Macbeth — Shakespeare
Paper 1, Section A · 30 marks + 4 AO4 marks · ~50 minutes · Extract provided
8
Official questions
2017–2024
2017–2024
34
Total marks
(30 essay + 4 AO4)
(30 essay + 4 AO4)
0
Times "violence" theme
was repeated
was repeated
5
Big themes tested so far:
ambition, supernatural, violence, guilt, gender
ambition, supernatural, violence, guilt, gender
Exam question formula (always the same): "Starting with this [speech / extract / conversation / moment in the play], explore how Shakespeare presents [theme or character quality] in Macbeth." You must analyse the given extract and refer to the rest of the play.
How does Shakespeare present ambition in Macbeth?
Extract: Act 1 Scene 5 — Lady Macbeth's "unsex me here" soliloquy ▼
Extract: Act 1 Scene 5 — Lady Macbeth's "unsex me here" soliloquy ▼
AO1 — What to argue
- Lady Macbeth's ambition is more unrestrained than Macbeth's — she invokes the supernatural to override her own conscience
- Her ambition is paradoxically directed through her husband, not for herself — reveals the limited channels available to women in a patriarchal Jacobean society
- Wider play link: ambition corrodes both characters — by Act 5 Lady Macbeth is broken by guilt; Macbeth has become the more ruthless one without her instigation
- Key insight for grade 9: ambition in the play is never triumphant — it achieves what it desires, then destroys the one who desired it
AO2 — Language, form & structure
- Imperative verbs — "Come, you spirits… Come, thick night… Come to my woman's breasts" — the anaphoric structure shows her ambition as commanding, urgent, almost ritualistic
- Soliloquy form — the audience alone hears her true mind; the dramatic irony intensifies when she performs dutiful hostess to Duncan moments later
- Darkness imagery — "thick night," "dunnest smoke of hell" — she wants to blind conscience itself, suggesting ambition requires the suppression of moral sight
AO3 — Context to embed naturally
- Jacobean gender expectations: women were defined by passivity and maternity — her desire to be "unsexed" would have read as monstrous to a 1606 audience
- Divine right of kings: ambition that targets a monarch was not merely political crime but cosmic transgression against God's order
- James I's Daemonologie (1597): the king's personal interest in witchcraft gives the supernatural invocation political urgency — Shakespeare is writing for his patron
Grade 9 — Opening sentence model
Shakespeare presents ambition in Macbeth as a force that demands the suppression of everything that makes one human — Lady Macbeth's soliloquy reveals that to pursue power, she must first destroy her own conscience, her femininity, and ultimately her capacity for sleep.
Grade 9 — Comparing interpretations (essential for level 6)
A surface reading presents Lady Macbeth as monstrous. A more nuanced reading, however, suggests that Shakespeare is critiquing the system that forces a capable, politically astute woman to channel her intelligence through manipulation of a man — her monstrousness is partly a product of having no legitimate outlet for her ambition.
How does Shakespeare present the attitudes of Macbeth and Banquo towards the supernatural?
Extract: Act 1 Scene 3 — immediately after the witches' prophecies ▼
Extract: Act 1 Scene 3 — immediately after the witches' prophecies ▼
AO1 — What to argue
- Contrast is the key: Banquo is intellectually sceptical and morally guarded; Macbeth is immediately captivated and inwardly seduced
- Crucially: the witches tempt, not create Macbeth's ambition — he is immediately drawn to the prophecy because the desire was already there
- Wider play: by Act 4, Macbeth seeks the witches himself — his relationship with the supernatural shifts from passive recipient to active demander
AO2 — Methods
- Macbeth's aside — "why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair" — the use of aside signals private terror he cannot share; iambic pentameter begins to break down under psychological pressure
- Banquo's "bubbles" simile — he trivialises the witches by reducing them to something fragile and insubstantial; language is his defence against their power
- The word "rapt" used twice about Macbeth — he is already entranced; the passive connotation suggests he sees himself as chosen rather than choosing
AO3 — Context
- James I wrote Daemonologie (1597) — staging witches as genuinely powerful (not fraudulent) aligned with royal belief
- Calvinist predestination: the question of whether the witches reveal or determine fate was theologically live for a Jacobean audience — Macbeth's dilemma is partly about free will vs providence
Grade 9 — Key insight
Shakespeare uses the contrast between Macbeth and Banquo to suggest that the danger of the supernatural lies not in its power but in the pre-existing desires of the listener — Banquo is not immune, but he is forewarned by his own scepticism. The witches function, as Hecate later implies, as exploiters of human weakness rather than creators of fate.
