Shakespeare and GCSE Assessment: AQA GCSE English Literature · Dynamic Learning: AQA assessment 3 The resources provided in Dynamic Learning are designed to develop appreciation

M

acbe

th D

ynam

ic L

earn

ing:

AQ

A a

sses

smen

t

1

Shakespeare and GCSE Assessment: AQA GCSE English Literature There are two options in AQA GCSE English Literature for the assessment of Shakespeare, outlined briefly below.

Unit 3: The significance of Shakespeare and the English Literary Heritage In AQA GCSE English Literature, Shakespeare is assessed by Controlled Assessment. The Task consists of:

a free choice of Shakespeare text

a choice of Tasks to link Shakespeare with other options of English Literary Heritage poetry, prose or drama (including another Shakespeare play)

a task bank of titles based on Themes and Ideas and Characterisation and Voice

a limit of total 2000 words suggested as a rough guide

25% of the total available marks for English Literature

a time limit of up to 4 hours in which to complete the assignment.

Unit 4: Approaching Shakespeare and the English Literary Heritage In AQA GCSE English Literature, Shakespeare is assessed by examination. The examination will consist of:

a choice of 5 set Shakespeare texts: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar

20% of the total available marks for English Literature

a time limit of up to 45 minutes in which to complete the examination..

AQA GCSE English (literary reading) In AQA GCSE English, Shakespeare is assessed by Controlled Assessment in Unit 3, Understanding and producing creative texts (Part A). The Task consists of:

a free choice of Shakespeare text

an option to choose one Task out of three (each Task is separately marked)


a suggested limit of 1600 words for the three Tasks

20% of the total available marks for English

a time limit of up to 4 hours to complete all three Tasks.

Globe Education Shakespeare: Macbeth COPYRIGHT © 2011 THE SHAKESPEARE GLOBE TRUST

AQA GCSE English Language There is no Shakespeare requirement, but Shakespeare can be used for the extended Reading Controlled Assessment Task in Unit 3: Understanding spoken and written texts and writing creatively:


a suggested limit of 1200 words

15% of the total available marks for English Language

a time limit of up to 4 hours. Using the key scenes with AQA GCSE English Literature and GCSE English: Examiner’s notes

Student appreciation of Shakespeare’s dramatic craft Four scenes have been selected as key points in Macbeth for a focus on GCSE assessment:

Act 1 Scene 7 (pages 32–33): Lady Macbeth persuading Macbeth to murder Duncan.

Act 3 Scene 4 (pages 72–73): Macbeth and Banquo’s ghost at the banquet.

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

2

Act 4 Scene 1 (pages 83–84): Macbeth visiting the Witches and being shown the apparitions.

Act 5 Scenes 7–8 (pages 120–121): Macbeth’s death and Malcolm proclaimed king.

Each provides a mix of stimulus and support, designed to show that Shakespeare’s text is a rich source for performance and to promote:

student appreciation of Shakespeare’s dramatic craft and ways in which the plays are relevant and interesting to a modern audience

student confidence in preparing for GCSE assessment.

The focus on assessment for the four key scenes presents students with questions that address:

character and plot development

characterisation and voice: dramatic language

themes and ideas

performance

overall reflections on the scene.


Student preparation for GCSE assessment The questions have been designed to support preparation for Controlled Assessment or examination, and those within ‘Reflecting on the scene’ provide a general area for discussion and some writing. The broad areas they address are designed to complement and support the range of specific tasks or questions used for assessment. The Examiner’s Tips in the margins provide guidance from an examiner on key features that will support student responses. The questions are not intended as a prompt to comprehension and retrieval but as a prompt to exploration, investigation and probing. These may be better as paired activities, or as group work, encouraging learning through sharing experience and group discussion. They are also designed to complement and develop the active approaches that accompany each scene throughout Macbeth, and can be used in conjunction with the digital support through Dynamic Learning, such as video clips of different productions and interviews with actors and directors. There are many ways of approaching use of video clips, for example:

students can make judgements about the video if first hearing the soundtrack only, then seeing the action without sound. This will help them to see how tone and emphasis matter, how movement and gesture matter, and how the two support the performance in bringing the script to life

students can make their own judgements about performances by listing the merits of each under the headings of ‘actor’s use of voices’ and ‘effects of using a camera’.

