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Exam skills: the Shakespeare questions
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Section A of Paper 1 has two linked parts on your Shakespeare play: a close extract analysis and an essay on the rest of the play.
Part (a): the extract (AO2, 20 marks)
You get an extract of about 30 lines. You are asked how Shakespeare presents a character or theme in it.
Zoom in on words and phrases, imagery, verse or prose, sentence types and stage directions.
Use subject terms (for example soliloquy, imagery, rhyming couplet) and always explain the effect.
Zoom in on words and phrases, imagery, verse or prose, sentence types and stage directions.
Use subject terms (for example soliloquy, imagery, rhyming couplet) and always explain the effect.
Part (b): elsewhere in the play (AO1 and AO3, 20 marks)
You explore the same theme or character elsewhere in the play, not in the extract.
Show knowledge of the whole play with well-chosen references and quotations (AO1).
Link ideas to context: for example beliefs about kingship, gender or religion in Shakespeare's time (AO3).
Show knowledge of the whole play with well-chosen references and quotations (AO1).
Link ideas to context: for example beliefs about kingship, gender or religion in Shakespeare's time (AO3).
A useful paragraph structure
Point: answer the question. Evidence: a short quotation or reference. Analysis: zoom in on a word or method. Link: to the question, and in part (b) to context.
Aim for several well-developed paragraphs rather than many thin ones.
Aim for several well-developed paragraphs rather than many thin ones.
Part (b) asks about ambition elsewhere in Macbeth. What should you include?
- Moments from other parts of the play, not the extract: for example Macbeth's "Vaulting ambition" soliloquy and his later murders.
- A clear argument about how ambition develops.
- Context, such as the Divine Right of Kings, which made regicide a terrible sin.
Answer: References from across the play, a developed argument about ambition, and relevant context.
Part (a): extract, AO2, language, form and structure with terminology. Part (b): elsewhere in the play, AO1 and AO3, whole-text knowledge plus context.
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