Hello and welcome to today's lesson from the unit, "Macbeth and Masculinity, the Struggle for Power." Today's lesson is entitled, "Duncan, As a Father Figure." My name is Mr. Barnsley, welcome.

Now, by the end of today's lesson, you should be able to compare Macbeth and Duncan to explore ideas about leadership.

So I really want you to focus on that key question today.

What is Shakespeare, what is William Shakespeare trying to tell us about leadership? About how leaders should act or behave? So let's start by looking at five lesson, at five keywords we should expect to encounter to during today's lesson.

These are motif, nurturing, foil, air, and natural order.

Let's have a look at what each of these words mean.

So a reoccurring image or an idea in a text is called a motif.

So this is a technique that Shakespeare will use.

So we'll look out and we'll be talking about some motifs he might use.

Now, nurturing is an adjective.

If you are nurturing, it means that you want to care for and protect someone whilst they're still growing.

Now, a foil is a structural device.

This is a link, this is a device we'd expect to see authors use.

And a foil is a character who contrasts with another.

And these foils are used to highlight differences between two characters.

An heir is a noun, an heir is someone who inherits money, property, or a title after another person's death.

And finally, the natural order.

Well, the natural order is a belief that there is a natural way that the world is ordered, with laws and rules that should be followed.

So these are our five key words.

I challenge you to listen out for them in today's lesson and see if you can use them in your own discussions and writing.

So the outline of today's lesson is gonna be broken down into three parts.

First we are gonna look at the presentation of King Duncan.

Then we are going to do some comparison, looking at King Duncan in comparison to Macbeth.

And then finally we are going to look at this idea of King Duncan as a construct, and we'll make sure we understand what that word construct looks like later in the lesson.

But we're gonna start first of all with the presentation of King Duncan.

So we're gonna start by reading an extract.

We're gonna read some of King Duncan's speech from Act one, Scene four.

So Duncan says, as he sees Macbeth and Banquo for the first time in the play, he says, "Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour to make me full of growing.

Noble Banquo, that hast no less deserve, nor must be known no less to have done so.

Let me enfold thee and hold thee to my heart.

We will establish our estate upon our eldest, Malcolm, who we name hereafter the Prince of Cumberland; which honour must not unaccompanied invest him only, but signs of nobleness like stars shall shine on all deservers." Right, I want you to take a moment.

I want you to think about how has King Duncan been presented in this speech he's just delivered? How would you describe him? And what do we learn about his leadership style? What kind of leader is he? So I'd like you to pause the video and give yourself an opportunity to discuss and press play when you are ready to move on with the lesson.

Okay, I'd love to share and collect some ideas that you have just discussed.

I'm sure you've had said plenty of different things, and some of these ideas that I'm about to share with you are just a few of the many ideas of things that you could have said about Duncan and his leadership.

The first thing I want to draw everyone's attention to is that, Duncan is presented as a caring and nurturing king.

He cares deeply about the growth of his loyal subjects.

People are loyal to him, he is loyal to them in return, he wants them to grow as individuals.

And we see he uses plant imagery in the play.

And when we think of plants, we think about them being associated with growth.

And in the play they are very much associated with the idea of human growth, in particular people's growth within positions of power.

So King Duncan uses this metaphor of plants to show how he wants to foster and empower both Macbeth and Banquo as a reward for their loyalty.

He wants to help them grow to become more successful.

And this is the first time we can use that key word.

Shakespeare uses this motif of nature to imply that good leadership requires patience and generosity.

Just like if we were growing a new plant, it takes time.

It takes time and patience for us to grow a small seed into a huge oak tree.

Okay, let's do a quick check for understanding.

I've got three statements here all about Duncan.

I want you to tell me which one is not logical, doesn't make sense, doesn't ring true to our understanding of the plot of Macbeth.

So A, plant imagery is used to represent human growth in the play, implying Duncan wants to support Macbeth's growth as a leader.

B, throughout the play, both Duncan and Macbeth are presented as brave and courageous leaders.

C, Shakespeare uses the motif of nature to present Duncan as a nurturing leader.

So you're looking for the statement that you don't think is completely logical.

Make your choice now.

Congratulations if you chose B.

Throughout the play, both Duncan and Macbeth are presented as brave and courageous leaders.

