, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Well, well done everybody, we are now at the end of today's lesson.

On the screen, you can see a summary of everything that we have covered.

Do make sure you pause the video and read through all of these to make sure you've understood everything that we have done in today's lesson.

It's been an honour having you working through this with me today.

I hope you now feel a lot more confident with analysing Macbeth's soliloquy, and the fact that you can actually use this to justify your opinions and your interpretations of Macbeth and what drives him.

I hope to see you again in one of our other lessons in this unit.

Thank you very much, goodbye.