Extract essay skills

Macbeth is in Paper 1, Section A. There is one question. You are given an extract of about a page, and asked to start with it and then write about the play as a whole.

It is worth 30 marks plus 4 for AO4. Spend about 50 minutes on it. The marks are for:

• AO1: your own argument, answering the question, with quotations;
• AO2: how Shakespeare uses language, form and structure;
• AO3: context, such as James I, witchcraft and the divine right of kings;
• AO4: spelling, punctuation, grammar and vocabulary.

1. 5 minutes: read and plan. Underline the key words of the question. Read the extract and mark 3–4 short quotations. Note where it comes in the play.
2. 15 minutes: the extract. Write one or two paragraphs analysing language and methods in the extract.
3. 25 minutes: the whole play. Write two or three paragraphs about other moments from the beginning, middle and end, using quotations you have learnt.
4. 5 minutes: check. Correct spelling and punctuation for AO4.

Begin with a short introduction giving your argument, your thesis. Weave context into your paragraphs, rather than writing a separate history section.

Question: Starting with this extract, explore how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as powerful.

What beast was 't, then,

That made you break this enterprise to me?

When you durst do it, then you were a man;

And to be more than what you were, you would

5Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place

Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.

They have made themselves, and that their fitness now

Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know

How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me.

10I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums

And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you

Have done to this.

In this extract, Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as controlling her husband through shame. Her opening question, ‘What beast was 't’, suggests that only an animal would break a promise, while the repeated ‘man’ attacks his sense of himself. Her most shocking image, that she would have ‘dashed the brains out’ of her own baby, rejects every idea of motherhood a Jacobean audience held. Shakespeare makes her more ruthless than Macbeth here, which makes her collapse in Act 5 all the more striking.

• Clear answers explain the extract and the play, and use relevant quotations.
• Thoughtful, developed answers explore methods in detail and link them to context.
• Convincing, critical answers build an argument across the whole play, and consider more than one interpretation.

To get there:

• Always write ‘Shakespeare presents…’ rather than ‘Macbeth is…’.
• Zoom in on single words, such as ‘beast’ or ‘man’.
• Compare the extract with a contrasting moment, such as Lady Macbeth in Act 1 and in Act 5.