I don't think this is completely logical, 'cause whilst we do seem Macbeth presented as, being presented as brave and courageous at the start of the play, by the end we see his behaviour has changed and certainly the way that he has Duncan killed and has Banquo killed really suggests that he's certainly not a courageous individual.

Okay, time for today's first task.

You are going to reread Duncan's speech that we've just read together.

And this time you are gonna look for and identify any natural imagery, the motif of nature that you see in this extract.

Once you find it, I'd like you to underline it or highlight it, and then annotate it with an inference about Duncan's leadership.

So tell me what this natural imagery tells us about Duncan as a leader.

There are two parts to Duncan's speech, so please make sure you do both sections.

Pause the video and press play when you are ready to go through some feedback.

Okay, let's go through the extract and see if we can identify some of these pieces of natural imagery that Shakespeare uses in Duncan's speech.

So hopefully the first thing you noticed, was when he said, "I have begun to plant thee." And this suggests that Duncan sees Macbeth's new title as an opportunity for him to grow as a leader.

He's given Macbeth an exciting new opportunity by making him the Thane of Cawdor.

Now this verb labour suggests that Duncan acknowledges that he will have to work hard as well to support Macbeth and Banquo grow.

Okay, he's gonna have to put effort in, he's gonna put time, patience and effort to help his loyal subjects grow.

And when he says, "I want to make thee full of growing," we really see that Duncan wants Macbeth to succeed.

In the second half of his speech, we see a different kind of nature addressed here when he says, "But signs of nobleness like stars shine upon all deservers." Now this is a simile and it implies that Duncan wants Macbeth to shine with greatness, like the stars do.

Like the stars kind of bring light in darkness.

He wants Macbeth to have that same success.

Now it's interesting, and I wonder if you picked this up here, well done if you did that.

Actually later in this scene, Macbeth echoes this speech And he says, "Stars hide your fires." And this is one of our first indications that Macbeth is secretly plotting, he's very interested in the witches prophecies.

And he talks about the stars in a very, very different way to Duncan, he wants the stars to dull, to darken, so people can't see the things that he's thinking and plotting.

Okay, time for us to move onto the second part of today's lesson, and we're gonna start to look at a few more comparisons between Duncan and Macbeth.

So the reason that I want to compare Duncan and Macbeth is because Duncan acts as a foil to Macbeth, and it's really important that we understand what that means.

So this means that King Duncan, there's a contrast between King Duncan and Macbeth.

And this contrast is used for a very specific reason.

It's used to highlight Macbeth's character flaws.

It's used to highlight Macbeth's flaws when he's a leader.

So some questions that I'd like you to think through, and we can start thinking about, like how different are Duncan and Macbeth? So consider this, is Duncan willing to exercise violence to protect his power and position? If so, or if not, how is he therefore different from Macbeth? Why do you think other characters refer to Macbeth as a tyrant, but they don't refer to Duncan in this way? Now we know there are two incidents in the play where Macbeth employs murderers to eliminate others whom he perceives as a threat.

So Banquo and Macduff's family.

How is this different to the way that Duncan exercises violence to maintain power? Now, can you think of any examples in the play where Macbeth invests in other person, or shares his power? Does this make him similar or different to Duncan? Okay, I hope you came up with lots of fantastic ideas.

Now we're gonna have a go at putting these into more formal sentences.

And to do that we are going to use comparative sentence stems to explore subtle similarities and differences.

I'm gonna share four different stems with you, and give you some examples of how they can be used.

So let's start with whereas X is, Y is.

This is a great sentence stem for comparing two very different ideas, people, characters, places.

So for example, whereas summer can be too hot, winter is very cold.

Very clear difference here, summer is hot, winter is cold.

Our next stem is whilst X is, y is.

So again, this one is really good for looking at differences.

While summer is too hot for me, winter can be too cold.

So you can see here whilst gives us an opportunity to maybe look for a few subtle similarities.

Both of these seasons are too extreme for me, too hot in the winter, too cold in summer.

But actually we're still looking at a very, very clear difference here.

Now our third sentence stem, despite being X, Y is.

Despite being colder than summer, winter is superior.

So this allows me to count, almost do, two comparisons in one.

I put one comparison before the comma, despite being colder than summer, so I'm saying look, winter is colder than summer, but the second part, the Y is, is gonna offer a little bit of almost like a surprise, or something that maybe is a little bit unexpected.