How far does Shakespeare present Macbeth as a violent character?
Extract: Act 1 Scene 2 — the Captain's report of the battle ▼
Extract: Act 1 Scene 2 — the Captain's report of the battle ▼
AO1 — "How far" requires a nuanced position
- Act 1 violence: sanctioned and heroic — Macbeth is praised for the same acts that would be condemned in Acts 3–4
- Argue that the nature of violence changes rather than violence itself: battlefield violence → regicidal violence → paranoid mass murder (Macduff's family)
- Grade 9 position: Macbeth is always violent — but the moral framing of that violence is what transforms him from hero to tyrant. Shakespeare uses violence as a lens through which to explore how societies judge the same act differently depending on who commands it.
AO2 — Methods in extract
- "Unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps" — visceral, almost surgical precision; the graphic detail is presented admiringly by the Captain, showing violence as craft and masculine virtue
- Second-hand narration (Captain telling Duncan) — Macbeth is absent from his own heroic story; his violence is legendary before we meet him, creating expectation Shakespeare then subverts
- "Brave Macbeth" — the epithet is sincere in Act 1; by Act 5 "brave" carries tragic irony as his courage becomes the courage of desperation
AO3 — Context
- Jacobean masculine ideal: military prowess was the highest male virtue — Macbeth's opening violence is the pinnacle of his world's value system
- Lady Macbeth later weaponises this: "so much more the man" when persuading him to murder — the play reveals how masculinity's glorification of violence makes it exploitable
'Lady Macbeth is a female character who changes during the play.' Explore how far you agree.
Extract: Act 5 Scene 1 — the sleepwalking scene ▼
Extract: Act 5 Scene 1 — the sleepwalking scene ▼
AO1 — Nuanced position
- She changes dramatically in her psychological state — from commanding to broken — but her capacity for guilt was always present, suppressed not absent
- Argue: the change is a revelation, not a transformation — her femininity returns because it was never truly destroyed, only repressed
- Ironically, Macbeth changes into what Lady Macbeth wanted to be — ruthless, remorseless — just as she collapses; a role reversal Shakespeare engineers deliberately
AO2 — The sleepwalking extract
- Fragmented prose (not blank verse) — loss of ordered form mirrors loss of ordered mind; earlier she commanded in controlled verse
- "Out, damned spot" — the same imperative constructions she used to summon spirits in Act 1, now turned inward, directed at her own guilt; she has lost the power to command even herself
- Doctor and Gentlewoman as observers — her madness is now public spectacle; she has lost the privacy she depended on to maintain her mask
Grade 9 — Sophisticated context link
Shakespeare's use of prose for Lady Macbeth is structurally significant: prose was conventionally associated with lower-class characters in the period. Her linguistic descent from verse to prose enacts her social and psychological disintegration — she has lost not just her sanity but the cultural markers of her status. The irony is that the very suppression of her femininity that gave her the illusion of power ultimately makes her collapse more total than Macbeth's.
How does Shakespeare present Macbeth's state of mind?
Extract: Act 2 Scene 1 — the "Is this a dagger" soliloquy ▼
Extract: Act 2 Scene 1 — the "Is this a dagger" soliloquy ▼
AO1 — What to argue
- Macbeth's mind is already fracturing before the murder — anticipation of guilt, not guilt itself, destabilises him
- The hallucination shows that his conscience and ambition are at war; the dagger is a projection of desire and fear simultaneously
- Wider: by Act 3 the ghost of Banquo shows hallucinations return; by Act 5 he is numb — the arc of psychological deterioration is complete
AO2 — Methods
- Apostrophe — "Come, let me clutch thee" — addressing the dagger directly shows him losing the boundary between reality and imagination
- Questions — "Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible / To feeling as to sight?" — uncertainty is enacted in the interrogative form; his mind offers no stable answers
- Nature imagery — "witchcraft celebrates / Pale Hecate's offerings" — aligning himself with the supernatural world he is about to enter
How does Shakespeare present Macbeth's fears?
