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Exploring Good and Evil: the Case of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth Joanna Johnson, M.A. Development Team Click Here for Lesson Plans
	Introduction In this lesson students will consider the ethical situations that arise in the play Macbeth and consider the extent to which character is responsible for actions, or whether actions form character. Students will consider responsibility for one’s own actions, and consider the way in which one evil act can often pave the way for a succession of such acts. Once we have made a poor decision, then does it seem easier to continue making more poor decisions? View More
	Key Concepts and Vocabulary Good/evil; democracy; “justification” (for war etc); responsibility View More
	Background for for Teachers It is no accident that Macbeth is often considered to be cursed in the theatre; perhaps it is the play that most embodies “evil,” and as such has taken on a significance in the theatre where actors and others are superstitious of speaking its name. As the famous Shakespeare critic A.C. Bradley has written, “Macbeth leaves on most readers a profound impression of the misery of a guilty conscience and the retribution of crime…But what Shakespeare perhaps felt even more deeply…was the incalculability of evil, --that in meddling with it human beings do they know not what” (324).   View More

	Core Subject Areas and Grade Level		Description of Classroom Activities
	Objectives from Competency-Based Curriculum		Assessment for Activities
	Correlations to Language Art Benchmarks (Sunshine State Standards)		Bibliography and Web Resources
	Core Values Emphasized in this Learning Module
	Suggested Time for Instruction

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