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

3

The resources provided in Dynamic Learning are designed to develop appreciation of Shakespeare across Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, and prepare for GCSE assessment.

Focusing on Assessment Objectives The activities, questions and comments are based on the Assessment Objectives for GCSE Literature. The focus of the questions and the skills involved are easily transferable when responding to Shakespeare in the context of the most of the Assessment Objectives for English, or if choosing Shakespeare as an extended text in English Language, Unit 3. English Literature Assessment Objectives AO1: Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate and support interpretation AO2: Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings AO3: Make comparisons and explain links between texts, evaluating writers’ different ways of expressing meaning and achieving effects AO4: Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential and significant to self and other readers in different contexts


English Assessment Objective (AO2, reading)

Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Develop and sustain interpretations of writers’ ideas and perspectives.

Explain and evaluate how writers use linguistic, grammatical, structural and presentational features to achieve effects and engage and influence the reader.

Understand texts in their social, cultural and historical contexts.

English Language Assessment Objectives (AO3, studying written language)

Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Develop and sustain interpretations of writers’ ideas and perspectives.

Explain and evaluate how writers use linguistic, grammatical, structural and presentational features to achieve effects and engage and influence the reader.

Making links and comparisons

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

4

Within the English Literature Assessment Objectives, AO3 comes into play when the Shakespeare text is linked with one other text from the English (Welsh or Irish) Literary Heritage. For the AQA GCSE Literature Controlled Assessment Task, the text can be from any genre, but must not be a text studied in any other unit of GCSE Literature. Given the wide range of choices available for centres to use in the context of this assessment objective, our resources have kept the focus on the Shakespeare text only. However, it is useful to bear in mind that making links and comparisons within a text is a necessary part of exploring structure. This helps to show that Shakespeare is consistent in his craft or that he is adaptable and diverse in his craft. Both points are worth making to show how something sustained is a merit and something varied is also a merit.

Examples of student performance Example tasks for AQA GCSE English Literature and GCSE English with responses at different bands and examiner comments on how to improve can be found within Personal Tutor in Dynamic Learning which provide insight into how Shakespeare’s text and theatrical performances fit into the GCSE assessment objectives and band criteria. These support you in modelling techniques of using quotation and addressing key aspects of the Assessment Objectives. Samples of work meeting specific band criteria support you in making differentiated assessment judgements and modelling for students how to improve performance alongside examiner guidance focusing on key skills required for Band 2, Band 3 and Band 5. There is no direct correlation between marks or


bands and eventual grades because grades are the result of adding up different batches of marks with different mark ranges and different bands, but it is reasonable to assume that a Grade C might roughly correspond to marks within the middle band and that A* will be somewhere at the top of the top band.

Controlled Assessment Controlled Assessment has been introduced to give more favourable conditions than an examination for reflective and developed responses to Literature and to ensure that what candidates submit can be guaranteed to be their own original work. There is an expectation that the work produced under controlled conditions will not be as polished as was the case with coursework, but that it will enable personal and individualised writing about texts. The timing of Controlled Assessment Tasks is an important part of this: students will be assessed at the best possible time – when their recently completed study is still fresh in their minds, rather than a year later following various revisits and revisions.

Learning and teaching

Controlled Assessment

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

5

The important message for teachers and students is that GCSE Controlled Assessment responses need to be exactly that – responses. Moderators and examiners will be looking for honest, personal, independent insights and reactions to themes, characters and situations as well as evidence of understanding learned aspects of language, structure and context. Responses which are evaluative, attitudinal and opinionated will be welcome. Lists of technical features detected in Shakespeare’s language will be of less value. What matters is not so much being able to notice that Shakespeare uses a metaphor, but explaining why the metaphor is an effective one for the purpose. It follows, therefore, that effective preparation should avoid excessive common scaffolding, which makes all the candidates’ work appear similar. A common focus on features worthy of response is helpful. A list of what they should mention is not. Preparation for assessment can be whole-class, solo or group-based and, clearly, teachers will want to provide guidance for the written Task. It is important, though, that any guidance should be in terms of skills rather than content. The idea of a page of brief notes is that it should be used as a reminder of key features of response, not a list of contents. Students should be encouraged to find their own quotations to support their comments, or the result will be of whole groups of responses with the same structure, content and comments. The bottom line is that any provided scaffolding of response should not obscure or dominate whatever the students produce as individuals.

