<v Instructor>Hello and welcome to the final lesson in the Macbeth and Masculinity: the Struggle for Power Unit.

You have done such a fantastic job of wrestling with working through some really complex interpretations of "Macbeth" and today we are gonna write nuanced responses about the role of masculinity in "Macbeth." My name is Mr. Barnsley.

It's so great to see you all today.

Thank you for joining.

And by the end of today's lesson, by the end of this unit of work, you are going to be able to write an extended essay about the role of masculinity in "Macbeth." As ever, we have five keywords.

You will recognise all of these keywords.

These are keywords from across our unit but ones I really want to challenge you to use in your writing today.

These are construct, foil, chivalric code, patrilineal, and hamartia.

Let's just remind ourselves what all five of those words mean.

So a construct is something which has been carefully crafted by the author for a specific reason or message.

A foil is a character who contrasts with another to highlight their differences.

The chivalric code is an informal code of conduct that many men agreed to live by.

It included honest, honour, honesty, and loyalty.

A patrilineal society is based on lineage or bases its lineage or ancestry from the male descendants.

And hamartia is a character's fatal flaw.

So my challenge to all of you as you are writing later today, see if we can get all five of these keywords into our essays.

So our lesson has been broken down into three parts today.

We are gonna start by making sure we understand the question, we will then move on to planning our response, and by the end of the lesson, we will be writing a response.

So let's start by making sure we understand the question.

So let's dive straight in with understanding the question.

So starting with Act four, Scene three, explore how Shakespeare presents the importance of masculinity in "Macbeth." Now you know whenever we see an essay question, before we start trying to plan or trying to answer, we always need to annotate the question, make sure we completely understand what is being asked of us.

So at first we need to underline any key scenes if we've been given them.

And this one is Act four, Scene three.

So this tells us that we need to talk about Act four, Scene three, we need to talk about the characters in Act four, Scene three, but of course, we're gonna talk about other characters and other scenes in the play.

That word how is a reminder that we must be analysing language, form and structure, as well as talking about context in our response.

Now we've got a key theme here.

We've not been given a specific character that we need to focus on, although as I said, if we've been given a scene, we are gonna have to talk about the characters in that scene.

However, in any essay about Macbeth, even if the characters in the scene are not Macbeth, in this example they are Macduff and Malcolm, we are always gonna be trying to draw comparisons with Macbeth.

He is the protagonist, the antagonist, if you will, of this play and therefore if we get a question about other characters, we always want to bring it back to Macbeth.

So what kind of things should I be thinking about as I annotate a question? So what about this scene do I want to analyse? And are there any other scenes that immediately jump out to me, which I can make good comparisons between? So this is the scene where we see Macduff responding to the murder of the death of his family.

So what is it about that scene that I know I want to talk about in a question with regards to masculinity and which other scenes could I link that to? How.

There are some golden quotations or specific motifs that I will feel more confident talking about.

How many of those quotations, how many of those motifs apply to this question in front of me now? And which key characters or other ideas link to the theme of the question? So when I think of the word masculinity, what else jumps out to me? What do I want to make sure I am definitely talking about in a question about masculinity? Okay, let's do a quick check for understanding.

True or false, you should always annotate your exam question.

Make your choice, true or false, make your choice now.

That is of course true.

The best advice you can have, spend a couple of minutes just looking through an exam question and annotating it.

Okay, let's justify our answer.

Why is the answer true? Two suggestions, which is the best? A, it helps keep you focused on what you need to answer.

B, it's an opportunity to identify key characters, themes, language that link to the focus of the question.

Make your choice now.

Well done if you said B.

Both the answers are right, but B is a more well-rounded response.

It's a moment when you are answering an essay where you can put all of your thoughts down very quickly in relation to the question.

So always recommend annotating your exam question.

Right, so let's give it a go.

We are gonna annotate the question in front of us.

So starting with Act four, Scene three, explore how Shakespeare presents the importance of masculinity in "Macbeth." I pulled out the keywords that I think you should be annotating.

I would like you to pause the video and give yourself a few minutes to just jot down your initial thoughts.

What would you want to include in a question like this? Okay, well done for doing that task.

Let's have a little think about some of the things that we might have written down.

As ever, I'm gonna share some of my ideas.