Extract: Act 3 Scene 1 — Macbeth's soliloquy before hiring the murderers ▼
Extract: Act 3 Scene 1 — Macbeth's soliloquy before hiring the murderers ▼
AO1 — What to argue
- Macbeth's primary fear is dynastic — he fears losing legacy (Banquo's sons as kings), not moral punishment; this reveals his ambition persists despite everything
- Key insight: fear drives more violence in this play rather than restraining it — the tragic cycle; each murder creates new threats to fear
- Wider: by Act 5 he claims to have "supped full with horrors" — fear eventually gives way to a kind of nihilistic courage
AO2 — Methods
- "Fruitless crown" / "barren sceptre" — sterility imagery shows fear is about legacy, not conscience; power without continuation is meaningless to him
- Banquo's ghost (Act 3 Scene 4) — fear made externally visible; private psychological terror becomes public spectacle, undermining his authority as king
- The soliloquy form — Shakespeare gives us interiority denied to Lady Macbeth in this scene; his fear is intimate and exposed to the audience
How far does Shakespeare present Macbeth as a male character who changes during the play?
Extract: Act 5 Scene 3 — "I have lived long enough" ▼
Extract: Act 5 Scene 3 — "I have lived long enough" ▼
AO1 — "How far" position
- He changes from honoured soldier to isolated tyrant — but what stays constant is his physical courage, which never abandons him
- "How far": argue that the capacity for change was always there (his conscience was never entirely absent); but the direction of change is consistently downward
- Sophisticated angle: the play questions whether Macbeth's "masculinity" changes or whether it is revealed — stripped of social role and Lady Macbeth, we see what remains
AO2 — Extract methods
- "I have lived long enough" — a short, declarative sentence after the expansive rhetoric of Act 1; the syntactic compression enacts psychological exhaustion
- Listing of what he has lost — "honour, love, obedience, troops of friends" — the catalogue of absence shows a man aware of his own devastation; this self-knowledge is almost tragic
- Yet he still fights — "Yet I will try the last" — the soldier's identity survives everything else; stubbornness becomes the only remaining version of himself
How does Shakespeare present the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?
Extract: Act 2 Scene 2 — immediately after Duncan's murder ▼
Extract: Act 2 Scene 2 — immediately after Duncan's murder ▼
AO1 — What to argue
- The murder is the pivot point — their roles begin to swap here; Lady Macbeth's control starts to slip as Macbeth's guilt and then determination both grow without her
- Their relationship begins as a genuine partnership (uniquely for the period) and deteriorates into emotional isolation — by Act 5 Macbeth hears of her death with near-indifference
- Wider play: the couple's inability to share guilt is what destroys them; their communication fractures because each processes trauma differently
AO2 — Methods
- Stichomythia (rapid, alternating short lines) — the jagged exchange creates panic and shows the first moment their rhythms are out of sync
- "A little water clears us of this deed" — Lady Macbeth's pragmatism here foreshadows the sleepwalking scene where no amount of washing helps; dramatic irony at the play's structural level
- Macbeth's fixation on the "voice" he heard — he cannot suppress his conscience; she can at this point. The divergence in their responses here predicts the divergence to come
Grade 9 — Structural analysis
Shakespeare structures their relationship as an inverse arc: as Macbeth's moral sensitivity decreases, Lady Macbeth's guilt increases — they pass each other going in opposite directions. This structural irony means the audience watches both characters fail, but for opposite reasons: he loses his conscience; she cannot lose hers.
Likely focuses: appearance vs reality · Macbeth's relationship with the witches (Act 4) · loyalty and betrayal
These specific angles have not appeared in any exam 2017–2024 ▼
These specific angles have not appeared in any exam 2017–2024 ▼
Predicting gaps in the pattern
- Act 4 Scene 1 (cauldron/apparitions) has never been an extract — high-value revision target
- Loyalty/treachery as a theme has not been directly asked — the play opens with a traitor executed and closes with another king killed; strong thematic backbone
- Appearance vs reality ("Fair is foul") — the play's opening paradox has never been the central question despite being one of its core ideas
- Whatever comes up: the structure of your essay is more important than the specific question — a student who can deploy AO1 + AO2 + AO3 fluently will adapt to any question
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — Stevenson
Paper 1, Section B · 30 marks · ~45 minutes · Extract provided
7
Official questions
2017–2024
2017–2024
30
Marks available
(no AO4 in Sec B)
(no AO4 in Sec B)
Ch.1
Most common extract
chapter range
chapter range
Question formula: "Starting with this extract, explore how Stevenson presents [theme/character]." Extract is always provided. Must analyse extract and link to the whole novel. Unlike Macbeth, there is no "how far do you agree" phrasing — but you should still offer alternative readings for grade 8–9.
