Hallow'en Macbeth Revision

First of all a couple of apologies:

1) This is later than intended as I badly broke my thumb at the beginning of the holidays and had to have surgery to re-attach it to my hand.

2) Any typos are down to left handed typing.

Your Macbeth / Browning assessment is fast approaching and you need to remind yourself of some of the key parts of your assessment.

We've focused on 8 key skills:

Making effective points
Using and embedding appropriate quotations
Paraphrasing text
Analysing text
Evaluating Writer's Intentions
Linking to contextual details
Comparing
Linking all points to the question

For you to gain a C or above, you'll need to show all skills up to analysis, link to context and compare.

Here is a post helping you develop analytical and evaluative answers.

This post is going to focus on your context and essay construction:

First of all you won't be successful if you don't know what happens in the play. Use http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth_1_1.html to help you revise what is happening in the scenes you've taken your key quotations from.

Context


Remember that your context can be one of three things:

1) History
2) Writer's Specific use of Devices
3) Audience

History is relevant context if your quotation illuminates something specific about the time the text was written or set.

Writer's Specific use vof devices is useful in showing your knowledge of the writer but can only really be mentioned once.

Audience reaction (modern or of the time) is one you will probably use the most.

Shakespeare:

1) Revise your information aboiut King James 1.

2) Be sure you revise how Shakespeare uses Soliloquy (all your quotations come from soliloquies or asides), Aside, Blank Verse, Rhymed Verse , Prose

3) Think about how the audience would react to the changes to Macbeth as a character.

Browning

1) Revise your ideas of Patriarchy and the conservative nature of Victorian society.

2) Revise Browning's use of Dramatic Monologue (here is a nice little explanation)

3) Think about how the reader would react.

Ideally you should be linking to context in every paragraph.

Essay Construction

You should have a variety of points. We've talked about broad range of things succh as - self destruction, greed, arrogance but you have a lot of different types within these areas:

Ambition
Jealousy
Paranoia
Deceit
Over Confidence
Foolishness

You should also remember that you are writing a whole essay not separate paragraphs. Your paragraphs should probably take us through Macbeth chronologically comparing your quotations consistently to the Browning poems but more importantly you should be using phrases such as:

Macbeth's weaknesses develop in the next scene...

We see Macbeth's paranoia increase in...

Act 5 Scene 5 brings Macbeth to the climax of his destruction...

All in all you are well prepared for this - you just need to remember the key skills you've worked hard to develop all half term.

Good Luck

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Developing Band 4 / 5 Answers - Literature

 As the Literature assessments are drawing close, I'd thought I'd analyse the marking criteria and talk through the various indicators for top Band answers. The key for this is:

Amber = Understanding
Purple = Analysis
Blue = The bridge or development to...
Red = Evaluation


______________________________________________________________________________________
Band 5 Candidates demonstrate:

* sophisticated engagement with writers’ ideas and attitudes
in both texts. They develop sophisticated interpretations of both
texts using imaginatively selected supporting textual detail.

*sophisticated analysis of aspects of language and structure
in both texts.

*perceptive, imaginative and balanced exploration of points of
linkage/comparison.

*perceptive and imaginative comment on the significance of
the contexts of both texts.

Band 4 Candidates demonstrate:

*sustained and developed appreciation of writers’ ideas and
attitudes and provide convincing interpretations using precisely
selected supporting textual detail in both texts.

*analysis of aspects of language and structure in both texts in
convincing detail.

*thoughtful and balanced consideration of links/points of
comparison between the texts.

*thoughtful consideration of the significance of the contexts
of both texts.

____________________________________________________________________________________

We've looked at Higher Order thinking skills and looked to develop our analytical and evaluative skills. Essentially you analyse everyday, but it is the applying of this skill to English that people struggle with.

'Sir glared at me. He's not happy. I think he's trying to tell me something. It might be that I'm talking. Shall I carry on? Judging by the disappointment in his eyes, I better be quiet.'

Analysing is breaking something to its basic parts and working out what they could mean.

Evaluating is then being able to look at the parts and the message and judge its impact.

'Sir glared at me. He's not happy. I think he's trying to tell me something. It might be that I'm talking. Shall I carry on? Judging by the disappointment in his eyes, I better be quiet. That was quite frightening. I wouldn't like to be in his bad books. I certainly know what he expects.

So how does that tie into the mark scheme?

Take Band 4 - key words are 'convincing detail', 'precisely selected supporting textual detail', and 'thoughtful consideration'.

To show this I need to see you independently tackling the task looking at a wide range of detail from the play, considering the way that the writer's have crafted the texts and the impressions they develop overall.

In short, I need you not to be scared to give your own opinions of why Shakespeare and Browning use the language they've used. It is difficult - you are taught that this is hugely important and everything hinges on each Controlled Assessment. However, to hit the top of Band 4 and push into Band 5 you need to take risks. You need to believe in your own thoughts and opinions because that is what makes me marking these works smile and enjoy.

I don't want 60 essays that have been created to a formula.

Most of your school day you trust your opinions and will believe they are the right thing until you enter a classroom and are asked to apply them to a situation you are unfamiliar with. Trust your own thoughts - test them in your mind - do they make sense from what you know about the character?

Knowing that Lady Macbeth has been overbearing / controlling / manipulative is she really commenting on Macbeth's clothing in:

'Was the hope drunk wherein you dress'd yourself?'

Would Macbeth's dress sense worry her? What else does dress suggest? Appearance? Does Macbeth appear different in this scene to when we last saw him at the end of Act 1 Scene 5? Is that what she is more angry about?

Your 'thoughtful' consideration is what gains you the higher marks. Your thoughts (closely linked to the text as a whole) = better marks.

