1. Act 1, scene 3
Macbeth

2. Lesson Objectives
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.

3. What type of man is Macbeth?
Recap
What type of man is Macbeth?

4. What impression do you get of the Witches?
The Three Witches
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?

5. Readers Theatre The following roles need to be read : Macbeth Banquo
First Witch
Second Witch
Third Witch
Ross
Angus

6. Questions
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?

7. Dramatic Irony
When the audience knows something that one or more characters does not.
How are the witches predictions to Macbeth an example of dramatic irony?

8. Questions 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?

9. Questions
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?

10. Ross brings news that Macbeth is to become Thane of Cawdor
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?

11. Macbeth thinks through what has happened on lines 126 – 141
Macbeth thinks through what has happened on lines 126 – He starts out very doubtful, but at the end of his soliloquy he’s made a decision (of sorts). What does this tell us about how he’s feeling about the witches and their predictions?
This supernatural soliciting/ Cannot be ill, cannot be good…
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.

12. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me/ Without my stir

13. 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?

14. 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?

15. Recap
Let’s watch a shortened version of Act 1, scene 3 here (stop at 2 minutes into video).

16. What have we learnt about Macbeth in this scene?
Plenary
What have we learnt about Macbeth in this scene?
Add any new points to your outline of Macbeth