These may be similar, these may be different to yours but if you want to add them to your own annotations, then you can.

So in Act four, Scene three, I'm really gonna focus about Macduff being in touch with his emotions.

I think that's a really interesting thing to talk about but also the fact that he's gonna fight for revenge, he's gonna fight for the honour of his family.

They are gonna be things that I talk about in Act four, Scene three.

But I know I am gonna be wanting to make some comparisons to Macbeth here.

So the scenes that I'm gonna compare these to are scenes that show Macbeth's own struggle with his masculinity.

So I'm gonna talk about Act one, Scene three and the prophecy around Banquo's son, that's really important when I talk about Macbeth's insecurities, that Banquo has a son, Macduff has a son, but he doesn't.

I'm also gonna talk about his emasculation, the way he's emasculated by Lady Macbeth.

I think that's important.

It's important to highlight kind of one step of his downfall.

And I'm also gonna talk about the cowardly murder of Duncan but I might also link this to the cowardly murder of both Banquo and Macduff's family.

So I think that's gonna be really important when I'm unpacking the differences between Macduff and Macbeth and the cowardly nature, the lack of valour, one of our four values of the chivalric code that Macbeth shows.

Now, well, I'm gonna talk about the motif of nature.

This is really important in highlighting Macbeth's own battle with his masculinity.

And also we know that Macduff kills Macbeth after Birnam Wood moves towards his castle.

So I think I'd like to bring in my knowledge and understanding of the motif of nature in this question.

I'm also gonna think about some quotations where Macbeth is emasculated because quotations that are useful around his masculinity, "Are you a man?" "Live a coward in thine own esteem." "Too full of the milk of human kindness." Some of those quotations that I've used probably in other essays about Lady Macbeth, they're gonna be useful here because they're gonna highlight how Macbeth is concerned about his masculinity.

So what do I really wanna talk about in an essay about masculinity? Well, this is forcing me to talk about Macduff.

That's great.

I want to talk about Macduff.

I want to talk about how he is a foil to Macbeth.

I want to talk about how Macduff is used as a construct.

He represents how an ideal Jacobean man should behave.

And so I can compare this to Macbeth and how he is presented but I want to use all of my new knowledge and understanding and interpretations of Macbeth's insecurities being based about his patrilineage, how this is his hamartia.

And I'm gonna tie these ideas into a comparison between Macduff and Macbeth.

Right.

So I've started to think now about what I want to include, the ideas that I have, the quotations that I know.

Now I need to start really formulating this into a fully planned response.

To do this, I am going to use a single paragraph outline.

We have used these previously in the scheme.

So I'm gonna spend a couple of minutes just reminding us of how we should use one of these to help plan a full essay.

We've looked at how we plan an individual paragraph.

Now we can use this to think about how we plan a full essay.

So first of all, we need our overarching thesis at the top.

This is our evaluative argument that really focus on Shakespeare's purpose.

This is the whole argument that we are gonna try and prove throughout our essay.

Our individual topic sentences are going to be the outline, the arguments of each of our individual paragraphs.

So we should be aiming in a good essay to have two to three individual more specific arguments that are all gonna feed in and help prove our thesis.

These are our topic sentences.

These should include key question vocabulary.

For each of my topic sentences, I'm gonna need some supporting detail that prove that.

That could be quotes that show language, I could talk about the form, structure or context that I might want to use that help prove my topic sentences.

My summary sentence is gonna be an argument that summarises each of my individual paragraphs.

This is gonna have a really sharp focus on the writer's purpose.

I'm always gonna be thinking about what is Shakespeare trying to tell us here.

And then my conclusion is my overarching summary of the author's message.

I'm really gonna focus in here in kind of the bigger picture of what Shakespeare is trying to tell us.

So let's do a check for understanding before we have a go at planning.

I would like you to match the section of the single paragraph outline to its function.

Pause the video.

This will take you a couple of minutes and press play when you are ready for the answers.

Okay, a thesis statement should outline your overarching argument for the whole essay.

It should have a sharp focus on the question and the author's intention.

A topic sentence should outline the argument for each of your paragraph.

This might be more specific than your thesis statement because your paragraph will focus on one element of the play rather than overarching.

Your summary sentence will summarise the argument that you've made in each paragraph.

So again, this will be more specific summary 'cause it's summarising a paragraph rather than a whole essay.