Links across GCSE components You might also use the key scene question prompts as the basis for more sustained talk as part of the ongoing assessment of Speaking and Listening. There is scope for further cross-over in an integrated course: these Shakespeare activities may well generate student


activities which result in forms of writing (reviews, adaptations and transformations) which can be assessed in the Writing repertoire.

Links with cross-component skills In English (Reading) the Assessment Objectives are similar to those in Literature – personal interpretation, focus on authorial craft and placing texts in a cultural context, for example, so teaching and learning can reinforce the transferability of skills. There are also aspects of English (Writing) where there is a need for some of the skills practised in the English Literature Controlled Assessment – awareness of audience and purpose, for example. This is true also of the Reading and Writing elements of the externally assessed components. For example, justifying a response by supporting it with appropriate evidence is as essential in exams as in Controlled Assessment; so is the ability to explore alternative interpretations to the one offered. Another is to show awareness of contexts: e.g. that there are some things a Jacobean audience would have understood and enjoyed more than a modern audience and that there are some things equally appealing to audiences then and now.

Support for learning and teaching On the following pages you will find:

Examiner guidance for each of the key scenes, including possible student responses to the questions and a note of which GCSE English Literature Assessment Objectives are targeted (pages 7–24). For ease of reference, a key word is used to summarise each Assessment Objective, outlined below.

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

6

Examiner guidance for using ‘How to write a good response …’ (p25); the key terms index (p27); and Personal Tutor (p32).

AO Assessment Objective Key word 1 Respond to texts critically and

imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations.

Response

2 Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings.

Language

3 Make comparisons and explain links between texts, evaluating writers’ different ways of expressing meaning and achieving effects.

Comparison/Links

4 Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential and significant to self and other readers in different contexts.

Contexts


Using ‘How to write a good response to Macbeth’ with AQA GCSE English Literature: Examiner’s notes Macbeth pages 123–125 The guidance and activities in this section highlight how students can improve a response to Macbeth for GCSE English Literature based around meeting the requirements of the Assessment Objectives. The examples are easily transferable when responding to Shakespeare in the context of the Assessment Objectives for GCSE English or if the extended reading choice is a Shakespeare text in Unit 3 of English Language. Students can also use the sample responses and examiner comments on how to improve skills in writing about Shakespeare’s plays in Personal Tutor. Example responses for the four questions in this section are provided below.

1 Response (AO1) In response to: ‘What are Macbeth’s feelings in Act 2 Scene 1, lines 41–57?,’ rather than: ‘Macbeth’s mind is very disturbed at this point because he thinks he can see a bloody dagger in front of him’, using one or two quotations, write a short paragraph in response showing that he partly believes it but also thinks that it may be an illusion. Example student response:

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

7

‘Macbeth’s feelings are mixed. The dagger he sees seems real when he compares it to his own real dagger ‘in form as/Palpable as this which now I draw’. However, he knows that a worried mind can play tricks and create illusions, so it could be ‘a dagger of the mind, a false creation, /Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain’.

2 Language (AO2) In response to: ‘Which words has Shakespeare used to suggest strong feelings in Lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 5, lines 35–52’, rather than: ‘Lady Macbeth shows how evil she is here because she wants evil spirits to help her to do evil’, using one or two quotations, write a short paragraph in response showing that she knows she is doing wrong but still intends to go ahead. Example student response: ‘Lady Macbeth knows that she is thinking wicked thoughts because she describes them as a ‘fell purpose’, and wants to stop feelings of ‘remorse’ and ‘compunctious visitings of nature’. She sees these as normal womanly feelings, so she demands supernatural forces to ‘unsex me here/And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full/Of direst cruelty.’ She knows that what she wants to do is unwomanly and unnatural, and would be disapproved by heaven.’