So maybe you weren't expecting me to say that I prefer winter because it's actually colder than summer.

So we still got a comparison, but it gives us the opportunity to show a contrast, and maybe a conflict or something that we might feel, that might feel unexpected to a reader.

And finally, although X, Y.

Although both winter and summer are great, winter is special due to the holiday season.

The although sentence stem allows us to look for subtle similarities before we offer a difference.

So we're saying here both winter and summer are great seasons, they're similar, and they're both fantastic, but the difference is winter has the holiday season, and that's why I really like it.

So here are four sentence stems that do very similar jobs.

They're gonna allow us to compare differences between characters, in this case Duncan and Macbeth, but we can use them all in slightly different ways.

Let's have a go at working through one of these examples together.

So I'm gonna create a sentence comparing Macbeth and King Duncan.

I'm gonna practise using the, although X, Y.

So we said that this one gives us an opportunity to look for maybe a subtle similarity before I share the difference.

So although both Duncan and Macbeth are presented as being capable of violence, we know Duncan has sent Macbeth and the Scottish army off to war before the play, and we know that he has had the former Thane of Cawdor killed.

So we know he's also capable of violence, and we certainly know Macbeth is.

So here is a subtle similarity, both Duncan and Macbeth have presented to being capable of violence.

Let's add the final part of the sentence with a clear contrast.

Although both Duncan and Macbeth are presented as being capable of violence, only Macbeth is willing to use violence against his loyal allies.

So Duncan uses violence against disloyal allies, but Macbeth uses violence against loyal allies like Duncan, like Banquo.

Now over to you, I'd like you to create a sentence comparing Macbeth and King Duncan.

And I would like you to use the sentence frame, the sentence stem whilst King Duncan is, Macbeth is.

So pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, now it's time to put this learning into practise.

I have got four sentences that you can see on the screen, each one using a different comparative sentence stem.

I would like you to fill this in with information, knowledge that you know about each of these characters.

Remember the first two are gonna ask you to look for really clear differences.

The third one, you may wish to put a more kind of surprising comparison in here, doesn't have to be, but it would work if you were using the despite sentence stem.

And then although we'll give you an opportunity to do some subtle similarities if you wish.

Pause the video and press play once you have completed all four of your responses.

Okay, let's go through some answers here.

So whereas Duncan is, Macbeth is.

I'm gonna share some things that I wrote here.

Let's remember that we could have a variety of different responses.

So whereas Duncan is nurturing and loyal, Macbeth is willing to portray Duncan for the chance of power.

Whilst Duncan is, Macbeth is.

So, whilst Duncan is rewarding Macbeth for his bravery, Macbeth is secretly planning to usurp the throne.

Usurp means to take, to steal.

Despite Macbeth being, Duncan is.

So despite Macbeth being Machiavellian in his plot to claim the crown, remember that's an adjective to describe someone who is plotting.

Duncan is completely trusting in the Thane of Cawdor.

So there's a shock here, isn't that there's a slight shocking element that Macbeth is being so manipulative, and secretive, and plotting, and Duncan is completely unaware, and he trusts Macbeth who is the Thane of Cawdor.

And here's the example that we went through together.

Although both Duncan and Macbeth are presented as being capable of violence, only Macbeth is willing to use violence against his loyal allies.

Okay, let's move on with the third part of today's lesson.

The final part of today's lesson, King Duncan as a construct.

Now before we move on, I think it's really important that we actually clarify what the word construct means.

So all characters in literature are a construct, because a construct basically means something or someone that has been deliberately crafted by the author for a specific reason or message.

So we have to remember that every author, when they are writing their texts, when they're writing their novels, their plays, when they create a character, they're creating that character for a very specific reason, or a very specific message.

And every action that that character does is for a specific reason, or a specific message.

So for example, George Orwell uses a character of Boxer, the big workhorse, as a construct to explore the value of education.

So lots of the things that happen in Boxer story are all about making the reader think about how important it is for people to get a good quality of education.

Now arguably, there are three possible ways that Shakespeare uses King Duncan as a construct, and we're gonna explore all of them together now.

The first, we've started to touch upon as a foil to Macbeth.

The second is about as a warning about going against the natural order.

