Transcript Macbeth

Act 1, scene 3
 At the end of this lesson, we
will have studied Act 1, scene
3, focusing on how the
witches predictions start to
have an affect on Macbeth.
What
type of
man is
Macbeth?
Scene 3 On the moor
Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
First Witch: Where hast thou been, sister?
Second Witch: Killing swine.
Third Witch: Sister, where thou?
First Witch: A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And munch’d, and munch’d, and munch’d: ‘Give
me,’ quoth I.
‘Aroint thee, witch!’ the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’the Tiger
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
And, like a rat without tail,
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
Second Witch: I’ll give thee a wind,
First Witch: Th’art kind.
Third Witch: And I another.
What
impression
do you get
of the
Witches?

The following roles need to be read :
 Macbeth
 Banquo
 First Witch
 Second Witch
 Third Witch
 Ross
 Angus

At the end of Act 1, scene 1 the witches say
‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the
fog and filthy air’.
Similarly, Macbeth enters the play saying ‘So
foul and fair a day I have not seen’.
Why?


When the audience
knows something that
one or more characters
does not.
How are the witches
predictions to Macbeth
an example of dramatic
irony?
 How does Macbeth feel when he
hears the predictions?
 How does Banquo feel when he
hears the predictions for Macbeth?
 What do the witches predict for
Banquo? What do they mean in
modern terms?
Whose predictions are better?


When the witches leave, Macbeth says ‘would
they have stayed’. Why do you suppose he
wanted them to stay?
Banquo states that they have ‘eaten on the
insane root, that takes the reason prisoner’.
What does this tell us about how he feels
about the witches predictions?


Ross brings news that Macbeth is to become
Thane of Cawdor. How does Shakespeare
show us that Macbeth is now taking the
witches predictions more seriously?
Similarly, how does Shakespeare show us
that Banquo is much more honest, and does
not trust the witches?

Macbeth thinks through what has happened
on lines 126 – 141.
This supernatural soliciting/ Cannot be ill, cannot be good…
He starts out very doubtful, but at the end of
his soliloquy he’s made a decision (of sorts).
My thought, whose murder is but fantastical,/ Shakes so my
single state of man that function/ Is smothered in surmise, and
nothing is/ But what is not.
What does this tell us about how he’s feeling
about the witches and their predictions?

Despite saying that ‘chance’ is the only thing
that will crown him king, there are six
instances where Macbeth uses expressions
that could be thoughts of him killing himself
or Duncan.
Can you find these points in
his soliloquy?

Before they leave to see Duncan, Macbeth
asks Banquo to
Think upon what hath chanced and at more
time,
The interm having weighed it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.
What does he want Banquo to consider?

Let’s watch a
shortened version
of Act 1, scene 3
here (stop at 2
minutes into
video).
 What have we learnt about
Macbeth in this scene?
 Add any new points to your
outline of Macbeth