Past questions 2017–2024
How does Stevenson explore the idea of duality?
Extract: Chapter 10 — Jekyll's confession about his life as a younger man ▼
Extract: Chapter 10 — Jekyll's confession about his life as a younger man ▼
AO1 — What to argue
- Duality is not unique to Jekyll — Stevenson presents it as a universal Victorian condition: the gap between public respectability and private desire that every middle-class man navigates
- Grade 9 angle: Hyde is not purely evil — he is Jekyll's authentic self stripped of social performance; both halves are real, the choice of suppression is what creates the monster
- The novel's form itself enacts duality — multiple narrators (Utterson, Lanyon, Jekyll) means the "truth" is always partial, always fragmented
AO2 — Methods
- Setting duality — Jekyll's respectable Cavendish Square frontage vs Hyde's Soho laboratory accessed through the back door; the architectural split literalises the psychological one
- "Cloak" metaphor — "to doff at once the body of the noted professor, and to assume, like a thick cloak, that of Edward Hyde" — Hyde is worn, not a separate being; the image implies Hyde can be shed, but eventually cannot be
- Epistolary structure — Stevenson reserves the truth for the final two chapters (letters from Lanyon and Jekyll); the delay mirrors the Victorian suppression of uncomfortable truth
AO3 — Context
- Darwin's evolutionary theory (1859): fear that humans retained "primitive" impulses beneath civilised exteriors — Hyde's animalistic descriptions directly invoke this anxiety
- Victorian respectability: the pressure to maintain a morally upright public persona was enormous for middle-class men; Stevenson is interrogating the psychological cost of this performance
- Fin de siècle degeneration theory: 1880s debates about whether civilisation could "regress" — Hyde represents this fear made flesh
How does Stevenson present ideas about good and evil?
Extract: Chapter 2 — Utterson reads Jekyll's will, encounters Hyde for the first time ▼
Extract: Chapter 2 — Utterson reads Jekyll's will, encounters Hyde for the first time ▼
AO1 — What to argue
- Stevenson complicates the binary — Jekyll is "good" by Victorian standards but his experiments reveal moral recklessness; Hyde does evil but his pleasures are Jekyll's authentic desires
- The novel suggests that defining evil as purely external (as Victorian society does) is itself a moral failure — it enables the Jekyll/Hyde split to occur in the first place
- Utterson represents moral pragmatism — "I incline to Cain's heresy / I let my brother go to the devil in his own way" — even the "good" characters have compromised ethics
AO2 — Methods
- Gothic imagery throughout: fog, locked doors, midnight activities — evil is always concealed, associated with darkness and inaccessibility
- Hyde described as "troglodytic," "ape-like," radiating "Satanic" impression — Darwinian and religious registers simultaneously; Stevenson uses multiple cultural frameworks for "evil"
- The legal document (the will) as the entry point — evil enters through the most rational, trustworthy Victorian institution, the law; the juxtaposition is deliberately unsettling
How does Stevenson present the importance of reputation?
Extract: Chapter 1 — Enfield describes Hyde's trampling incident to Utterson ▼
Extract: Chapter 1 — Enfield describes Hyde's trampling incident to Utterson ▼
AO1 — What to argue
- Reputation is presented as the supreme Victorian value — characters consistently suppress truth to protect social standing, and this silence enables Hyde to operate
- Stevenson's critique: the cult of reputation is what makes the Jekyll/Hyde situation possible and what keeps it hidden — complicity is built from respectability
- The novel's resolution is built on reputation too — Utterson burns Lanyon's letter and manages Jekyll's estate, preserving the fiction of respectability even after death
AO2 — Methods
- Utterson's name — "utter son," suggesting someone who should speak but consistently chooses silence; the irony is structural
- "No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene" — free indirect speech captures Victorian social hypocrisy in a single sentence; the narrative voice adopts the value system it critiques
- Enfield's rule: "the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask" — wilful ignorance is presented as social etiquette; Stevenson reveals how reputation depends on collective blindness
Grade 9 — Critical reading
Stevenson presents reputation not merely as social vanity but as a structural force that determines what can be seen and said in Victorian society. The men in Chapter 1 agree to forget what they have witnessed — and in that agreement, Stevenson suggests, lies the enabling condition of everything that follows. Reputation is not a victim of the Hyde situation; it is its architect.