And the third is to legitimise the reign of King James I of England.

So we're gonna look at all three of those reasons in a bit more detail.

So firstly, King Duncan acts as a foil to Macbeth.

Alright, we started looking at this in our last activity, where we've been making comparisons between them, but that's what a foil is.

A foil is someone who is deliberately designed to be different, to contrast with a character, to highlight that character's flaws.

So we know Duncan is very generous with power, but we know that Macbeth commits terrible crimes to gain power.

So that's a real clear difference.

We know that King Duncan is nurturing and caring towards his allies, and we know that Macbeth is disloyal and betrays those who are closest to him.

So there's a very clear contrast in the way that Macbeth behaves when he's a leader in comparison to King Duncan as a leader.

That makes King Duncan a foil, he's used to highlight Macbeth's negative traits as a leader.

Now our second way that Duncan has been used as a construct is that his narrative arc, his storyline, from his death to his son replacing him on the throne, is a warning against defying the natural order.

And the natural order are the laws that we all believe that should be followed.

So let's use that, let's have a look at this as an example.

So the natural order for any king would be that when King Duncan died, his son Malcolm, would take the throne.

That's the natural order, the divine right of kings.

But we know that Macbeth defies the natural order.

He does this in two ways.

First of all, he kills the king, which shouldn't happen.

But secondly, he takes Malcolm's place on the throne.

He makes Malcolm flee to England, and he takes his place on the throne.

And that's defying breaking the natural order.

But we know by the end of the play, that the natural order is restored.

That means when when Macbeth dies, he's replaced on the throne by Malcolm.

And Malcolm is the person who should have been on the throne after King Duncan's death.

Now it's very easy for pupils to think that King Duncan, and Malcolm in particular, are not huge characters in Macbeth.

And once King Duncan dies, his story is over.

But what I'm gonna argue, is that actually, King Duncan's death and Malcolm's eventual return to the throne is a very clear warning from Shakespeare about defying the natural order.

Like I'll ask you this question, what happens if Malcolm didn't end up in the on the throne? What do you think, what message would be be given out to people about committing prejudice, about killing the king, about defying the natural order if Malcolm didn't end the play on the throne? And finally, the third way that King Duncan's has been used as a construct, is that his narrative arc is a construct that has been used to legitimise King James I's claim to the throne.

So to get our heads around that, we need to understand why some people felt King James didn't deserve to sit on the throne of England.

To understand that, I want us to think about something that I'm sure you'll have all heard of, which was the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

I want to think about these two questions.

Think about first of all, when Queen Elizabeth II died, how did many of the people in the country feel, and why did they feel like that? And secondly, I want you to imagine.

Imagine if Elizabeth's closest relative was actually, not Prince Charles, but the king of Norway.

How do you think some British people might feel about the king of Norway becoming the King of England? Pause your video, have a discussion and press play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, so we know that Queen Elizabeth reigned for a long, long time.

In fact, for most people in Britain, Queen Elizabeth was the only queen, the only monarch that'd ever lived under.

So when she died, there was a sense of unease, may be a bit of nervousness or worry about what would happen next, because everyone was so used to her being our monarch.

However, we didn't know that when Queen Elizabeth died, Prince Charles would become king, we've all known that for a long time, that was the order of succession.

However, if we imagine that Queen Elizabeth didn't have any children, and the next in line was actually the king of Norway, people might have had their concerns.

They might have worried that the king of Norway didn't know enough about Great Britain to step in and be our king.

Now I've asked you to think about this, because this is a very similar situation as what happened when King James I took the throne in England.

So to understand exactly why some people didn't feel that King James had a legitimate claim to the throne, we have to go back a step to his predecessor.

And that was Queen Elizabeth I.

Now she'd had a very long reign, was a fairly popular queen, so her death obviously shook the country anyway, but she also died childless in 1603, which meant there was no obvious successor to the throne.

And that had led to a bit of a succession crisis.

Elizabeth was cautious about naming an heir.

A lot of monarchs at the time would've been displaced if someone had been very keen to get on the throne.

So she was very kind of quiet about who she wanted to take over the throne.

But ultimately that person was, or ended up being King James VI of Scotland.

So why did people have concerns about him sitting on the throne? Well first he was raised a Protestant, as was Queen Elizabeth, but there were still many Catholics in the country, who would've preferred a Catholic king.

