Macbeth: Characters KS3

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In these lessons, students will examine the key characters in Macbeth and their dramatic functions. Tasks include: exploring the motivations of Lady Macbeth; tracking characters' status throughout the play to see how and why this changes; and analysing Macbeth's 'vaulting ambition'. 

In order to benefit fully from these lesson plans, we recommend you use them in the following order:

If students are new to the play, we suggest you start with these introductory KS3 Lesson Plans. If you would like to teach the play in greater detail, use the advanced KS4/5 Lesson Plans.

These lesson plans are available in the Downloads section at the bottom of this page. To download resources, you must be logged in. Sign up for free to access this and other exclusive featuresActivities mentioned in these resources are available in a separate downloadable 'Student Booklet', also at the bottom of this page. The 'Teachers' Guide' download explains how best to use Teach Shakespeare and also contains a bibliography and appendices referencing the resources used throughout.

Key Questions for Students:

Can I explore the dramatic function of the witches in Macbeth?

Can I develop my ideas about how the witches could be portrayed on stage?

Key words: alliteration, archetypes, body language, characters, choral speaking, costume, motivation, music, repetition, rhyme, rhythm, riddle, voice

 

Prologue: Opening Discussion

Give students the first four lines of the play to read in threes.

1 Witch.    When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch.     When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.

Students can experiment with different ways of performing these lines (e.g. whispering, like a nursery rhyme, forwards and backwards at the same time). How would the different ways of performing these lines affect the audience’s impression of the witches and the overall mood at the start of the play?

 

Enter the Players: Group Tasks

1) Archetypes

Share Fiona Banks’ character archetypes (sovereign, warrior, carer, trickster), which can be found in the Student Booklet. Work through some ideas for developing students’ understanding of these archetypes, including four lines selected from the play that show how each of the four different archetypes is present in the witches’ language. What insights into the characters of the witches do we gain from these kinds of activities?

 

2) The witches – different approaches

Prepare and distribute to different groups of students some ‘clues’ about the way the witches were portrayed in a particular production of Macbeth or could be portrayed. These clues could be pictures, images, props, descriptions of performances by audience members etc. Ways they have been played previously include:

  • as priestesses
  • as seducers
  • as drug addicts
  • as lost children
  • as nurses
  • as disembodied voices

Students need to think about the clues (which might be a little bit cryptic!) and what they suggest about performing the witches. Students feedback to the rest of the class with their personal opinions and evaluative comments about how well they think this idea would work on stage.

 

 

 

 3) Choral speaking

Students should read and rehearse Act 1 Scene 3, identifying examples of rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, repetition, riddle-like language and other techniques. They should then discuss as a group how to make the witches seem different and otherworldly in their performance of this scene. Students should think about the many different ways they can use their voices in choral speaking (e.g. vary speed, vary pitch, vary volume, speak in unison or at different speeds, vary the number of speakers). How might these decisions affect the audience? (Students could watch some footage of the Witches in Act 1 from the Globe production and reflect on how the Witches speak and are portrayed.)

 

Exeunt: Closing Questions for Students

What do the witches represent? 

What is their dramatic function? 

How would I portray the witches if I were staging the play?

 

Suggested plenary activity…

Students could choose one way of portraying the witches and one idea that would help them to convey this to the audience, e.g. voice effects, costume, movement, lighting. Students should record their answers in the Student Booklet.

 

Aside: Further Resource

 

Epilogue: Teacher's Note

Students could research how the witches have been portrayed in a variety of other productions on the stage and in film. An additional task might be for students to compare and give their personal views on two different interpretations, e.g. in the Trevor Nunn version starring Ian McKellen and in the Rupert Goold version starring Patrick Stewart. They should justify their choice.

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