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PICTURE STORY - PHRASES FOR ADVANCED STUDENTS

1. Macbeth and Banquo are riding home on horseback in a thunderstorm after fighting courageously against Norway. Suddenly from out of the darkness the men see three witches. The witches greet Macbeth as Thane (Lord) of Cawdor and King. They also tell Banquo that one day his sons will be kings. 2. A messenger from the king arrives and informs Macbeth that the King has made him Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth goes to the Kings palace. The King welcomes him and tells him he wants to visit Macbeths castle in Inverness. Macbeth writes a letter to his wife, Lady Macbeth telling her about the three witches and the Kings wish to visit their castle in Inverness. Lady Macbeth reads the letter and has an evil idea to kill Duncan while he is a guest at her house. 3. When Macduff escapes to England Macbeth decides to kill every member of Macduffs family. In the King of Englands palace Macduff describes the horrors of Macbeths reign. Ross arrives with news of the massacre of the Macduff family. After Macduff has expressed his grief it is agreed that the time has arrived for the attack on Macbeth. 4. Lady Macbeth and her husband organise a feast in their castle. As they welcome the guests one of the murderers arrives and tells Macbeth of the death of Banquo and the escape of Flance. Macbeth turns back to the table and comments on Banquos absence. Banquos ghost enters and occupies Macbeths place; he is visible only to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth tries to calm her husband and keep control of the situation but after the ghost has disappeared and Macbeth seems once more calm, suddenly, again on Macbeths mentioning his name, Banquos ghost reappears and Macbeth is again helpless. 5. Later that night Lady Macbeth and Macbeth wait until all the guests go to bed. Macbeth is waiting for a signal from his wife when he sees a dagger. He tries to take it in his hand but cannot. He tries to concentrate on the murder and hears the signal from Lady Macbeth who has drugged Duncans servants and is waiting for her husband to return from murdering Duncan.. Macbeth enters in deep shock by what he has done. 6. The army organised against Macbeth is ordered by Malcolm to cut branches from Birnam Wood to disguise the number of soldiers. They march towards Dunsinane Castle. A messenger arrives with the news that Birnam Wood is approaching Dunsinane. Outside the castle the battle commences. Macbeth is surrounded but decides to die fighting. Macduff confronts Macbeth. As they prepare to fight Macbeth claims that he is invincible but Macduff informs him that he was not born to his mother in the usual way and in the fighting Macduff kills Macbeth. When Macduff brings Macbeths head in front of the army Malcolm is made the new king and promises to bring peace and order back to Scotland. 7. In Dunsinane castle a doctor and Lady Macbeths personal assistant are watching to see if Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep as her servant has reported to the doctor. She enters and begins to rub her hands as if struggling to clean them and before she departs she refers to the deaths of Duncan, Macduffs wife and Banquo. The doctor confesses that he cannot help in such cases. 8. Macbeth makes arrangements to have Banquo and his son killed. Banquo is suspicious about how the witches prophecies for Macbeth have come true. Macbeth remembers the witches predictions for Banquos sons. When Banquo leaves the castle Macbeth organises his murder and the murder of Flance by two villains. However the plan is only half successful as Flance escapes. Page P3 Macbeth teachers material
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Activity 11 Witches drama activity PART 01

Group A: I come, Graymalkin! When shall we three meet again? Where the place? Fair is foul filthy air In thunder Group C: In rain When the battles lost and won Graymalkin Upon the heath foul is fair filthy air Group E: Graymalkin Paddock foul lost done Macbeth Group B : When the hurlyburlys done There to meet with Macbeth Hover through the fog lightning Paddock calls Anon. Group D: set of sun meet with Macbeth lost and won hover through the fog hurlyburly meet with Macbeth

PART 02
1 When shall we three meet again ? 2 When the hurlyburlys done 3 When the battles lost and won, 4 That will be ere set of sun 5 Where the place?

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Activity 12 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth - a split dialogue

LADY MACBETH This is a sorry sight One cried God bless us! I could not say Amen. Amen stuck in my throat. Macbeth does murder sleep Macbeth shall sleep no more! I am afraid to think what I have done; Ill go no more; I dare not. every noise appals me wash this blood Clean from my hand MACBETH A foolish thought to say a sorry sight Consider it not so deeply These deeds must not be thought. After these ways: What do you mean? You do unbend your noble strength, to think so brainsickly wash this filthy witness from your hand. Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. I shame to wear a heart so white A little water clears us of this deed

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Activity 14 Macbeths Final Speech

The extract below is taken from Act V, Scene 5 when Macbeth is alone. Macduff and Malcolm are leading an army towards Macbeths castle, Macbeths Lords have deserted him to support Malcolm and Lady Macbeth has killed herself. In the final battle, when Macbeth is killed by Macduff, Malcolm is crowned King of Scotland and law and order is re-established. Macbeth, after hearing of Lady Macbeths suicide, speaks his last great speech before the final battle. She should have died hereafter: There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this pretty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Lifes but a walking shadow; a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

10

1. After the death of his wife, Macbeth expresses all his weariness. Which words show the inevitability of death? 2. Three metaphors have been used to describe life. What are they? a) b) c). 3. Which word (s) express (es) what these images have in common? falsity nothingness light futility purity ugliness

4. In this passage Macbeth seems to be indifferent to his wifes death. He seems to search for a significance of life but he only evokes a world of meaningless repetition. Time has no sense because he rejected those values that make the meaning of life: love, friendship, service. His will has chosen evil and the consequence is chaos and abnegation of meaning. This evil choice can only lead to nothingness. 5. Do you think that this view of life can apply to our time? 6. Think of any examples that can confirm or contradict Macbeths words and discuss with the class.