3 Links/comparison In response to: ‘How does Shakespeare use Banquo’s description of Macbeth’s castle (Act 1 Scene 6) create a sense of place? How does this compare with how a sense of place is created in the linked Text you are studying?’, rather than ‘Banquo describes the castle in a lot of detail so the audience can imagine it, because Shakespeare couldn’t put a real castle on stage’, using one or two quotations, write a short paragraph in response, showing how Shakespeare uses the detail in Banquo’s speech to convey a sense of time and place. Compare it with an example of how a sense of place is created in your linked Text. Example student response: ‘In [example from linked Text] the writer can build description of a scene into the [example from linked Text] telling the reader what, for example, the setting looks like. In a play, it is different. Here, Shakespeare uses Banquo’s speech to help us picture what Shakespeare can’t put on stage – a tall castle with house-martins nesting in the upper parts of the wall. It’s made realistic and believable by referring to details of the birds as seasonal visitors – ‘guest of summer’ which build their breeding nests – ‘his pendant bed and procreant cradle’ in any sticking-out bit of the wall – any ‘jutty, frieze, /Buttress, …coign of advantage’.

4 Contexts In response to: ‘Doing wrong is doing wrong whenever it happens.’ Explain why you agree or disagree with this view that Jacobean and modern audiences would react the same way to Macbeth’s plan’, rather than: ‘In Shakespeare’s day, the Witches would be to blame because they put the idea into his head’, using one or two quotations, write a short paragraph in response, showing that a modern audience may not think that Macbeth was just a passive victim of the Witches.

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

8

Example student response: ‘It’s true that Macbeth has a wicked idea put in his head by the Witches, and a Jacobean audience may think that this is what makes them responsible for everything that happens. This would make him a victim of external supernatural influences. However, a modern audience would be more likely to think that the Witches only add to an idea that he already had. In Act 1 Scene 3, he says that the first two prophecies are ‘happy prologues to the swelling act/Of the imperial theme’, which suggests he wants the third to come true. Shakespeare shows that he feels disgusted by thoughts of killing the king, making his ‘seated heart knock at my ribs’ so he has a sense of guilt. If he knows that what he plans is wrong, he has the power of choosing to do right or to do wrong. A modern audience may not believe in supernatural creatures or ‘voices in the head’ making someone do something evil because it looks like an attempt to avoid responsibility.’


Using the key terms index with AQA GCSE English Literature and GCSE English: Examiner’s notes The key terms index is designed to help exploration of Shakespeare’s use of key themes, ideas, characterisation and voice within Macbeth. The following may also be useful alongside the index.

Task focused terms Themes are the common topics reflecting general aspects of human life that crop up frequently in the play as listed in the index, along with broader terms such as:

Identity: a person’s identity, in real life, is his/her immediately recognisable self. In its simplest sense, as in an ID card, it is a photograph of the face. However, we are all more complex than our arrangement of mouth, ears and eyes. Identity is a mixture of things, some public and some personal. Some people derive their identity from membership of a particular social group with its own culture expressed in attitudes, values, language and behaviour. Others draw their identity from a strong sense of their own personal qualities and worth. Others draw identity from social rank or status. Others from what they have achieved in life. Likewise, on stage, a character is given identity by a mixture of these things. Macbeth’s identity is a mixture of his public title (Thane of Glamis), past achievement and present reputation. It is also his private sense of honour, duty and ambition.

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

9

Relationships: the basis of most of Shakespeare’s drama, because they show characters in different ways. For example, we see different sides of Macbeth from his relationships with Duncan, Banquo, Lady Macbeth and the Witches. Different relationships confirm, develop or clash with parts of a character’s identity.

Ideas: the thoughts that help us understand life and the themes that we find in life. Some ideas are an individual’s own; others are common to groups that share a culture. For example, some individuals may have the idea that conflict is productive, and others that it is destructive; some individuals may have the idea that ambition is a virtue, and others that it is a fault; some groups may share the idea that that monarchy is the best way to rule society, and others that it is simply the way one family gathers wealth and power and privilege. For example, Macbeth, when he has lost his confidence, expresses his idea of life as ‘a walking shadow’ 5.5. 24, and Hecate expresses the idea that ‘security is mortals’ chiefest enemy’. 3.5. 32–3.