How does Stevenson present the dangers of scientific experimentation?
Extract: Chapter 9 — Lanyon witnesses the transformation ▼
Extract: Chapter 9 — Lanyon witnesses the transformation ▼
AO1 — What to argue
- Science without ethical limits destroys both experimenter and witness — Jekyll dies losing himself; Lanyon dies of shock; science is contagious in its destructiveness
- Jekyll's experiments represent scientific hubris — the Faustian desire to "transcend" human nature; Stevenson aligns this with the Gothic tradition of transgression and punishment
- Key nuance: the science itself is not the problem — it is the absence of moral framework; Jekyll uses the freedom science gives him irresponsibly
AO2 — Methods
- Gothic horror in the transformation — "he seemed to swell," "features seemed to melt and alter" — science produces the physically monstrous; the body becomes the site of horror
- Lanyon's epistolary narration — written as a death-bed confession; the act of writing kills him because knowledge itself is lethal when it transgresses natural limits
- Jekyll's rhetorical questions and grandiose language in his own confession — "I had but to drink the cup" — messianic self-mythologising reveals his arrogance even in confession
AO3 — Context
- 1880s scientific anxiety: vivisection debates, germ theory, anaesthesia — rapid advances made some Victorians fear science outpacing morality
- The novel was published 1886 — same decade as Jack the Ripper murders (1888); Hyde's violence connects to real public fear about hidden criminality in respectable London
Likely themes: Hyde's violence/evil nature · Utterson as detective figure · fear and horror · the city/setting of London
These have appeared as minor elements but not as the primary question focus ▼
These have appeared as minor elements but not as the primary question focus ▼
Key revision targets for 2025
- Hyde as a character in his own right — his violence, his energy, his appeal to Jekyll — not merely as a symbol
- The setting of London — Jekyll's respectable West End vs Hyde's Soho — has supported many questions but never been the primary focus
- Chapter 8 (Poole and the breaking down of the door) — a tense, climactic chapter that hasn't been an extract yet
An Inspector Calls — J.B. Priestley
Paper 2, Section A · 30 marks · ~45 minutes · NO extract — whole-play essay
8+
Official questions
2017–2024
2017–2024
30
Marks available
No
Extract given — must
recall your own evidence
recall your own evidence
Key difference from Paper 1: An Inspector Calls questions give you no extract — you write a whole-play essay choosing your own evidence. Questions typically ask: "How does Priestley present [character/theme] in An Inspector Calls?" or "How far does Priestley present [character] as [quality]?" Always two questions offered — pick one.
Past questions 2017–2024 (two per year — pick one)
Q1: How far does Priestley present Mrs Birling as an unlikeable character?
Q2: How does Priestley use the Inspector to suggest ways society could be improved? ▼
Q2: How does Priestley use the Inspector to suggest ways society could be improved? ▼
Q1: Mrs Birling — key arguments
- She is designed to be morally repugnant — her refusal to help Eva Smith at the charity committee is presented as prejudice dressed as principle
- "How far" — consider whether Priestley wants understanding as well as judgment; she is a product of her class, era and a society that rewards her attitudes
- Her confidence is structural, not individual — she represents a whole class's inability to conceive that Eva's suffering is related to their choices
AO2 — Methods for Mrs Birling
- "I'm talking as a member of a hard-headed, practical older generation" — dramatic irony; she frames selfishness as wisdom and experience
- Her refusal to acknowledge Eva's pregnancy even after learning Eric is the father — structural dramatic irony; the audience knows before she does
- She is given the least character development of the Birling family — Priestley's deliberate choice; she is the most resistant to the play's message
AO3 — Context
- Written 1945, set 1912 — Priestley addresses a post-war audience who had experienced collective sacrifice (rationing, evacuation); Mrs Birling represents the individualist pre-war mindset that caused the failures he is critiquing
- The welfare state was being established (1945–48) as the play was written — Priestley was actively arguing for collective responsibility; Mrs Birling is its antithesis
Q1: How does Priestley explore the importance of social class?