Moving into Band 5 is about having those original thoughts where you don't just develop one idea but you offer many and think about the impact the writer intends to have:

'Was the hope drunk wherein you dress'd yourself?' suggests the disappointment that Lady Macbeth has of Macbeth's metaphorical change in appearance since he agreed to the plot. Her use of 'dress'd seems to accuse Macbeth of only looking like or pretending to be strong enough to kill Duncan although this though the idea of 'drunk' seems to suggest where he was uninhibited before his inhibitions no control him. This may also develop the idea of Macbeth as a coward highlighting her control in the relationship, especially as she assaults Macbeth with a barrage of demeaning Rhetorical Questions and paints him as almost a fool: he is only able to act the part with support of alcohol (or this could potentially be her support). Shakespeare crafts this scene highlighting Lady Macbeth at the peak of her power strengthening the impact of her demise as the plot unravels.

The highlighted section shows understanding of the play in picking out a relevant quotation. The purple then analyses. The blue develops 'thoughtful consideration' and 'perceptive' detail and the red evaluates the impact of the scene / line.

Where a Band 4 answer will stop at the purple, a Band 5 answer would develop the blue and red.

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Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair

Year 10 have there Macbeth assessment coming up and a number of students are experiencing the last minute panic that hits everyone before an assessment.

Here, I'll go through a range of things that may help you.

Presentation is key in Literature - in fact you will see the word 'present' in most GCSE literature questions.

How does the writer present growing up?

Explore the ways writers present love in....

Addressing the 'present' in the question is as key to your success as developing an answer about love or growing up. Present really translates as 'use devices to highlight'.

How does the writer present (use devices to highlight) growing up?

The writer highlights the character growing up through the use of metaphor. This is conveyed in 'suddenly before her eyes, her young boy was a man' which develops the idea of the speed of growing up through the use of the words 'suddenly' and the metaphoric transformation of boy to man 'before here eyes.

Here is an analytical answer covering the 'presents' in picking out devices engaging with language as well as answering the question about growing up.

So Browning and Shakespeare - what devices do they use?

Shakespeare is the master of imagery, rhythm and structure. The man was a genius in painting pictures with words:

'Plucked my nipples from it's boneless gums and dashed the brains out had I so sworn as you'



Here the image of a mother in the most tender and intimate moment with an infant is destroyed by the violence of the word 'dashed' effectively crushing any of the femininity Lady Macbeth wanted to remove from herself in Act 1 Scene 5.

As you track Lady Macbeth throughout the play you notice the images that she conjures surround Gender, Violence, Guilt and the Supernatural. This imagery is key to her presentation.

In the structure of the play Shakespeare crafts Dramatic Irony to shock the audience by the power, deceit and cruelty Lady Macbeth embodies in the early Acts of the play. Her 'playing' of the hostess in Act 1 Scene 6 and pretence of her weak feminine side in Act 2 Scene 3 develop her as manipulative and cunning. Then there is the scene in between with stichomythia highlighting the first signs of weakness within her in Act 2 Scene 2.

As with his use of structure, Shakespeare's use of Soliloquy highlights Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's vulnerability and give the audience the first hints of suspicion from the rest of the cast. Soliloquy is vital in clarifying the motivation and the opinions of the characters. With all the deceit in the scene's with Dramatic Irony without Soliloquy the audience would struggle to keep up with who wants to stab whom and who really thinks what.

Finally, the subtle changes in verse in the scenes: Lady Macbeth's use of Blank Verse as she grows in power to Rhymed Verse in her beautiful four line Soliloquy in Act 3 Scene 2 to her descent into guilt ridden madness through the use of Prose in Act 5 Scene 1. Shakespeare is using all his craft to convey the characters feelings and developments throughout the play.



In the Assessment, it is your job to pick out quotations relevant to the task and analyse these picking out the devices / language used and how they relate to the question.

So what does Browning do?

Well first is the form of the poems - Dramatic Monologues.

Browning was a pioneer of the Dramatic Monologues appealing to the darker side of Victorian Life. The Dramatic Monologue, simply put, is one character speaking their thoughts to an implied listener with the reader almost listening in. In Porphyria's Lover and The Laboratory this takes on an almost manic confessional tone whereas My Last Duchess is controlled and almost more sinister in the manipulation.

Like Shakespeare, Browning is a master of structure. You have the long single stanza of Porphyria and My Last Duchess and then the manic episodic quatrains of The Laboratory. What do these symbolise? Well that is up to you?

Again rhythm is important here especially with the use of Iambic Pentameter in My Last Duchess and the Caesura in each of the poems. The rhythm and the stopping and starting of lines tells us a lot about the characters.

Again you've got lots of imagery in the poems, pathetic fallacy, power, deceit, death and love. The perfect companion to Macbeth.

Once you have all your points, the structuring of your answers is key.

You have to cover A01 (Essentially answer the question using appropriate vocabulary / terminology) AO2 (Analysing Language / Structure) AO3 (Comparison) and AO4 (The Historical and Social Context).

AO1 and AO2 should be covered above but it is still important to cover context in the points you're making.

AO3 are the links you can make between the texts. These might be links in feelings, themes, or language/devices.


Contextual points can include something as simple as the audience being aware that a Soliloquy conveys the characters true thoughts but we can delve deeper.

Consider these questions:

How would a patriarchal society that Shakespeare was writing for react to the power of Lady Macbeth and the seemingly week Macbeth?

How would they have reacted to the Supernatural elements and the betrayal of a King?

What would the outwardly conservative Victorians feel about Browning's Poems?

Put it altogether and you have the perfect paragraph. Cover all your key scenes and you are laughing!

If in doubt follow the wheel -




Year 11 have done this task - if you're lucky they'll post some helpful hints here. You could always ask them how they managed!

Good luck - tweet or post any questions here.

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