But you should have a real focus here on the author's purpose.

And finally, your conclusion will summarise the argument of your whole essay.

It will express a really clear final thought on what you think the writer's message is.

Okay, it is over to you.

Time for you to complete your planning grid.

I want you to think about what your overarching thesis is.

What is Shakespeare trying to say about masculinity? What comparisons is he trying to make between Macduff and Macbeth? Then you need to fill in your plan for each of your paragraphs, two to three topic sentences.

Remember, at least one of these is gonna focus on the scene so you may choose your first paragraph to focus more on Macduff and the way Macduff behaves in this scene, and then you may use your second paragraph, your second topic sentence to expand and make some comparisons to Macbeth.

Summary sentences, conclusions.

Summary sentences, make sure you're summarising individual arguments, conclusions, looking at the essay as a whole.

Pause your video, spend five to 10 minutes planning your response.

Press play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, I want us all to check our plans, see how we feel about them, make sure we've included as much detail as we're gonna need to help us write a really nuanced and detailed essay.

So I'd like you to use the coaching questions you can see on the screen to assess and improve the quality of your plan.

So think about do you have an interesting thesis which focuses on Shakespeare's intention? Does at least one of your topic sentences indicate you are gonna discuss the given scene, Act four, Scene three? Do both of your topic sentences support your thesis? Do you use a range of supporting detail from a variety of scenes, so quotes from throughout the text to support your arguments? Do you use context as part of your supporting detail? Do your summary sentences link back to the question? And is your conclusion focused on Shakespeare's message? Pause the video and just spend a couple of minutes reflecting on the quality of your plan.

Okay, we are now onto the final part of today's lesson, writing up our response.

We've already talked about how we can move our essays from a surface level understanding to a deeper analysis.

I want to do a quick reminder for you of that and then I'd like to think about what that looks like when we're analysing language or when we're discussing context.

So let's just focus on our argument at first.

We know if we want to do a really nice clear essay which shows a surface level understanding of the text, we need to make sure that we understand the text and we have a point of view, we have an opinion on it.

If we want to take that analysis deeper, then let's try and make sure our understanding is a little bit more nuanced.

We might have a more critical point of view, we might be offering alternative interpretations.

For surface level understanding, we're gonna make sure we have a very clear argument, a clear straightforward argument about what Shakespeare is saying about masculinity.

To dig deeper, we want to be more evaluative or critical.

So let's really try and dig into what is Shakespeare trying to say, what messages is he trying to tell us about how he expects Jacobean men to behave? For a surface level understanding, your argument must always show that you understand the plot, the storyline, the characters, and what Shakespeare is trying to say.

However, to dig deeper, you want to make sure whenever you're discussing plot and characters, you are doing this, you are saying how Shakespeare uses the plot, use the characters as a construct to explore a really central message.

So you need to have a razor-sharp focus on Shakespeare's purpose throughout your essay.

And finally, in a more surface level understanding, your ideas will show an understanding of the more conventional, the more widely accepted interpretations of the text.

Whereas if you are digging deeper, you will have your own interpretations and your arguments will centre around this.

You will be maybe looking at and have some analysis and have some ideas and interpretations that maybe not everyone would be using.

You'll certainly be using some of that tentative vocabulary, perhaps, may, maybe, might, arguably, to acknowledge that your own interpretation is not the only interpretation.

So what does it look like when we're using language or we're analysing language forms, structure or talking about context? How do we do this in a way that moves from surface level to deeper analysis? So for surface level understanding, you should be able to identify writer's language choices and you should be able to use accurate terminology.

But in deeper analysis, you are only selecting the language, you're only using the terminology that actually enhances your argument.

If you see a really nice simile in an extract, only talk about it if it's going to add to that kind of critical thesis that your whole argument is hanging off.

So for a surface level understanding, you don't just comment on language, we know we like analysing language in quotations, but you should be able to comment on form and/or structure.

Whereas in deeper analysis, your analysis of language, form and structure will be interwoven.

You will be analysing a quote, but you might also be talking about the language used in there, but you might also be saying why this was said as an aside.

So your analysis of language, form and structure shall be linked to each other.

For surface level understanding, your comments will focus on the effect of the language, form and structure so you're not just identifying it, you should always be saying why Shakespeare has used it.

