Hello and welcome to our next lesson in the unit, Macbeth and Masculinity: The Struggle for Power.

Today's lesson is called Macbeth's Lack of a Male Heir.

My name is Mr. Barnsley.

It's great to see you all again today.

Thank you for joining us.

And by the end of today's lesson, I'm really excited that we will be able to explain how Macbeth's lack of a male heir fuels his behaviour.

So we're really gonna start to think of some more nuanced, complex reasons behind why Macbeth behaves the way that he does.

So let's look at five keywords that will come up in today's lesson.

They are patrilineal, hereditary, patriarchal, masculinity, and insecurities.

Some tricky words there.

Let's find out what they mean.

So a patrilineal society bases lineage or ancestry from the male descendants.

Basically, it's all about passing titles, names, lineage, money, wealth down the male side of the family.

Hereditary means the passing on of traits, or titles, or rights from parents to their children.

A patriarchal society is one that is being created for and is controlled by men.

Now, masculinity is probably a word you recognise, but it's something, it's an idea that's built around qualities that are regarded as characteristic of men or boys.

And if you are uncertain or unsure about yourself, you can be described as having insecurities.

All of these words are gonna be really important for us kind of understanding the impact of Macbeth not having a male heir.

So three parts to today's lesson.

First of all, we're gonna get a little bit of a more detailed understanding of patrilineal and patriarchal societies.

We are then gonna look at Macbeth and the motif of nature.

And we are gonna finish the lesson by writing some really top quality topic sentences about Macbeth's patrilineage.

So we're gonna start by looking at patrilineal and patriarchal societies.

These are two complex keywords and I really want to make sure we totally understand what we are talking about here.

So it's really important that we understand that both Jacobean and 11th century Gaelic societies were patriarchal.

So both the societies in which the play was set, and when the play was written, they were patriarchal societies.

These mean they were societies designed for and run by men.

It's also important that we know that hereditary power was passed on through the patrilineal line.

Now, that's a bit more complex.

So let's have a look and try and understand what that actually means.

So let's imagine there is a father with three children.

He has an oldest daughter, a son in the middle, and a youngest daughter.

When he dies, he is going to pass on his wealth, his titles, and his rights.

This is his hereditary power that he is passing on.

But in a patriarchal patrilineal society, all of this will go to the son.

Whether he's the oldest, middle child, youngest, it's going to go to the son.

That's really important for us to know.

Let's bear that in mind.

Right, I want to do some checks for understanding here.

Let's check we understand what these keyword mean.

So which of the following words means a society designed for and controlled by men? Is that a patrilineal society, a patriarchal society, or a hereditary society? Make your choice.

Congratulations if you said B, that is a patriarchal society.

Now, which of the following words means a society where wealth, titles, and rights are passed between male descendants? The key word there being male descendants.

Is that a patrilineal society, a patriarchal society, a hereditary society? Make your choice now.

Congratulations if you said patrilineal society.

Hereditary society is the act of passing wealth and rights and titles, but if they are solely being kept between male descendants, then we would call it a patrilineal society.

Okay, our first task is to try and make sure we're getting our head around these ideas.

We're gonna have a discussion.

So I want you to start with your quick thoughts, as ever.

Just get some ideas out there.

How might living in a patriarchal patrilineal society have impacted on Macbeth's behaviour? So he lives in a society where it is really important that you can pass your wealth and your titles down to your male son, but Macbeth doesn't have one.

So how might this impact his behaviour? Pause the video.

Let's have a quick two minutes.

Share some very quick ideas and press Play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, some great ideas I could hear there.

Now, let's try and formalise them.

So I'm gonna share with you a discussion grid which is going to challenge you to put these ideas in a more kind of formal way.

So three things that I'm gonna challenge you to do.

The first is to use conjunctions to justify your ideas.

So when you've got a good idea, make sure you're using words such as because, as, but, yet, however, so, therefore, to justify your ideas and your inferences.

So Macbeth has no male heir, therefore his power is limited to his lifetime.

He cannot pass his power on.

This fuels has his ambition.

Illustrate your point with evidence.

So make sure you are either making reference to the text or using quotations to illustrate your points and justify your ideas.

You can use phrases like, for example, namely, specifically to do that.

So specifically, he obsesses over Banquo's prophecies, convincing himself he will be betrayed by his ally.

