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WS01 - Macbeth oral presentation

English, Year 9

By the end of Year 9, students interact with others, and listen to and create spoken and multimodal texts including literary texts. With a range of purposes and for audiences, they discuss and expand on ideas, shaping meaning and providing substantiation. They select and experiment with text structures to organise and develop ideas. They select and experiment with language features including literary devices, and experiment with multimodal features and features of voice.

 

They read, view and comprehend a range of texts created to inform, influence and/or engage audiences. They analyse representations of people, places, events and concepts, and how texts respond to contexts. They analyse the aesthetic qualities of texts. They analyse the effects of text structures, and language features including literary devices, intertextual references, and multimodal features.

 

They create written and multimodal texts, including literary texts, for a range of purposes and audiences, expressing and expanding ideas, shaping meaning and providing substantiation. They select and experiment with text structures to organise, develop and link ideas. They select and experiment with language features including literary devices, and experiment with multimodal features.

Language | Language for interacting with others

AC9E9LA01

recognise how language empowers relationships and roles

Language | Language for interacting with others

AC9E9LA02

understand how evaluation can be expressed directly and indirectly using devices such as allusion, evocative vocabulary and metaphor

Language | Text structure and organisation

AC9E9LA03

examine how authors adapt and subvert text structures and language features by experimenting with spoken, written, visual and multimodal elements, and their combination

Language | Text structure and organisation

AC9E9LA04

investigate a range of cohesive devices that condense information in texts, including nominalisation, and devices that link, expand and develop ideas, including text connectives

Language | Language for expressing and developing ideas

AC9E9LA06

understand how abstract nouns and nominalisation can be used to summarise ideas in text

Language | Language for expressing and developing ideas

AC9E9LA07

analyse how symbols in still and moving images augment meaning

Language | Language for expressing and developing ideas

AC9E9LA08

analyse how vocabulary choices contribute to style, mood and tone

Literature | Engaging with and responding to literature

AC9E9LE02

present a personal response to a literary text comparing initial impressions and subsequent analysis of the whole text

Literature | Examining literature

AC9E9LE04

analyse texts and evaluate the aesthetic qualities and appeal of an author’s literary style

Literature | Examining literature

AC9E9LE05

analyse the effect of text structures, language features and literary devices such as extended metaphor, metonymy, allegory, symbolism and intertextual references

Literature | Creating literature

AC9E9LE06

create and edit literary texts, that may be a hybrid, that experiment with text structures, language features and literary devices for purposes and audiences

Literacy | Interacting with others

AC9E9LY02

listen to spoken texts that have different purposes and audiences, analysing how language features position listeners to respond in particular ways, and use interacting skills to present and discuss opinions regarding these texts

Literacy | Creating texts

AC9E9LY07

plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations for purpose and audience, using language features, literary devices and features of voice such as volume, tone, pitch and pace, and organising, expanding and developing ideas in ways that may be imaginative, reflective, informative, persuasive, analytical and/or critical

Annotations

 These annotations are interactive and link to a specific timestamp in the video. x
1

Clearly establishes the central issue to be explored in the presentation, and outlines the key ideas and language features that will be elaborated on later.

 5 30 1 40
2

Provides an opinion and introduces some supporting evidence.

 40 50 1 40
3

Shows an awareness of audience, controls volume and pace while speaking, and uses gesture to emphasise points.

 50 61 1 40
4

Selects vocabulary to persuade the audience (“treacherous”).

 87 91 1 40
5

Clearly signifies the introduction of the key theme of ambition (“An integral theme of the play ...”, repetition of “ambition”).

 92 110 1 40
6

Chooses emotive language to persuade the audience (“murdering, paranoid maniac”).

 112 115 1 40
7

Provides a quotation from the play to support the argument.

 118 123 1 40
8

Includes a quotation from the play to illustrate significant aspects of a character related to the argument.

 127 130 1 40
9

Analyses a quotation to show how it creates meaning in relation to the argument.

 130 135 1 40
10

Uses language to connect ideas (“Shakespeare also uses contrasting characters ...”).