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Activity 16 Shakespeares life - gapfill.

Place the following words in the gaps provided:

rival, Renaissance, died, act, documents, summarised, private, plays, mentioned, playwright, dramatists, house, married, learned, Latin, eighteen, twins, mystery, popular, years, John, central
There are no personal records of Shakespeares life. Official 1)______________and occasional references to him by contemporary 2) ______________enable us to draw the main outline of his public life, but his 3)______________life remains hidden. Although not at all unusual for a writer of his time, this lack of first-hand evidence has tempted many to read his 4)______________as personal records and to look in them for clues to his character and convictions. The results are unconvincing, partly because 5)______________art was not subjective or designed primarily to express its creators personality, and partly because the drama of any period is very difficult to read biographically. What we do know can be 6)______________very quickly. Shakespeare was born into a well-to-do family in the market town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, 7)______________England, where he was baptised, in Holy Trinity Church, on 26 April 1564. His father, 8)______________ Shakespeare, was a prosperous glover and leather merchant who became a person of some importance in the town: in 1565 he was elected an alderman (councillor), and in 1568 he became high bailiff (or mayor) of Stratford. In 1557 he had 9)______________Mary Arden. Their third child (of eight) and eldest son, William, 10)______________to read and write at the primary (or petty) school in Stratford and then, it seems probable, attended the local grammar school, where he would have studied 11)______________, history, logic and rhetoric. In November 1582 William, then aged 12)______________, married Anne Hathaway, who was twenty-six years old. They had a daughter, Susanna, in May 1583, and 13)______________, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585. Shakespeare next appears in the historical record in 1592 when he was 14)______________ as a London actor and playwright in a pamphlet by the dramatist Robert Greene. These lost years 1585-92 have been the subject of much speculation, but how they were occupied remains as much a 15)______________ as when Shakespeare left Stratford, and why. In his pamphlet, Greene expresses to his fellow dramatists his outrage that the upstart crow Shakespeare has the impudence to believe he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you. To have aroused this hostility from a 16)______________, Shakespeare must, by 1592, have been long enough in London to have made a name for himself as a 17)______________ We may suppose that he had left Stratford in 1586 or 1587. During the next 20 18)______________, Shakespeare continued to live in London, regularly visiting his wife and family in Stratford. He continued to 19)______________, but his chief fame was as a dramatist. From 1594 he wrote exclusively for the Lord Chamberlains Men, which rapidly became the leading dramatic company and from 1603 enjoyed the patronage of James I as the Kings Men. His plays were extremely 20)______________ and he became a shareholder in his theatre company. He was able to buy lands around Stratford and a large 21)______________in the town, to which he retired about 1611. He 22)______________on 23 April 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church on 25 April.

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Activity 17 The Globe Theatre - gapfill exercise

Using these words, fill in the gaps in the text Thames / scenery / 1599 / sunlight / see / gods / freely / gentlemen / actresses / buildings / roof / broken / spark / excavation / Puritans / entered / stadium / exited / imaginations Todays theatres are comfortable 1)______________ with seats for all the audience, and powerful electric lighting to illuminate the actors performing on stage. Often there is complicated 2)______________ made of wood or cloth, representing walls, trees and so on, to give the impression of indoor or outdoor scenes. In Shakespeares day, theatres were very different. The central part had no 3) ______________ . As there was no electricity to light the theatres they had to depend on 4)______________ The central, open-air part contained the stage and a yard. Many of the audience stood in the yard in front of the stage. The stage was raised so that everyone could 5)______________ Those who could pay higher prices sat on seats arranged in two or three storeys in a rough circle around the yard, rather as in a very small British football 6)______________ The top storey of seats had a roof; and there was also an extra storey, the heavens, above the back of the stage, which contained machinery (for example, for lowering and lifting actors playing 7)______________ At the back of the stage were large double doors or curtains leading to a dressing room for the actors. The space behind was also used for some indoor scenes, for example, Juliets tomb in Romeo and Juliet. Actors also went in and out (8)______________ and 9______________ ) through these doors. There were trapdoors going down through the stage, for use as tombs, prisons or even hell. Unlike todays theatres, there was no scenery, so actors in Shakespeares time could move very 10)______________ Costumes were often rich and impressive, but not historically correct. For example, the Romans in Julius Caesar would have been dressed more or less as Elizabethan 11)______________ Without costumes or scenery, plays had to rely on words to show the audience where and when the story was taking place. The audience had to use their 12)______________ far more than we do in the cinema or theatre today, and especially since: there were no 13)______________ ! (Just like the Play Group!). The theatre was not considered a respectable place for women to work, so all female parts were taken by young boys whose voices had not yet 14)______________ The first building specially designed as a theatre was opened in London in 1576. The Globe theatre was opened in 15)______________ and saw the performance Shakespeares greatest plays, including Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello. It was located on Bankside, on the south bank of the river 16)______________ Activities in this area of London took place outside the jurisdiction of the City authorities, and the theatres had brothels and bear-baiting rings for company - and competition. In 1613 the first Globe was burned down by a 17)______________ from a prop canon, which ignited the thatched roof during a performance of Henry VIII . It was rebuilt with a tiled roof and flourished until the 18)______________ closed all theatres in London. It was demolished in 1644. In Henry V, Shakespeare described the theatre as This wooden O, but the Globe was in fact, like its neighbours The Rose and The Swan, polygonal: an archaeological 19)______________ of the site of the old theatre determined that it had twenty sides.

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