Links/Comparisons: ‘Linked texts’ means that there are some connections between selected texts. The connection will normally be the theme/device selected as the task focus. Candidates do not have to write in detail about similarities or differences. For example, they could write about the theme of Love in Romeo and Juliet and then write about Love in Wuthering Heights, their response being a sequenced linkage. They could explore Passion in a scene from Romeo and Juliet and a passage from Wuthering Heights in the same paragraph, their response being an integrated linkage. They don’t necessarily have to explain how they are different or to draw attention to the similarities.


Drama focused terms These are terms that are essential for the study of a text written for performance. Unlike poetry and the novel, drama texts are not designed for silent private reading. They are written for actors to perform in public on a stage. Understanding this performance context is shown by reference to the text as an entertainment for paying customers in a particular kind of theatre – or for viewers of a cinema or television screen.

Audience: appeal to audience is the skill of keeping an audience interested by changing topic, style, mood, setting or character. If all scenes were equally serious or descriptive, or dominated by one character, an audience could begin to lose focus, so variety is what keeps them alert as each new change regains their attention. E.g. 1.1. Witches gathering vs 1.2 Army camp; Tense scene where Duncan is murdered 2.2 vs the comic porter at the gate 2.3. Within a scene there can be contrasts, e.g. Macbeth’s friendly chat with Banquo 3.1 contrasts with his secretive plotting with the Murderers.

Dramatic technique: Shakespeare’s dramatic techniques include anything that helps to make his play work as a stage performance: for example, letting us know what a character is thinking in a soliloquy (beginning 1.7 and 3.1); creating a private discussion in a public environment (3.4 Macbeth talking to the 1st Murderer at the banquet) or creating a sense of gathering pace by changing scenes and characters quickly (Act 5 Scenes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7). His dramatic technique also includes writing script which uses sound effects, verse and expressive vocabulary.

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

10

Interpretations: interpretations of Shakespeare’s play can vary from one person to another. For example, some may interpret the play as a warning to people that ambition is dangerous, or that Macbeth was foolish to be influenced by women, or that human beings need to watch out for dangerous influences of the supernatural. The audience’s interpretation will be heavily influenced by the Director’s interpretation and the way it emphasises or cuts out certain themes and events.

What the audience sees on stage strongly influences their understanding of the director’s interpretation.

Directing is deciding what will be the overall plan for the play – what its important messages are, how to convey them in a new and gripping way, and how to find a context of time or place to give the play more relevance.

Editing is making cuts, substitutions or amendments to Shakespeare’s script to make it easier to put on stage (cutting small parts to suit a small acting company for example) or to make it easier to follow in a short time (cutting some sub-plots).

Performance: is putting the play on for public watching, either on stage or on screen. Unlike poetry and novels, plays have to be seen and heard as people acting and reacting to each other, and not read silently by one person at home.

Stagecraft: the art of writing script that helps actors to know what to do in movement and gesture, how to speak and how to make believable relationships on stage.


Theatricality: the art of giving everyone in the theatre plenty to look at and listen to, to keep them interested – dances, songs, illusions, fights and concealments that create audience interest, involvement and suspense.

Textual detail Whatever comments students make in their responses, they will be expected to show some knowledge of the text in support. The suggestions below could be used alongside the index as a starting place for students to explore and compile their own list of useful references to illustrate their comments.

Ambition: Macbeth’s ambition is balanced by his sense of honour 1.7. 12–28

‘He's here in double trust; First, as I am his kinsman, and his subject, Strong both against the deed. Then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself.’

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

11

Appearance and reality: illusion is the difference between what we know to be real and what seems to be real. Sometimes ‘appearance’ is what a character deliberately does to mislead others. Sometimes appearance is something that a character trusts – but is deceptive.

The Witches begin with a statement about how things appear: ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ 1.1. 11

Macbeth says of the Witches’ foretelling : ‘This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good’ 1.3. 134

Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to ‘Look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t 1.5. 64.