But he was also only very distantly related to Queen Elizabeth via Henry VIII's sister.

So Henry VIII was Queen Elizabeth's father, and she married King James I's great-grandfather.

So there was quite a distance in relation.

So nothing like King Charles taking over from Queen Elizabeth II where there was a very clear kind of step there.

And he was also currently reigning in Scotland.

So there were worries about whether he could kind of sit on the throne of two countries and run two countries well.

So pause for a minute, take a moment to reflect.

Why do you think then, why do you think King James I reign needed to be legitimised? Okay, we're gonna do a quick check for understanding, which of the following is not a way in which Duncan is used as a construct? So is he used as a warning against defying the natural order? Is Duncan used to legitimise the reign of King James I? Is Duncan used as a criticism of the monarchy? Is Duncan used as a foil to Macbeth? Which one is not correct? You are looking for one wrong answer.

Select your answer now.

Well done if you said as a criticism of the monarchy.

There's little evidence to suggest that Shakespeare is trying to criticise James or the monarchy in general.

Okay, now onto our final task of today's lesson, I want you to complete the table below.

I am gonna share with you three plot points, three moments for the play from the play, and I would like you to explain Shakespeare's purpose for including it.

So tell me why did he choose to add this plot point in the play? So the first one, why do you think we see Duncan rewarding Macbeth for his bravery? Why do you think Shakespeare showed that? Why do you think we see Macbeth secretly plotting for the crown? And why do you think we see at the end of the play, Macbeth being murdered, and Malcolm becoming king? So I want you to pause the video, have a go at completing this table and press play when you are ready to go through some feedback.

Okay? Let's go through some feedback.

I'm gonna share with you some ideas here, these are not the only correct answers, you may have slightly different answers, and that's okay.

If there are any answers that you see that I share with you, you can always add them to your table if you don't already have them.

So let's think about why might Shakespeare's show us Duncan reward Macbeth of his bravery.

Well, we know that Duncan is used to illustrate the qualities of a king that should- We know that Duncan is used to illustrate the qualities a king should possess.

So we see that leaders should be generous with their power.

And I think this acts as a subtle reminder to James I.

Look, Shakespeare really wants to legitimise James's reign, but he's also reminding him, come on, we expect our leaders to be generous with power.

So why does he show us Macbeth secretly plotting for the crown? Well, we know that Duncan is used as a foil to Macbeth.

So we know that Duncan is an honourable leader, so this is our first contrast to see the difference in them as characters.

But we also know that by the end of the play, Macbeth's gonna be punished.

So we want to see that Macbeth is being punished because he's done some terrible things.

There are consequences to poor behaviour.

And this, specifically consequences to treason, to betraying your king and country.

And this takes to the last point, Macbeth murder and Malcolm becoming king.

It shows us that actually when you take a ruthless approach to leadership, when you don't show loyalty to the people around you, you become isolated, and you become vulnerable.

And it's when Macbeth is isolated by the end of the play that he's able to be murdered by Macduff and Malcolm's army.

And also Macbeth's, sorry, Malcolm's ascension to the throne sees the natural order restored.

And we know that Shakespeare is warning his readers about defying the natural order.

So we've got to remember, King Duncan is more than just a character.

He is a construct, okay? And every decision that Shakespeare makes about him, his storyline, even after his death and the replacement of his son on the throne is all for a reason.

So let's take a moment to summarise everything that we have learned in today's lesson.

First of all, King Duncan is used as a foil to Macbeth.

He accentuates, he highlights Macbeth's flaws as a leader.

In Act one, Shakespeare uses the motif of nature to present Duncan as a caring leader.

Good leaders nurture and grow their subjects to inspire loyalty.

And we know that Macbeth's ruthless approach to kingship leaves him isolated and vulnerable, and this leads to his death.

Shakespeare uses Malcolm's rightful ascension, remember, Malcolm is the person who deserved, who should have been on the throne.

If we listen to the natural order, listen to the divine right of kings, it should have been Malcolm.

And Shakespeare uses Malcolm sitting on the throne at the end of the play as a warning to everyone, do not try to defy the natural order.

Thank you for joining us for today's lesson.

Remember, there is a quiz for you to have a go at, and to check your understanding, and I hope you join us for some other lessons in this unit.