Essay Questions Flashcards
LADY MACBETH Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One, two. Why then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can
call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
DOCTOR Do you mark that?
LADY MACBETH The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’that, my Lord, no more o’that. You mar all with this starting.
DOCTOR Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
GENTLEWOMAN She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. Heaven knows what she has known.
LADY MACBETH Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
DOCTOR What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.
GENTLEWOMAN I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.
DOCTOR Well, well, well –
GENTLEWOMAN Pray God it be, sir.
DOCTOR This disease is beyond my practice; yet I have known
those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.
LADY MACBETH Wash your hands, put on your night-gown, look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave.
DOCTOR Even so?
LADY MACBETH To bed, to bed; there’s knocking at the gate.
Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; what’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.
‘Lady Macbeth is a female character who changes during the play.’
Starting with this moment in the play, explore how far you agree with this view.
Write about:
• how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth in this extract
• how far Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a female character who changes in
the play as a whole.
[30 marks]
AO4 [4 marks]
Mark AO Typical features How to arrive at a mark
Level 6
Convincing, critical, analysis and exploration
26–30 marks
AO1 • Critical, exploratory, conceptualised response
to task and whole text.
• Judicious use of precise references to support
interpretation(s).
At the top of the level, a candidate’s response is likely to be a critical, exploratory, well-structured argument. It takes a conceptualised approach to the full task supported by a range of judicious references. There will be a fine-grained and insightful analysis of methods supported by judicious use of subject terminology. Convincing exploration of one or more ideas/perspectives/contextual factors/interpretations.
At the bottom of the level, a candidate will have Level 5 and be starting to demonstrate elements of exploratory thought and/or analysis of writer’s methods and/or contexts.
AO2 • Analysis of writer’s methods with subject
terminology used judiciously.
• Exploration of effects of writer’s methods to
create meanings.
AO3 • Exploration of ideas/perspectives/contextual
factors shown by specific, detailed links
between context/text/task.