So the fact that Banquo has a male heir and this person, his male heir, Fleance, has been promised that he will be king.

This makes Macbeth obsessed with the idea that Banquo will betray him.

And finally, I want you to use comparative conjunctions to compare characters.

So use words like contrastingly, similarly, on the other hand, so contrastingly, Banquo rejects the prophecies, perhaps more secure in his own patrilineage.

So we know that Banquo doesn't feel as strongly about the prophecies as Macbeth does, but maybe that's because he is secure.

He has a male heir, he has someone to pass his titles to, and he knows that his male heirs have been promised the throne.

So he doesn't need to behave in the way that Macbeth does.

Okay, I want you to pause the video now and you're gonna have five minutes to start formalising these ideas that we've already had.

I want you to press Play when you are ready to collect these ideas and collate these ideas and share these ideas.

Well done.

Really, really tricky topic here and some complex keywords that we are trying to use.

So fantastic to hear you all giving that discussion a go.

What I would like to do now is collect some of the ideas that might have been discussed.

If you haven't kind of made a note of these ideas and they come up now, it might be worthwhile doing so.

So let's think about Macbeth and patrilineage, his lack of male heir.

We know that Macbeth is one of the only main characters, or is the only main character without a male heir.

Duncan has Malcolm, Banquo has Fleance, and Macduff has his own children, as we are aware of.

So Macbeth, in comparison to all of the other male characters, does not have this male heir.

He may have had one.

This is important for us to to remember that actually, in Act 1, Scene 7, lady Macbeth says, "I have given suck," which suggests that she has at one point breastfed a child.

So we know they do not have any children now.

So we could infer that the Macbeths did have a child who maybe died in infancy.

We know that was fairly common for kind of babies to not live through the whole of their infancy and grow into young adults, grow into adults.

So maybe Macbeth has once had a child, but he does not have any any more.

And we know that his paranoia, once he becomes king, is fueled by the witches' prophecy that Fleance will become king.

This leads him to behave in some kind of disloyal and treacherous ways towards his ally, but perhaps more than just this, it's a reminder that he does not have a male heir of his own.

And this leaves him painfully insecure because he knows there are limitations of his own power.

When he dies, his power, his titles, his wealth will die with him.

And perhaps this is what makes him behave in such an irrational way.

And he takes such extreme measures to protect his power once he's on the throne.

And we could even go so far to say that maybe these insecurities he feels about not having a male heir and in some ways maybe feeling like he is not a real man like Duncan and Banquo and Macduff are.

Perhaps these fuel him to behave in a hyper-masculine way, like a really exaggerated, over the top version of what he feels like a man should be.

So kind of men might have been expected to be violent and powerful and ambitious at the time, but we see Macbeth is kind of all of these things times a hundred.

He's incredibly violent, he's desperate for power, and he's super overly ambitious.

Maybe this is his hyper-masculinity to hide the insecurities he feels because he does not have a male heir.

Okay, let's move on to the second part of today's lesson.

We're gonna look at Macbeth and the motif of nature.

Now, this shouldn't be the first time you've talked about the motif of nature with regards to Macbeth.

In fact, we know early on in the play, Duncan brings the motif of nature to the foreground.

He talks about how he wants to plant and grow Macbeth and Banquo.

And so we've seen, or we might have talked about the motif of nature when we talk about what it means to be a good king, to have patience and to want to grow your allies.

But it's really important with any motif that we can track the motif, we can see how it starts and changes and grows across the course of a play or a text.

So I want us to do that with the motif of nature today.

So I want us to start in Act 1, Scene 3.

And I think it's really important that when we think about the motif of nature, we're gonna think about it in the context of kingship and being a father.

So it's really important that we recognise that the prophecies, the witches' prophecies at the beginning of the play, they draw a crucial distinction between Macbeth and Banquo and a distinction between being a king like Macbeth and being a father like Banquo.

And even early on we see that Banquo's name will last through a line of kings.

His sons, plural, will be kings.

And there is a distinction there about which is potentially the most impressive, the most important.

Is it to be king or is it being a father? And we see this repeated in Act 3, Scene 1, where Banquo actually says that he shall be the root and the father of many kings.

So why, while he himself may not grow into the oak tree, the regal tree that represents kind of the crown and the throne.

He's the root that will help many kind of further trees grow.

And as a result, he does not feel that he needs to ruthlessly pursue the crown in the way that Macbeth does.