Q2: How does Priestley present Eric as a character who changes his attitudes? ▼
Q2: How does Priestley present Eric as a character who changes his attitudes? ▼
Q1: Social class — key arguments
- Class is the mechanism of exploitation — each Birling's involvement with Eva reflects how class privilege enables harm with impunity
- Priestley presents class as morally corrosive, not neutral — those who most strongly assert class superiority are judged most harshly by the play's structure
- Key: Eva Smith has no name of her own — "Smith" is generic, the most common English surname; Priestley makes her the representative of an entire class rendered nameless by those who exploit them
AO2 — Methods
- Mr Birling's opening speech — confident predictions about the Titanic, no war, labour harmony; the dramatic irony is devastating because the 1945 audience knows every prediction was wrong; class confidence produces fatal blindness
- Inspector Goole — "goole" sounds like "ghoul"; he is a supernatural avenging force, but also perhaps the collective conscience of the working class made visible
- The lighting changes from "warm and intimate" to "harder and brighter" — Priestley's stagecraft makes class comfort literally visible, then strips it away
Q1: How does Priestley present selfishness and its effects?
Q2: How does Priestley present Sheila Birling as a character who changes? ▼
Q2: How does Priestley present Sheila Birling as a character who changes? ▼
Q1: Selfishness — key argument
- Each character's act of selfishness is individually "understandable" — a businessman's decision, a jilted fiancé's jealousy, a boy's recklessness — but cumulatively they kill Eva Smith
- Priestley's genius: the play shows how ordinary selfishness, not monstrous evil, destroys lives; the Birlings are not villains, they are just people who never look beyond themselves
- The Inspector's final speech — "We are members of one body" — is the explicit thematic statement: collectivism against individualism
Q1: How far does Priestley present Mr Birling as a man who cares only for himself?
Q2: How far does Priestley present male characters as irresponsible? ▼
Q2: How far does Priestley present male characters as irresponsible? ▼
Q2: Male characters — key argument
- All male characters show irresponsibility — Mr Birling (economic), Gerald (sexual), Eric (both) — but their irresponsibility is enabled by patriarchal power, not just individual weakness
- "How far" — note that the Inspector himself is male; Priestley complicates the gender critique by making the moral agent male too
Q1: How far does Priestley present Eric as a character who learns important lessons?
Q2: 'Priestley shows how inequality in society leads to tragedy.' How far do you agree? ▼
Q2: 'Priestley shows how inequality in society leads to tragedy.' How far do you agree? ▼
Q1: Eric — nuanced position
- Eric does genuinely learn — he is appalled and accepts responsibility, unlike his parents
- But: his behaviour towards Eva was coercive and exploitative — remorse does not cancel the harm; the play is careful not to let his contrition become redemption
- He is positioned as the representative of younger generation that Priestley hopes will do better — not a hero, but a possibility
Q1: How does Priestley present the theme of inequality?
Q2: How does Priestley present Gerald's role in the play? ▼
Q2: How does Priestley present Gerald's role in the play? ▼
Q1: Inequality — key argument
- Inequality is structural, not incidental — the Birlings' wealth actively depends on keeping people like Eva Smith cheap and powerless
- Gender inequality intersects class: Eva is doubly vulnerable as a poor woman in 1912 — she has no legal protection, no union rights, no welfare state
- The ending is deliberately ambiguous about whether inequality will be addressed — the phone call at the end suggests the tragic cycle will repeat
Power & Conflict Poetry Anthology
Paper 2, Section B · 30 marks · ~45 minutes · Named poem printed on paper; you choose the comparison poem
Question formula (always): "Compare how poets present [theme] in [named poem] and in one other poem from 'Power and Conflict'." The named poem is printed in full on the paper. You must choose and recall your second poem — choosing well is a real skill.
