Monday 14th July
LC: to use a persuasive toolkit to plan a formal speech
Look at the statements below.
Which ones are about Lady Macbeth and which ones are about Macbeth?
Put LM or M next to each one.
Decide who you think is guilty of the murder of King Duncan.
Use these ideas to begin to plan what your 3 main points will be.
Read this model persuasive speech to persuade the jury that the witches are guilty of King Duncan's murder.
Then complete the table below with your findings.
- what are the three main points?
- find 3 strong adjectives in the introduction
- find a set of 3 in the introduction (when a word /phrase is repeated 3 times or a list of 3 things is given)
- examples of emotive language that makes the listener feel sorry for Macbeth.
- examples of emotive language that makes the listener feel anger and fear towards the witches
- find examples of sequencing adverbials
- what command is repeated twice in the conclusion?
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Our beloved King is dead. We are devastated at this crime against nature and we must find out who is responsible and punish the murderous creatures. It is not the brave and noble Macbeth as most people believe but instead the blame must lie with three fiendish supernatural beings, three evil witches, three deadly hags who you must find guilty today.
Firstly, you must know that the witches planned the whole tragedy before Macbeth even arrived. These midnight hags were waiting for him on the heath and, due to their supernatural powers, knew exactly when he would arrive. They even gave him three predictions which obviously would come true! Poor Macbeth was helpless in the face of these binding spells and once the future was foretold - Macbeth would become King - then the only way forward was to murder King Duncan. It was part of the witches plan and nothing on earth could prevent it.
Furthermore, the three evil sisters live to cause death and destruction. That is in their nature! We have known that supernatural beings live in these parts for many years. We have seen the chaos they cause and know that this is their purpose, sent here on earth to be Satan's messengers. These servants of the devil of course wanted to cause mayhem and murder and this is exactly what they have done.
Finally, the witches put brave Macbeth under a ghostly spell from the moment they met him. How could my client, a brave and valiant warrior, possibly resist the magical curse put upon him by these inhuman sisters? Macbeth was enchanted from the moment they appeared on the heath and was helpless to reroute events from the fate that the evil hags had planned for him. No human could ever fight against this.
Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, do not punish a brave and valiant war hero for an action beyond his control! Do not condemn a worthy leader to death for a crime that he had no choice in committing. Although it was indeed Macbeth that plunged the daggers in Duncan's chest, he was merely a puppet being manipulated by the darkest and deadliest forces known to man - the witches - so please vote to punish them.
Thank you. I rest my case.