 160 163 1 40
11

Identifies how contrast has been used for effect in the play.

 164 172 1 40
12

Uses linking statements to create cohesion in the presentation (“Likewise, violence is another essential theme ...”).

 173 180 1 40
13

Identifies symbolism used in the play and its effect.

 199 205 1 40
14

Returns to the central argument by using the key word “villain”.

 224 227 1 40
15

Shows an awareness of purpose and audience when concluding the presentation (“I hope you can now see that Macbeth is the true villain”).

 235 245 1 40
Transcript

Macbeth a play full of betrayal, death and villainy.

 

For years, the Bell Shakespeare Company have asked ourselves, "Is Macbeth the villain of the play? And if not, who is?"

 

I'll answer this question for you, ladies and gentlemen, and explain how the great William Shakespeare has portrayed this through a variety of techniques, quotes, symbols and themes, including violence and ambition.

 

To truly understand who is the villain of the play, firstly, we'll need to look at what makes a villain. A villain is a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.

 

I would say that Macbeth is the true villain of the play, as he is the person who commits the act of villainy by murdering King Duncan as well as numerous other characters.

 

Whilst Macbeth may be the main villain of the play, Lady Macbeth is most definitely also a villain, as she is the one with the evil motive to kill the king, and the person who had first convinced and begged Macbeth to go through with the betraying act of killing King Duncan and seizing the throne.

 

While some may argue that the witches led Macbeth to change from a noble war hero to a villain by enticing him with their prophecies, Macbeth had the power to choose.

 

And when having to make a decision whether to kill his king or not, the answer should be simple. Yes, we can see the witches and Lady Macbeth as influencing Macbeth, but they did not force him. Nobody makes him go through with these treacherous acts of villainy.

 

An integral theme in the play surrounding villainy is ambition, as Macbeth's ambition is ultimately what turns him into a villain.

 

The Weird Sisters’ prophecies spur both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to try to fulfil their ambitions. But the witches never make Macbeth or his wife do anything.

 

Ambition turns Macbeth from a good man to a murdering, paranoid maniac. Macbeth did have second thoughts about his ambition, as he says, "Why do I yield to that suggestion, whose horrid image doth unfix my hair?"

 

We also see ambition destroy Lady Macbeth, with the quote "unsex me here" showing how she was ready to do anything and become anyone to fulfil the witches’ prophecies.

 

While Macbeth was contemplating to kill the king, he says, "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition", which essentially is Macbeth admitting that his ambitious nature is the only thing motivating him to assassinate the king, which would lead to a disaster and more bloodshed.

 

Yet Macbeth ignores this and kills King Duncan, knowing the consequences, which is a trait of a true villain.

 

Shakespeare also uses contrasting characters, such Banquo and Macduff, who wanted to be great leaders, but refused to allow ambition to come before honour, to show Macbeth is a selfish, ambitious villain.

 

Likewise, violence is another essential theme, and is where the true villain inside Macbeth lets its fury out. Violence occurs all throughout Macbeth, beginning in battle and ending with the beheading of its main character.

 

As the play progresses, Macbeth realises the violence through which he took the throne opens the way for others to try to take the throne themselves through the same violence.

 

So Macbeth must commit more violence, until violence is all he has left.

 

Shakespeare's symbolism of blood is a strong one, with death and killing happening in an instant, but blood remaining.

 

Shakespeare used Banquo's ghosts haunting him to show Macbeth's guilt at the violence that had occurred. But after he crossed the line, there was no turning back. As he said, "Blood will have blood", meaning that his murders will lead to more violence, and that he didn't care how many lives were lost as long as he had power. The trait of a true villain.

 

Macbeth turned so violent that even those who worked for him saw him for the ruthless tyrant that he was, and lost faith in him.

 

 So, to sum this all up, I hope you can now see that Macbeth is the true villain of the play, aided by Lady Macbeth. Whilst at the beginning of the play, Macbeth was an honourable soldier, through Shakespeare's themes of ambition and violence, Macbeth was turned into a villain who was a ruthless dictator with an attitude to take power at all costs.

 

Thank you.