If you are going to start with the extract, you need to know the text really well - that’s why I wrote this guide.
But whether or not you study Macbeth doesn’t matter here. I’m going to show you how an examiner thinks about your essay.
You’ll see how to control the examiner’s mind. What the Assessment Objectives mean, and how to show you are meeting them in your answer.
This essay comes from the 2022 AQA paper, which was about Macbeth’s fears.
Here is the extract. It will be useful to look at later if you want to trace where Billy finds his quotes.
Interestingly, Billy only uses two quotes from the extract. The examiners don’t have a set number in mind.
Billy’s 30/30 Essay
I’m going to call our generous student Billy (not his real name).
So, first notice that Billy is typing. The exam board state that if parts of your essays can’t be read because of your handwriting, you can ask permission to type. This could be you.
Although it sounds like an unfair advantage, their thinking is this: if an examiner can’t read all of your essay, they can’t give you a fair mark.
Thesis Statement
Secondly, let’s look at the thesis statement. Billy has decided to start with the extract - which you know is not what I recommend - it is difficult to write a logical, conceptualised argument if your essay jumps all over the place from the extract to the rest of the text. I recommend writing chronologically.
So Billy says to himself :
How can I show that I am writing about the whole play?
That I am always dealing with Shakespeare’s ideas?
That I understand how the audience at the time might have reacted, through historical context?
His answer is his thesis statement - not just telling us what has happened up to this point to make this scene from play important - but answering those questions at the same time.
‘Ok,’ says the examiner. ‘This is already ‘conceptualised’, I’m going straight in at Level 6 for understanding of context.’
First Quote
Billy can pick any quote from the extract.
But he wants to be conceptualised, which means he has to write an argument.
So, he needs a quote which will link back to the ideas in his thesis. He chooses the “fruitless crown” because he can link it to divine punishment for killing Duncan and destroying the Great Chain of Being.
Immediately the examiner thinks, ‘wow, this is a great analysis of that quote. I’m going all in with Level 6 for AO1 references to the text. Then, when I read the rest of the analysis, I’m going to give it Level 6 for AO2 because of the interpretation.’
Second Quote
So, part of the sophisticated argument is Billy’s identification of the change in Macbeth.
Every time you write about the change of a character or theme, you are at least ‘thoughtful’ for Level 5, and probably ‘convincing’ for Level 6. This is why I recommend following a character through the text chronologically - it is impossible not to write about how they change!
Billy says, ‘tough, I’ve started with the extract. But, I can show that change by jumping straight to the end and choosing a quote from it to show the change’.
So, this is why he chooses the ‘dead butcher’ and the ‘fiendlike queen’.
Now the examiner is thinking, ‘oooh, quotes from the end as well - definitely Level 6 for AO6 references to text. And I’m pretty sure this is going to be level 6 for response to task as well, as this student has already considered the ending’.
Third Quote
For his third quote, Billy is thinking about his chronology again. In order to show how Macbeth’s fears change, he has to go back to Macbeth’s first fears, of the witches.
He is also introducing a fear not many students write about - because I have not seen it mentioned before. Billy is suggesting that meeting the witches is a divine punishment - as though he is being punished for being who he is, before he has ever thought about becoming king and killing Duncan.
That’s a deeply interesting idea. This is much more like Greek tragedy, where characters are victims of fate - they don’t deserve to be victims but the gods have simply decided that they should be.
In Greek tragedy, the hero does everything they can to escape this fate, but they have a fatal flaw in their personality - their hamartia - which makes them do something which brings the fate about.
So, here, Macbeth imagines that God is punishing him with these agents of Hell, the witches, for something in his personality. He does not know what that it is, and it scares him.
This is a brilliant, grade 9+ idea. If you want to follow it through, you can use the witches later words in Act 4 Scene 1, “by the pricking of my thumbs/ something wicked this way comes”. They know he is evil, (though to be fair, he is already a murderous tyrant by then!) But you can argue that witches only ever chose to “meet with Macbeth” because they already knew he was “wicked”. After all, they are also meeting up with Banquo, but have no plans for him at all.
Anyway, the examiner says to themselves “Billy sure knows the context of this play, and Macbeth’s fears brilliantly. He’s zapped me with the ending, the extract and the beginning, and what Shakespeare wants the audience to know. So I’m convinced. Level 6 AO3 context it is.”
This is how the examiner thinks: how quickly can I tick off each AO? There’s just AO2 left.
Fourth Quote
Ok, there is no quote! This is context, Level 6 AO3.
But, I’m calling it a quote.
Why? Because context has to work exactly like a quote. This works like another quote about the witches, to prove that they are evil. Billy isn’t just chucking in a paragraph about witches. He’s relating everything to Macbeth’s perception of them as causing despair and suffering.
Context also allows Billy to write about Shakespeare’s purpose - here it is to chime with King James’s beliefs and interests and also to tap into the fears of the audience. This is relevant because the essay question is about fear!
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