Planning an analytical essay about Lady Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’
I can plan a well-structured and convincing analytical essay about how far Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a Machiavellian villain.
Planning an analytical essay about Lady Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’
I can plan a well-structured and convincing analytical essay about how far Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a Machiavellian villain.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Machiavellian is an adjective. It describes someone who gets what they want in cunning, ruthless and immoral ways.
- A thesis statement is a clear, overarching argument
- Topic sentences give focus to individual paragraphs
- Topic sentences should support the overarching thesis
- Identifying judicious supporting detail to include in each paragraph supports planning
Keywords
Machiavellian - Machiavellian is an adjective. It describes someone who gets what they want in cunning, ruthless and immoral ways.
Thesis - A thesis is an argument, a powerful idea that you state at the beginning of an essay and prove throughout your essay.
Topic sentence - A topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph. It states the paragraph’s main idea.
Overarching - Your thesis should be overarching: it should be an idea that is supported by the whole text, not just one moment from the text.
Judicious - Judicious is a synonym for wise, well-chosen, sensible.
Common misconception
Thesis and topic sentences are the same thing.
A thesis must be overarching. A topic sentence can be much more specific.
To help you plan your year 10 english lesson on: Planning an analytical essay about Lady Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 english lesson on: Planning an analytical essay about Lady Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 english lessons from the Macbeth: Lady Macbeth as a Machiavellian villain unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
You will need access to a copy of William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
- Depiction or discussion of serious crime
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
Exit quiz
6 Questions
What is your overall thesis?
What were the writer's intentions?
What ideas are there around this concept in the play?
a powerful idea you prove throughout your essay
the first sentence of a paragraph which states its main idea
well-chosen evidence which supports the topic sentence
summary of paragraph with a focus on writer's purpose