And in this same scene, even though Macbeth has got the crown, he's the king of Scotland, he surely should have everything that he wants.

We see him lament, kind of complain about the fact that he has a fruitless crown and a barren sceptre.

So his crown being the thing that he wears on his head and the the sceptre being the stick that he holds that are symbols of being a king, but his crown is fruitless.

His tree bears no fruit, except it is barren.

Land that is barren means things cannot grow there.

Both of these things perhaps referring to the fact that he has no son, he has grown, he has produced no male heir to pass this crown and this sceptre to, and this is cruelly reminded to Macbeth in Act 4, Scene 1 when he revisits the witches to hear their prophecies, they show him apparitions, visions.

And the third is a child wearing a crown holding a tree in his hand.

And perhaps this tree represents Macbeth's family tree, or lack of family tree.

And this image is a cruel reminder that his patrilineage, his patrilineal line stops with him.

He has no one to pass his crown to.

And it's these witches' prophecies that make Macbeth feel undefeatable.

They cannot be beaten.

Yet, there is irony here that it is the movement of Birnam wood, the trees move forward and they signify Macbeth's death.

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

I have got two moments from the play where the motif of nature is used.

I would like you to match that quotation to the corresponding logical inference.

Basically, what is the motif of nature showing us? Pause the video, take a couple of moments to do that and press Play when you are ready for the response.

Okay, well done for giving that a go.

Let's have a look.

So during Act 3, Scene 1, Macbeth laments his fruitless crown and his barren sceptor.

What could we say about this? Well, we could say that this is a representation of Macbeth's lack of patrilineage and Macbeth's lack of patrilineage highlights the finite nature of his power.

Finite means there is an ending point.

This also heightens the paranoia he feels towards Banquo and his son because he knows his power will end, but Banquo has been promised power and the throne through his sons forevermore.

So when Banquo states that he should be the roots and father of many kings, we see that Banquo actually values family and fatherhood over a ruthless pursuit for the crown.

Right, we're gonna put these ideas into action by completing the following sentences about Shakespeare's use of the motif of nature.

So I've given you the start of each sentence and I would like you to finish them for me.

So sentence A, at first, Shakespeare introduces the motif of nature through the character of Duncan, who compares Macbeth to a plant that he will labour and grow.

Here, the image of the tree is used to.

B, later in Act 3, Scene 1, Shakespeare continues the use of plant imagery when Banquo states that he should be the root and father of many kings.

Shakespeare uses the motif to.

C, contrastingly, in the same scene, Macbeth laments his fruitless crown and barren sceptre, illustrating.

And D, Macbeth's misery is compounded when he visits the witches again, who show an apparition of a child crowned with a tree in his hand.

Perhaps this signifies.

Pause the video and take the time you need to complete these four sentences.

Press Play when you are ready for some feedback.

Okay, well done for giving that a go.

Let's have a look at some of the responses we could have used.

It's important for us to remember here that there are many different ways we could complete these sentences.

These are just some suggestions.

So at first, Shakespeare introduces the motif of nature through the character of Duncan, who compares Macbeth to a plant that he will labour and grow.

Here, the image of the tree is used to represent the opportunity that power and nobility affords.

So the tree is a symbol of opportunity.

B, later in Act 3, Scene 1, Shakespeare continues the use of plant imagery when Banquo states that he will be the root and father of many kings, Shakespeare uses the motif to illustrate how Banquo appreciates his value in being a father and does not need to ruthlessly pursue the crown, unlike Macbeth.

Brilliant if you've got anything around the importance of being a father and how important that is to Banquo.

That is something that Macbeth cannot or does not feel.

C, contrastingly, in the same scene, Macbeth laments his fruitless crown and barren sceptre, illustrating his despair at his lack of male heir, exposing the finite nature of the power he so mercilessly sought.

So what we're saying here is he was so desperate to be king, so desperate to prove to his wife that he could be powerful that when he got there, he didn't feel fulfilled because ultimately, he had no male heir to pass the throne to.

And finally, D, Macbeth's misery is compounded when he visits the witches again, who show an apparition of a child crowned with a tree in his hand.

Perhaps this signifies Macbeth's lack of patrilineage, which heightens his insecurities regarding his masculinity.

So we can see the connection between some of our key words there.