And in your deeper analysis you will be doing that, but you will be making sure that every comment you make is being linked tightly to your overarching argument.

You're not just gonna analyse a simile 'cause it's a nice exciting simile, that simile must be saying something that links to your overarching argument.

And finally, in regards to context, for a nice clear surface level understanding, an essay that shows a really clear surface level understanding, your use of context is appropriate.

You will avoid trying to use general comments and you'll make sure your context supports your analysis.

You're not gonna just do a little paragraph at the end explaining what life was like in the Jacobean era, explaining what life was like in the 11th century Gaelic era.

All of that context will be within your analysis.

However, for deeper analysis, your choice of context should be highly selective.

Again, you are only using your context or you will use your context, sorry, to evaluate different interpretations.

So you will use your context to think about why a Shakespearean audience may have responded in certain ways.

And of course, as always, your context should be selected to support your overarching argument.

Right, let's check you understand what we are looking for in an essay that is gonna contain deeper analysis.

So three things, I would like you to select two criteria that you would expect to see in a response containing deeper analysis.

A, interwoven analysis of language, form, and structure.

B, your use of contextual information is appropriate.

C, your use of contextual information is highly selective and linked tightly to two arguments.

Select the two criteria you'd expect to see in a deeper analysis now.

Congratulations if you said A and C.

A, we want see interwoven analysis of language, form and structure, but B and C were very similar, both talking about contextual information but for a deeper analysis it needs to be highly selected and linked tightly to your argument.

Right, I think you are ready to start writing your response to the essay question.

Starting with Act four, Scene three, explore how Shakespeare presents the importance of masculinity in "Macbeth." As you're writing a full essay, I've got a detailed success criteria for you here.

So I'd like to you to include an introduction with an interesting thesis, at least two analytical paragraphs which have clear topic sentences.

I'd like to see judicious use of embedded quotations.

I would like analysis of language, form and structure, all of which is tightly focused to your argument.

And I would like you to make sure that your context that you're using is interwoven throughout with a sharp focus on Shakespeare's purpose.

And finally, your conclusion should summarise Shakespeare's overall message.

I want you to pause this video, give yourself plenty of time to write and press play when you are ready for some reflective feedback.

Okay, well done everybody.

Relax.

Breathe in, breathe out.

You have just written an essay, which I hope is one of the best essays that you've written, that you can feel really confident that you've used some of this really complex knowledge and understanding that we've been working through during this unit and you've managed to include a lot of that in your response today.

So we're gonna have a moment of self-reflection now.

We're gonna reread our essay and we're gonna identify where we have managed to hit the success criteria.

And if we haven't, we're just gonna make a note of it and think, "Okay, in my next essay I'm gonna try and include that." So in your response, where have you included an introduction with an interesting and critical thesis? Where have you used clear topic sentences? Where have you offered inferences which showed a nuanced understanding of the text? Where have you used embedded quotations judiciously? Where have you included analysis of language, form and structure, which is tightly focused on your argument? Where have you used subject terminology to enhance your argument? Where have you interwoven your analysis of language, form and structure? Where have you interwoven context with a sharp focus on Shakespeare's message? And where have you included a conclusion which summarises your thesis and has a sharp focus on Shakespeare's message? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to reflect on the essay that you have written.

Well, that's it.

You've completed the final lesson in the unit Macbeth and Masculinity: the Struggle for Power.

And in this lesson you've been writing about the role of masculinity in "Macbeth." I'm incredibly proud of you.

This has been a really challenging unit of work and we have discussed some really complex ideas and interpretations.

And hopefully now you have got an essay that you can use ideas from in future work that you might do or future questions that you might answer on "Macbeth." Let's have a quick summary on what we have done today.

An essay should have a strong and central argument.

You must try and use an evaluative or critical thesis to hang your essay on and you should support your thesis with clear topic sentences.

Analysis of language, form and structure should be interwoven and it should be used to support each other.

And any context that you use should be highly selective and used to add to your argument.

Essays should always focus on a writer's message.

The conclusion is an opportunity to summarise this.

Well, well done everyone.

I'm really pleased with the work that you put in over this unit.

Make sure you do that final exit quiz to check your understanding of today's lesson.

Really well done.

Thank you for joining me.

Goodbye.