All past questions 2017–2024 with strategic pairing advice
| Year | Theme asked | Named poem | Best second poem choices (with reason) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Effects of war / difficult experiences | Bayonet Charge · Remains | Exposure — WW1 contrast (inaction vs action); War Photographer — trauma carried home |
| 2018 | Ideas about power | Ozymandias | London — systemic vs personal power; My Last Duchess — gendered control; The Prelude — nature's power |
| 2019 | Effects of war on people | War Photographer · Poppies | Kamikaze — civilian aftermath; Remains — psychological damage; Bayonet Charge — mid-battle |
| 2020 | Difficult/painful experiences | Remains · War Photographer | Poppies — grief and loss; Exposure — physical and psychological suffering |
| 2021 | Power and control | London · The Emigrée | My Last Duchess — individual control; Ozymandias — political power over time; Checking Out Me History — reclaiming identity |
| 2022 | Ideas about conflict | Bayonet Charge | Exposure — same WW1 setting, different perspective; Storm on the Island — nature as conflict |
| 2023 | Power and its effects | My Last Duchess · London | Ozymandias — futility of power; Checking Out Me History — reclaiming power through identity |
| 2024 | How people are affected by conflict | Kamikaze · Bayonet Charge | Poppies — domestic aftermath; War Photographer — civilian carrying trauma; Remains — psychological aftermath |
Deep-dive: high-value poems to know inside-out
Bayonet Charge (Ted Hughes) — most frequently named poem; know every technique
▼
AO1 — Central argument
- Hughes presents war as a process of dehumanisation — the soldier loses identity, ideology and humanity until he is reduced to pure animal instinct
- The poem suggests that the causes of war become meaningless in the experience of it — "King, honour, human dignity, etcetera / Dropped like luxuries"
AO2 — Key techniques
- Present tense throughout — "he lugged a rifle" shifts to present; the reader is pulled into the moment with the soldier; no narrative distance or retrospective comfort
- Enjambment mimics the charge — lines run on relentlessly, as the soldier cannot stop; form enacts theme
- "Yellow hare" simile — the soldier is compared to an animal fleeing for its life; the transformation from human to animal is complete
- Punctuation as shock — the poem begins mid-action; no introduction; the reader is dropped into chaos
AO3 — Context
- Hughes did not serve in WW1 but wrote extensively about war's psychological cost — this is an empathetic rather than autobiographical poem
- Written during the Cold War era — the critique of ideological war ("King, honour, etcetera") has contemporary resonance for Hughes's readers
Ozymandias (Percy Bysshe Shelley) — best poem for any "power" question
▼
AO1 — Central argument
- Human power is ultimately futile against time and nature — the most powerful ruler in history is now rubble in a desert; the arrogance of power is self-defeating
- Shelley critiques the political tyranny of his own era (the poem was written in 1818 during the Napoleonic period) — it is both historical and contemporary
AO2 — Key techniques
- Sonnet form with subverted rhyme scheme — the rigid structure of the sonnet (associated with permanence and love) ironically contains a poem about impermanence; form subverts expectation
- Embedded narrative (traveller told the speaker) — Ozymandias's power survives only in remembered fragments; it is already twice removed from reality
- "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" — the irony intensifies with the next line ("Nothing beside remains") — the command only emphasises total destruction
- Juxtaposition: "sneer of cold command" (the tyrant's expression) preserved in stone while everything he commanded is gone — his arrogance outlasts his power but only as mockery
How to write the comparison paragraph — the method that gets grade 9
▼
Do NOT structure your essay as "poem 1… poem 2… comparison at the end"
- This is the most common mistake. Examiners reward integrated comparison — comparing throughout, not at the end
The integrated paragraph structure
Structure: Point about Poem 1 → quotation → analysis → comparative connective → point about Poem 2 → quotation → analysis → develop the comparison
Example: "Both poets present conflict as psychologically destructive, but while Hughes uses present-tense immediacy to place the reader inside the soldier's disintegrating mind, Duffy's War Photographer creates retrospective distance — the photographer 'seeks' solutions in the darkroom long after the event, suggesting trauma recurs rather than ends."
Example: "Both poets present conflict as psychologically destructive, but while Hughes uses present-tense immediacy to place the reader inside the soldier's disintegrating mind, Duffy's War Photographer creates retrospective distance — the photographer 'seeks' solutions in the darkroom long after the event, suggesting trauma recurs rather than ends."
High-scoring comparative connectives
- Contrast: whereas, in contrast, conversely, unlike, while, by comparison
- Similarity: similarly, likewise, both poets, in the same way, equally
- Nuance: yet both, despite this, although X presents… Y complicates this by…, where X focuses on… Y extends this to…
The Grade 9 Essay Formula
Decoded from AQA mark schemes and examiner reports 2017–2024
Step 1: The three assessment objectives — what examiners actually reward
AO1 — Your interpretation
Personal, informed response. Argue a clear position. Select and reference evidence. Grade 9 key: offer multiple interpretations ("alternatively…", "a more cynical reading suggests…"). Never just describe the plot.
AO2 — The writer's methods
Analyse specific techniques: language (word choice, imagery, metaphor) AND form (sonnet, soliloquy, monologue) AND structure (how the text is ordered, where climaxes fall). Grade 9 key: go beyond word-choice into form and structure.
AO3 — Context
Historical, social, cultural context embedded purposefully — not bolted on at the end. Grade 9 key: "For a Jacobean audience who…" is better than "Shakespeare lived in Jacobean times." Context must explain the text, not merely describe the period.