The fact that Macbeth does not have a male heir, does not have someone to pass the crown to, this makes him feel more insecure about his masculinity.

Is he as much of a man as some of the other characters in the play, Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff? Okay, let's move on to the final part of our lesson.

We are gonna write some topic sentences about Macbeth's patrilineage.

So let's start and imagine we've been asked to write an essay about Macbeth's ambition and we want to talk about when he revisits the witches.

I want you to decide which of the following is the more successful topic sentence.

Is it the first, Macbeth revisits the witches who show him an apparition of a child in a crown holding a tree? Or is it the second, in Act 4, Scene 1, an increasingly isolated Macbeth revisits the witches, desperate to hear more prophecies.

Shakespeare utilises an apparition of a child in a crown holding a tree to illustrate how Macbeth's lack of a male heir is fueling his tyrannical and desperate behaviour.

Pause the video, have a quick one minute discussion, which is better and why? Press play when you're ready to continue.

Some great discussions there.

Well done for everyone who identified two, the second topic sentence as being the more successful one.

Let's have a think about why, why this topic sentence is more successful.

So, firstly, I really like this topic sentence because it use a marker to indicate which part of the play is being analysed.

Okay, this could be exact act and scene numbers.

It could just be at the beginning of the play after Duncan's murder.

But what it is doing is telling me, or telling anyone reading your essay, it gives them an indication of where, you know, what you're about to analyse.

And this is further supported by a very brief contextualization of the scene.

I'm not gonna spend two or three sentences retelling what happens in the play at this point, but I'm gonna just explain the important parts of what happened in the scene and actually why it's important to what I'm gonna analyse.

So I picked out here that Macbeth is revisiting the witches, desperate to hear more prophecies.

And actually, that desperation is gonna be a really important part of my argument.

I also really like this topic sentence 'cause it focuses on the author and their purpose.

It says that, yes, I'm gonna be talking about Macbeth and the witches, but ultimately, every time I am analysing a play, I'm really focusing on what the author is trying to tell me, the audience.

And that means that my topic sentence will have a really clear focus.

It says this paragraph is gonna focus on something really specific.

And here, I really wanna talk about how this scene between Macbeth and the witches can illustrate how Macbeth not having a male son, not having a male heir fuels his tyrannical, his power hungry, his desperate behaviour.

So all in all, this is a really successful topic sentence.

So let's have another go.

I'm gonna have a go at writing one for Act 3, Scene 1.

So this is the scene where Banquo and Macbeth are talking, or are using the motif of nature to talk about their very different feelings at the time.

So here's my example.

In Act 3, Scene 1, I've used a marker to tell you what I'm talking about.

During a soliloquy, Macbeth discloses that Banquo, his loyal friend and ally, is the only man he fears in Scotland.

So I'm giving you some context about what happens in Act 3, Scene 1.

Macbeth is talking to himself, a soliloquy, and he says out loud for the audience's benefit, not for Banquo's, that he doesn't trust Banquo.

Shakespeare utilises the reoccurring motif of nature to demonstrate how Macbeth's lack of patrilineage leads to him committing acts of treachery.

So in this paragraph, I am gonna be really focused on how we use the motif of nature to highlight Macbeth's lack of patrilineage, how that highlights the insecurities he feels about not having a male son, and how that leads to him committing acts of treachery, in this case betraying his loyal ally Banquo.

So this topic sentence uses markers, gives context, focus on Shakespeare, and has a clear argument.

Why don't you give it a go? Make sure that you use a market to identify which scene you are discussing, briefly contextualise what's happening in the scene, and make sure you have a clear argument.

Okay, I want you to focus this on Act 3, Scene 1, just like I have.

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

Okay, we are now going to imagine that we are tackling this question, starting with Act 1, Scene 3, explore how Shakespeare presents Macbeth as an ambitious character.

I also want us to imagine we've already written the introduction and as part of our introduction, we created our thesis statement, which was an overarching argument.

So it means that a whole essay is gonna be trying to prove this.

And we are gonna try and prove that by portraying Macbeth as a ruthlessly ambitious character driven to betray his closest allies, Shakespeare exposes the dangers of going against a system of patriarchal descent.

So we want to basically say that Shakespeare is using Macbeth's downfall to warn against betraying the natural order and committing terrible crimes.

What I would like you to do is create three topic sentences that can be used in this essay.

