Teachers Network | Teachnet-Lab

Home  Insults Reading Assignments Macbeth Hyper-texts Group Work Newspaper Page Background Inquiry
Background Writing Assignment

Task: Choose one of the questions below to answer. Write an essay in your own words in answer to one question. You must put any words you copy in quotes and use a footnote. You must include a bibliography of your sources. The many links below should be helpful. 
 

1. Shakespeare supposedly added witches to the play, Macbeth, because of King James I's interest in witches.  Can you explain the King's interest in witches?

Witches Casting a Spell

http://members.aol.com/Skyelander/witch1.html

2. How was Shakespeare's theater different from the theaters of today?

Recreation of the Globe Theater

http://watson.org/rivendell/dramashakglobe.html

3. What kind of education did Shakespeare probably receive?

Shakespeare's Birth Home

http://jetlink.net/~massij/shakes/strat3.jpg

4. What are the differences between Holinshed's Chronicles of Scotland and Shakespeare's Macbeth?

The Tartan of the Macbeth Clan

Suggestions for writing a short research paper

Background on Shakespeare
The Globe Theater, where Macbeth was performed most of the time as well as many of Shakespeare's other plays: http://springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/Globe.html

The new Globe Theater, a recreation: http://watson.org/rivendell/dramashakglobe.html

Shakespeare's Life http://jetlink.net/~massij/shakes/wssites.html
                                        http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/timeline/greatglobe.htm
                                        http://library.thinkquest.org/19539/front.htm
Elizabethan culture
http://springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/elizabethanengland.html

Background for Shakespeare's Macbeth
Prose Summary of Macbeth
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LTMACB.HTM

Excellent links for anything you want to know about Macbeth:
http://pathguy.com/macbeth.htm
http://students.roanoke.edu/t/tnunez/MACBETHomepage.html
http://allshakespeare.com/plays/macbeth/
http://library.thinkquest.org/19539/macbeth.htm
http://allshakespeare.com/plays/macbeth/index.php

Witchcraft-http://watson.org/rivendell/dramashakessay4.html
                http://members.aol.com/Skyelander/witch1.html
 

Sources for the text of Macbeth that Shakespeare most likely used-

Holinshed'S Chronicles, one main source for Shakespeare's Macbeth:
http://library.upenn.edu/etext/furness/holinshed/238.html
http://legends.dm.net/shakespeare/macbeth.html

Student Internet Projects (Macbeth)
http://geocities.com/Athens/Styx/5025/new_classroom_approaches_to_macbeth.htm

Artwork and Photographs (Macbeth)
http://geocities.com/Athens/Styx/5025/images.htm