In this self-paced lesson, you will watch two videos from the PBS series Shakespeare Uncovered to explore how Shakespeare uses supernatural elements in Macbeth. You will examine some of the beliefs common in Shakespeare’s time and analyze the text of Act I, Scene iii in Macbeth and then write a short (1–2 page) paper exploring the impact and meaning of supernatural elements in another scene.
Review the meaning of the following vocabulary words before starting the lesson.
Ale House: a bar or pub. A place to drink beer.
Antichrist: an evil leader who, according to the New Testament, will reign over the world until the second coming of Christ. In Shakespeare’s time many Protestants regarded the Roman Catholic Pope as the Antichrist.
Couplet: a consecutive pair of lines of poetry with the same end rhyme.
Elizabethan: describing the time period of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign in England (1558–1603). Shakespeare was active during this era, and although Macbeth was first performed in 1606, he is often described as an Elizabethan playwright.
Heath: an area of open, uncultivated land.
Meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse.
Protestant: in this context Protestant refers to a non-Catholic Christian. The Church of England separated from the Catholic Church in 1534, creating a lasting conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the British Isles.
Psychic: a person who has or claims to have extraordinary mental abilities, such as to read minds ot predict the future.
Rhyme: the repetition of words or phrases with the same ending sound.
Supernatural: of or relating to a force beyond scientific understanding of the laws of nature.
Thane: a title given to a local royal official in medieval Scotland.
You will use several reading and writing strategies to complete this lesson. The key strategies that you will focus on are:
● Interpreting a literary text by identifying the techniques used by the author and how they contribute to its meaning.
● Analyzing themes, plot, and character in a fictional text.