Each topic sentence must cover Act 1, Scene 3, and a range of other scenes.

So at least one of your topic sentences should be about Act 1 Scene 3, the others can be about different scenes.

I want you to make sure that all of your topic sentences are focused on that word ambition.

And I want to challenge you to see if you can try and have a really sharp focus on patrilineage and male heir.

So think about the relationship between Macbeth's lack of male heir and his ruthless ambition.

I want you to pause the video now and give yourself the time that you need to write three topic sentences.

When you are ready, press Play and we'll do some self-reflection.

Okay, well done.

Really challenging task there, but I have no doubt you've given that a really good go.

We're gonna take some moments in our self-reflect on the topic sentences we've rewritten.

So we're gonna reread our work and we're gonna assess it by identifying the following.

Where do our topic sentences cover different sections of the play? Where do we use markers to indicate which part of the play we're analysing? Where do we contextualise the scenes we're talking about? Where do we focus our argument on Shakespeare and his purpose, and where do we address keywords from the questions, so Macbeth and ambition? Pause, take two minutes to reread over your work and assess whether you have managed to hit the success criteria.

Final task for today, we are gonna take one of our three topic sentences and we are gonna turn it into a plan.

We're gonna use a single paragraph outline to plan what we would write in that paragraph.

So you've got your topic sentence, you've already written that, so you can put that at the top of your plan.

And then remember, in supporting details, we're looking for language, form, structure, context, any ideas that you think are gonna help prove that topic sentence, prove your argument is true.

And then there's a summary sentence, let's take that back.

Let's have a final sentence that focuses on Shakespeare's purpose.

Pause the video and spend five minutes turning one of your topic sentences into a plan.

Okay, we are going to just spend a couple of minutes now assessing our plan, just making sure that this is a really good quality plan.

Practising planning is such an important skill when it comes to writing essays.

So reread your plan and identify the following.

Can you identify where you have used appropriate supporting evidence from the select scene to support your topic sentence? Can you find any evidence where you might have used evidence from across the text to support your topic sentence? So remember, yes, you might be talking about a specific scene, but you might also use evidence from elsewhere in the play to help prove the argument.

Think about where you've used appropriate context to support your topic sentence, and where have you indicated whether you'll use form and/or structure to support that topic sentence? I want to show you a quick example of what a really good plan could look like.

So my topic sentence in Act 3, scene 1, during a soliloquy, Macbeth discloses that Banquo is the only man he fears thwarting his ambitious plans.

Shakespeare utilises the reoccurring motif of nature to demonstrate how Macbeth's lack of patrilineage leads him to act in increasingly ruthless ways towards his allies.

What supporting details would I use to support this? Well, I'd use Banquo's root and father of many kings, this creates paranoia, Banquo is a threat.

I will use fruitless crown and barren sceptre.

These are metaphors that suggest Macbeth will not have a male heir.

And I will also use some context.

In a patrilineal society, Macbeth's lack of male heir reminds him of his finite power.

Macbeth's insecurities lead to an overly ambitious nature.

And my summary, indeed, Macbeth's ambition to hold onto power is fueled by his jealousy and paranoia towards Banquo's patrilineage.

That plan is gonna create a fantastic, really nuanced, interesting paragraph.

Okay, we have reached the end of today's lesson.

You have done a brilliant job on a really, really complex topic.

It's so impressive to see how your understanding of Macbeth is developing.

So let's have a quick summary of what we have learned today.

So in both Jacobean and 11th century Gaelic societies, they were patriarchal.

They were based on hereditary power, passing wealth and titles from father to son.

And we know Macbeth is the only character, or the only main character in the play without a male heir.

He lacks a patrilineal line to pass his titles and the crown onto.

We know he has insecurities.

These are surrounding his patrilineage.

And these fuel both his ambition and his treacherous behaviour, and we know in particular it's the witches' prophecies for Banquo that highlight that Macbeth's own power is finite.

There's a finite nature, there's an end point to it.

And that drives him to betray Banquo, his closest ally.

And throughout the play, Shakespeare uses the motif of nature to illustrate Macbeth's lack of control over his own destiny.

Well done today.

You've been brilliant.

I hope you do the quiz.

Make sure you do the quiz.

Challenge yourself to do the end of lesson quiz to make sure you've understood these complex ideas.

And I look forward to you picking up our next lesson sometime soon.

Well done and see you all soon.