Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s Relationship in Act 1 Scene 7
- In your script, you have four extracts from Act 1 Scene 7 of Macbeth. You will be acting these out in class in order to show your understanding of how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship develops and changes from Act 1 Scene 5.
Remember, in Act 1 Scene 5, Lady Macbeth has received a letter from Macbeth telling of the predictions of the Three Witches, and we see her reaction to the good news. She greets Macbeth with excitement, and tells him how he should progress with the murder.
In Act 1 Scene 7, the audience sees Macbeth’s reluctance to kill the king and Lady Macbeth’s determination that he will.
If Macbeth is, as he is shown to be, so set against going ahead with the murder, for all the reasons he has put forward, why does he change his mind and go ahead with it?...The power of Lady Macbeth!
- You are now going to explore just how she does this, and what this tells us about their relationship.
Task
1. Each group will be responsible for a particular passage from Act 1, Scene 7.
Your challenge is to prepare a dramatic reading of your given passage.
2. Within each group:
- One person must portray Macbeth.
- One person must portray Lady Macbeth.
- Two people must act as thought trackers (one for Macbeth, one for Lady Macbeth), who speak after their character and explain in modern English how their character is feeling.
- One person must direct how they want both parts played, in terms of positioning, tone of voice, body language, facial expressions and then narrate the performance, by giving…