Step 2: The paragraph formula — every paragraph, every time
Point (AO1 — make your interpretive claim, linked to the question) →
Evidence (short, embedded quotation — no more than 5–6 words) →
Analyse (AO2 — name the technique + explain the effect on the reader/audience) →
Develop (alternative interpretation OR link to another part of the text — this is what separates grade 7 from grade 9) →
Context (AO3 — embed naturally, explain why it matters for the meaning)
- Never start a paragraph with "This quote shows…" — start with your interpretive claim about the text
- Never quote long passages — embed short quotations in your own sentences
- Paragraphs 1–2: focus on the extract; Paragraph 3 must reference the rest of the text
- Aim for 3 substantial paragraphs + introduction + conclusion; quality over quantity
Step 3: The grade gap — what separates each band
Grade 4–5 (Level 3)
"Lady Macbeth says she wants the spirits to 'unsex' her. This shows she is ambitious. Shakespeare uses this to show she is a powerful woman."
Problems: describes rather than analyses; no technique named; no context; no alternative reading.
Grade 8–9 (Level 5–6)
"Shakespeare's use of imperative verbs — 'Come, you spirits… Come, thick night' — presents Lady Macbeth's ambition as ritualistic and commanding; the anaphora creates an incantatory rhythm that positions her as both supplicant and director of evil. For a Jacobean audience familiar with witchcraft, her invocation would register as genuinely transgressive — not merely metaphorical — rendering her ambition as cosmically dangerous rather than merely politically inconvenient."
Step 4: High-scoring analytical vocabulary
Instead of "shows"connotes / foregrounds / renders / positions the reader to / implies / reveals
Instead of "uses"deploys / constructs / engineers / fashions / orchestrates / employs
For alternative readingsalternatively / a more subversive reading / paradoxically / it is possible to argue / conversely
For form & structuresoliloquy / stichomythia / enjambment / caesura / volta / dramatic irony / free indirect speech / epistolary form
For context integration"For a [period] audience…" / "Writing in [year], Stevenson…" / "In the context of…, this would have registered as…"
For comparing interpretationsShakespeare invites a dual reading… / The ambiguity here is purposeful… / A surface reading suggests… however…
For structureStructurally significant / at this point in the play / the placement of this scene / Stevenson reserves this revelation until…
For poetry comparisonwhereas / by contrast / both poets / despite this similarity / while X employs… Y instead chooses…
Step 5: The introduction — 3 sentences, written in 2 minutes
Sentence 1: Answer the question directly with a conceptual claim (not a plot summary).
Sentence 2: Name your central method/technique and its effect.
Sentence 3: Signal your wider argument (including the nuance / alternative reading).
Model: "Stevenson presents duality not merely as a scientific experiment but as the inevitable consequence of a society that demands the total suppression of human desire in the name of respectability. Through the novel's fragmented, multi-narrator structure, he suggests that truth about the human psyche can only be approached obliquely — in confessions, letters and second-hand accounts. Crucially, Hyde is not wholly monstrous: he is Jekyll's authentic self, and Stevenson's most disturbing suggestion is that the creature society created is not Hyde, but Jekyll."
Sentence 2: Name your central method/technique and its effect.
Sentence 3: Signal your wider argument (including the nuance / alternative reading).
Model: "Stevenson presents duality not merely as a scientific experiment but as the inevitable consequence of a society that demands the total suppression of human desire in the name of respectability. Through the novel's fragmented, multi-narrator structure, he suggests that truth about the human psyche can only be approached obliquely — in confessions, letters and second-hand accounts. Crucially, Hyde is not wholly monstrous: he is Jekyll's authentic self, and Stevenson's most disturbing suggestion is that the creature society created is not Hyde, but Jekyll."
Step 6: Timing strategy — Paper 1 (1hr 45 min)
- 10 minutes: Read both questions in Section A (Shakespeare) and choose. Plan your essay — jot 3–4 main points, key quotations from extract + rest of play, one context point per paragraph
- 50 minutes: Write your Shakespeare essay. Include a brief introduction, 3–4 analytical paragraphs, a conclusion
- 5 minutes: Read Section B question (Jekyll/Hyde) and plan
- 40 minutes: Write your 19th-century novel essay
- Never skip the plan — even 3 minutes planning saves 10 minutes of circling back mid-essay