Planning an analytical essay about Lady Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’
I can plan a well-structured and convincing analytical essay about how far Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a Machiavellian villain.
Planning an analytical essay about Lady Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’
I can plan a well-structured and convincing analytical essay about how far Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a Machiavellian villain.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Machiavellian is an adjective. It describes someone who gets what they want in cunning, ruthless and immoral ways.
- A thesis statement is a clear, overarching argument
- Topic sentences give focus to individual paragraphs
- Topic sentences should support the overarching thesis
- Identifying judicious supporting detail to include in each paragraph supports planning
Common misconception
Thesis and topic sentences are the same thing.
A thesis must be overarching. A topic sentence can be much more specific.
Keywords
Machiavellian - Machiavellian is an adjective. It describes someone who gets what they want in cunning, ruthless and immoral ways.
Thesis - A thesis is an argument, a powerful idea that you state at the beginning of an essay and prove throughout your essay.
Topic sentence - A topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph. It states the paragraph’s main idea.
Overarching - Your thesis should be overarching: it should be an idea that is supported by the whole text, not just one moment from the text.
Judicious - Judicious is a synonym for wise, well-chosen, sensible.
Equipment
You will need access to a copy of William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
- Depiction or discussion of serious crime
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).
Video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
Exit quiz
6 Questions
What is your overall thesis?
What were the writer's intentions?
What ideas are there around this concept in the play?
a powerful idea you prove throughout your essay
the first sentence of a paragraph which states its main idea
well-chosen evidence which supports the topic sentence
summary of paragraph with a focus on writer's purpose