The Process

  1. First you will be assigned to a specific team: one group will be the defense team, one the prosecuting team. Each team will be divided into two groups: attorneys and witnesses. Each paired group of one lawyer with one witness will work together to review trial testimony. The defense team witnesses will be chosen from the following list: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, the witches, and Duncan. Add a psychiatrist as a potential witness for the defense. The prosection team witnesses will be chosen from the following list: MacDuff, Lady MacDuff, Banquo, and Malcolm/Donalbaine. Add a Police Detective as a potential witness for the prosection.
  2. Once you've picked a role to play, you will do the background and textual research appropriate to your role.
  3. The final day will be the trial; each side will call witnesses, make opening and closing statements, and await the verdict.
  4. Each side will send the oppposing team its list of witnesses to be called and the order in which they will be called. Each lawyer will be assigned one witness to question from his/her own team and another witness to cross-examine from the opposing team.

Strategies for the Trial

  1. Keep questions simple.
  2. Ask a series of short questions rather than a long, complicated one.
  3. Use the text as your most compelling evidence.
  4. Anticipate the cross examination.
  5. Limit number of witnesses to four for each side
  6. Limit amount of time per person (10 for questioning, 10 for cross, 2 for rebuttal)
  7. Four witnesses will require four different lawyers.
  8. Every person needs to be a lawyer at least once.
  9. Each team will have a recorder, the duties rotating as each witness takes the stand.
  10. Closing arguments are limited to five to eight minutes. All students will email their notes to the Closing lawyer to be included in the summation.
  11. Each team can recall a witness at the end of the trial. Each team has four minutes. Cross examination will be for two minutes maximum.
  12. Teams can confer with a one minute time out for a limit of five per side.
  13. Essays are due before you take the witness stand.
  14. Cross examination can lead the witness
  15. Lawyers cannot give testimony; witnesses cannot narrate.
  16. Three days preparation and then begin the trial on a double period and then two additional periods, or begin on a Monday and run for consecutive days.

Group One: Defense Attorneys

You will be defending Macbeth by trying to create doubt about his competence or his actual guilt. You will collect evidence and write a closing argument addressed to the judge and jury to try to persuade them that Macbeth was (or is) insane. Or perhaps you might argue that Macbeth was a dupe of fate or a victim of others. Perhaps you could argue for a lesser charge than murder one.You will work with the witnesses to create your trial strategy.

Group Two: Prosecuting Attorneys

Another group will be the prosecuting attorneys. You will try to persuade the jury that Macbeth must be held accountable for his crimes. You will work with the witnesses to create your trial strategy.

Group Three: The Witnesses

You must be prepared to either proclaim Macbeth's innocence or prove his guilt. You will be called upon to examine your own role in the crimes committed. Research your part in the murders and work with your team to formulate the questions that you will be asked when you are called. Be prepared and anticipate your cross examination. The witnesses for the defense are Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, the murderers, the witches, and Duncan.

Background Resources for all groups:

Shakespeare's Life and Times provides interesting insights into the Renaissance world, including sections on the Supernatural, The Great Chain of Being, and background information on Macbeth. First click on "Simpler version" and then click on "The Background of Ideas" and then explore "The Supernatural" and "Order" sections.

Welcome to Birnham Wood provides background information and essays. Choose The Playwright and His Time and Homework Helpers as good starting points.

Anne's Shakespeare Page provides a huge list of links to Shakespeare, the Renaissance, and scroll down to find a list of links about Macbeth.There is even music.

Shakespeare Resources is an extremely helpful and complete list of links to Shakespeare on the web including many links to Stratford-on-Avon, The Globe, and essays. Click on the Macbeth link to find many essays and resources.

Shakespeare Resources contains background information about Macbeth, a list of key quotes and character analysis.

The Complete Shakespeare provides links to many resources on Shakespeare, including essays on the play.

Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet is a one stop site with a wide variety of extremely helpful links. It contains a Shakespeare timeline with terrific annotations, another timeline comparing W.S. life with current events, links to criticism, and links to the Renaissance.

Renaissance Philosophy, Psychology and Literature, Politics, Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, and Medical Science includes a list of invaluable background information on the Renaissance worldview. Choose Renaissance Views of the Supernatural, The Tragic Hero in Shakespeare, and Macbeth and Holinshed to begin your research.

Enjoying Macbeth provides some interesting and unusual insights into Macbeth's character.

Shakespeare Illustrated: Macbeth provides links to celebrated paintings of scenes in Macbeth.This site might be useful for gathering pictorial evidence.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare provides hypertext of Macbeth plus a concordance to search for keywords.

Resources for Defense Attorneys:

Consider the following:

  1. Does the supernatural compromise or undermine Macbeth's free will?
  2. Examine Macbeth's motivation: he has been well rewarded and he understands the consequences of his actions, so why then does he commit regicide?
  3. Insanity is a major theme of Macbeth--consider its legal and moral relevance.

RENAISSANCE THEORIES OF GHOSTS AND DEMONS provides background for understanding the witches' role.

Play Synopsis might prove helpful in explaining Macbeth's motivation.

The Tragic Hero discusses Shakespeare's notion of the heroic.

Resources for Prosecuting Attorneys

Consider the following:

  1. Does Macbeth act in a premeditated fashion?
  2. Who is the third murderer?
  3. Why does he commit each of his crimes?

Macbeth, a play for our time discusses the irony and symbolism of the play.

Modern Macbeth contains three essays, one about the third murderer and one on Macbeth's "vaulting ambition," and one on the role of fate.

Shakespeare's Treatment of his sources details the changes Shakespeare made from the Holinshed chronicles.

Resources for Witnesses:

Consider the following:

  1. What is your role in the crimes committed?
  2. What is your view of the extent of Macbeth's culpability and responsibility for his actions?
  3. Were Macbeth's actions justified?

The Witches Page

Witches in Shakespeare: History and Text

Macbeth as a tragic hero

Freud on the Macbeths