William Shakespeare’s:

“Something wicked this way comes……..”

William Shakespeare’s:

OBJ: to gain some historical knowledge of the play, and to analyse the opening scene.

OUTCOME: descriptive writing and annotated scene.

A story of…..

Ambition…..

A story of…..

Power….

A story of…..

Darkness…..

A story of…..

Evil…..

A story of…..

Death….

Sound familiar….?

Henry VIII Macbeth

Macbeth

• Written in 1606. Set in Scotland when James I of England (James VI of Scotland) was on the throne – a descendant from the House of Tudor.

• HMK: join up James I with

the Tudor family using your

Tudor family tree.

The opening scene

ACT 1 SCENE 1A desolate placeThunder and lightning. Enter three witches…..

Desolate: an uninhabited place and giving an impression of bleak emptiness.

Shakespeare’s stage directions give us nothing more than this. Where could this desolate place be? What would it look like?

Descriptive writing

A bleak wind howled around the vast, open ground, hard from the frost. Lightning cracked down on the frozen land, and would set ablaze any tree in its way; not that any stood against this dark horizon. The sky swelled to a purple bruise and let loose rolling thunder – rolling and bellowing and echoing – nothing in this landscape to contain it. It brought with it slanting, icy rain that gradually soaked this desolate place.

Success criteria:•Use of other senses•Interesting verbs•Metaphors/similes•Adjectives•Punctuation •‘zoom in’ on one element for each paragraph

In the modern world we have scientific knowledge to explain why natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and droughts take place. However in Shakespeare’s time, there was no such science and so people invented all sorts of explanations to explain why bad things happened. One of the ways they accounted for the unexplained was the idea of witches. In Elizabethan England hundreds of thousands of women were tortured and executed in Europe because they were accused of witchcraft. They were blamed for accidents, misfortunes and disasters of all kinds. People thought that witches could see into the future, cast spells, cause storms and bad weather and disguise themselves as other creatures such as cats. In Scotland between 1590 and 1680 (the time when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth) approximately 4400 ‘witches’ were executed. The most well known case is that of the North Berwick witches in 1590-92. They were accused of attempting to murder King James I by placing a wax image of him in a fire. The witches were arrested, interrogated by James I himself and executed.

WitchcraftWitchcraft

Click on the witch to watch a

short film about

witches in mediaeval

Europe

King James IKing James IJames I was the king of England when Macbeth was written. The case of the North Berwick witches had frightened the king and he wrote a book on the subject entitled ‘Deamonologie’ and appealed to parliament to pass the following act in 1563 which was still a part of English law until 1951!

“if any person shall use any invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked spirit; 2. or shal, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any evil or cursed spirit to or for any intent or purpose; 3. or take up any dead man, woman or child out of the grave, - or the skin, bone, or any part of the dead person, to be employed or used in any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; 4. or shall use, practice, or exercise any sort of witchcraft, sorcery, charm or enchantment; 5. whereby any person shall be destroyed, killed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed in any part of the body; 6. that every such person being convicted shall suffer death.”

ACT 1 SCENE 1A desolate placeThunder and lightning. Enter three witches.First witch When shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?Second witch When the hurly burly’s done,

When the battle’s lost and won.Third witch That will be ere the set of sun.First witch Where the place?Second witch Upon the heath.Third witch There to meet with Macbeth.First witch I come, Graymalkin!Second witch Paddock calls.Third witch Anon.All Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air

[Exeunt.

ACT 1 SCENE 1A desolate placeThunder and lightning. Enter three witches.First witch When shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?Second witch When the hurly burly’s done,

When the battle’s lost and won.Third witch That will be ere the set of sun.First witch Where the place?Second witch Upon the heath.Third witch There to meet with Macbeth.First witch I come, Graymalkin!Second witch Paddock calls.Third witch Anon.All Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air

[Exeunt.

What does this look like? They already

know the outcome?

More looking into the future

Names of her cat and toad – called witches’ familiars’

Remember this phrase…

Deducing directionsDeducing directions Read the opening scene again then complete the sentences

below. Think about how an atmosphere of disorder is created.

Act I, scene i

The opening scene contains a number of words that suggest violence and chaos…

There are also many opposites and contradictions…..

The way the witches speak …

The scene is set……

Shakespeare is creating an atmosphere of….