Choices: for example, Macbeth chooses not to murder Duncan ‘We will proceed no further in this business’ 1.7. 31 but then changes his mind and chooses to proceed ‘I am settled and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat’ 1.7. 80

Conflict: a clash between two people or things. Personal conflict is the clash between people of different personality or opposed intentions, most extremely represented by war and battles, more frequently by argument. Conflict can also be more abstract, involving a clash between morals, faiths, or cultures. The simplest form of moral conflict is between good and evil. Other conflicts may be between conscience and duty, between ambition and loyalty, or between honour and shame, or even between perceptions of the same event or characters. For example, Banquo is wary of the Witches’ predictions, perceiving the Witches as agents of Evil and warning Macbeth against them 1.3. 126–130

‘...But 'tis strange: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths,


Win us with honest trifles, to betray's In deepest consequence.’

Equivocation: equivocation, ‘speaking with two voices’, is when a character says something that appears to mean one thing but can also mean another. The Witches are equivocal because they claim that ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ 1.1. 11. They mislead Macbeth into a false sense of security by their promises that, for example, he cannot fail until ‘Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill/Shall come against him.’ 4.1. 96–98

Guilt: Macbeth shows a sense of guilt when he says, ‘I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done’ 2.2. 59. Despite her tough attitudes, Lady Macbeth feels guilt when she sleepwalks and rubs her hands: ‘Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.’ 5.1. 46–47

Hero/tragic hero: Macbeth is presented as a hero at the start of the play when he is described as ‘Noble Macbeth’ and ‘Worthy thane’ but he becomes tragic as he realises he has lost everything because he believed the Witches ‘I have lived long enough. My way of life has fallen into the sere, the yellow leaf’ 5.3. 24–25

Justice/judgement: there are two kinds of justice in the play. The first is human justice, where people may punish a wrong-doer: ‘We still have judgement here… This even-handed justice/Commends the ingredience of our poisoned chalice to our own lips’1.7. 8–12

The second is God’s justice, which may punish misdeeds in the afterlife. Macbeth hopes he can ‘jump the life to come’ 1.7. 7 but fears that heaven sees everything and ‘heaven’s cherubin’ will ‘blow the horrid deed in every eye’. 1.7. 24

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

12

Kingship: murdering King Duncan and taking his crown without any rights of inheritance is presented as more than a criminal deed, given the belief that God anointed the king. As such, the murder is presented as an offence against the natural order of things. Macbeth comments that Duncan’s ‘gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature’ 2.3. 117 and Lady Macbeth hopes that ‘heaven’ will not ‘peep through the blanket of the dark to cry Hold! Hold!’ 1.5. 51. Ross and the Old Man discuss strange happenings which suggest a violent act against nature: ‘Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, Threatens his bloody stage’. 2.4. 6

Male/Female: Lady Macbeth appeals to Macbeth’s sense of manliness when she accuses him of not being manly ‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’ 1.7. 49 and when she says his ‘flaws and starts’ ‘would well become a woman’s story at a winter’s fire’ 3.4. 69–70

In contrast, when considering murdering Duncan, Lady Macbeth rejects her femininity calling on evil spirits to transform her; e.g. ‘unsex me you spirits’1.5. 39 and her maternal nature ‘Come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers’ 1.5. 45–46. When she goads Macbeth she speaks of rather murdering her infant than not following through on the plan to murder Duncan:

‘I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,


And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this.’ 1.7. 54–59

Supernatural: the natural world is the world of living things and material objects. Anything which is ‘above’ this world can be regarded as ‘super’ natural. These may be what people imagine or what they believe to exist, depending on their religion or superstition. Non-religious supernatural features are ghosts, fairies and spirits. Religious supernatural features are angels, devils and gods. In the play the Witches are both natural and supernatural: they are visible and do real things, but they can also conjure up spirits and apparitions. Macbeth sees supernatural apparitions such as a dagger that seems to lead him to murder Duncan:

‘Is this a dagger which I see before me/The handle toward my hand…Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind….?’ 2.1 41–45 He also sees the ghost of Banquo following his murder: ‘Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake/Thy gory locks at me’. 3.4 54–55


Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

13

Using Personal Tutor with AQA GCSE English Literature and GCSE English: Examiner’s notes Example tasks for AQA GCSE English Literature and GCSE English with responses at different bands and examiner comments on how to improve can be found in Personal Tutor which provides insight into how Shakespeare’s text and theatrical performance fit into the GCSE Assessment Objectives and band criteria. These can be used independently by students or within a classroom activity, to develop their understanding of how to improve in the skills required to make a good response when preparing for Controlled Assessment or the examination. Students can see exactly what might make the difference between one level and another. They support you in modelling techniques of using quotation and addressing key aspects of the Assessment Objectives. Samples of work meeting specific band criteria support you in making differentiated assessment judgements and modelling for students how to improve performance alongside examiner guidance focusing on key skills required for Band 2, Band 3 and Band 5. There is no direct correlation between marks or bands and eventual grades because grades are the result of adding up different batches of marks with different mark ranges and different bands, but it is fair to assume that a Grade C might roughly correspond to marks within the middle band and that A* will be somewhere at the top of the top band. The responses for English Literature in Personal Tutor focus on Macbeth alone. They do not attempt to show responses with linked texts in relationship to AO3, given the range of choice for centres across different specifications.

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

14

However, the examples that follow include exemplification of the skills involved in linked texts and comparison using a Controlled Assessment task based around comparing two Shakespeare plays. They show typical features of work at three levels of performance – Bands 2, 3 and 5 with examiner annotation in the margin and a summative comment at the end. The improvements between the bands are shown in bold. You could use these with your students alongside the more detailed guidance within Personal Tutor, to improve your students’ skills.


GCSE English Literature: response to an example Controlled Assessment Task: Write about the ways Shakespeare presents a central character as a tragic hero in two of his plays.

Band 2 example response

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

15

Macbeth is a tragic heroFocus on the task

. He is tragic because he starts off as a hero and then ends up as an evil man who loses everything in life. Shakespeare presents him as a hero to start with by having other characters tell us what he is like before he comes on stage ‘Worthy thane’, ‘noble Macbeth’. They all think he is a good man and a good soldier and King Duncan makes him Thane of Cawdor as a reward for fighting against the Norwegians.

Some quotation to support comment

Macbeth begins to show signs of not being a good man when he meets the Witches and they tell him he will become king, and he likes the sound of this. When he writes to his wife, she knows he is mainly a

Comment on development

good man and needs to be helped to make his ambition come true because he is too soft to do the dirty work of killing Duncan. ‘Thou art too full o’ the milk of human kindness’.

Identifies attitude and feeling

Quotation to support comment

When he comes back, Lady Macbeth puts more pressure on him to get rid of the king but he still has some good in him. He decides ‘We will go no

Quotation to support comment

further in this business.’ But she carries on, making him feel he is a wimp if he doesn’t and saying she would even kill her own baby if she had given her word to do it. After they kill the king, Macbeth gets a lot worse.Development

described

He has his friend Banquo killed and he tries to have his son Fleance killed but he gets away. He has spies in the castles of all the thanes and he even has Lady Macduff and her son killed. He says, ‘I am so far in Quotation to

support statement

blood that going back were as tedious as go o’er’ so he carries on getting worse and worse. He goes to the Witches again and even they call him ‘something wicked this way comes’ so he is really bad now and everyone is afraid of him. At the end of the play, Macbeth realises that he has been tricked by the Witches, and Macduff is not normally ‘born of a woman’ and the ‘Birnam woods


come to Dunsinane’. You feel a bit sorry for him

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

16

Quotation to support

Some personal response and evaluation

because all his thanes have run away and Lady Macbeth has died and he knows he’s lost, but he says he’s going to fight on and die with ‘harness on his back’, which is a good attitude for a soldier and it makes you think there’s a bit of the old Macbeth left like at the start but you know he’s done bad things and been a bad King, so you’re glad he gets killed but it was a shame he got led into all this by the Witches and his wife. Mainly descriptive.

Lists key stages of character development and offers some comment on attitude of characters including Witches. Little sense of an author at work. Little sense of text as drama. Little sense of contexts Quotation is used to support – language not examined or explored

Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a hero who

Focus on the task

becomes a villain and then you think how tragic it was he lost everything like his reputation and his wife and everything so that’s what is tragic about it. He wasn’t bad at the start but he got led into it. Iago is a tragic hero

Focus on the task

because he starts off well but he turns into a villain and dies at the end. He’s a good soldier at the start and his boss Othello treats him well and trusts him but he doesn’t know everything about him, like he’s getting money off Rodrigo by telling him he can get off with Desdemona, who is engaged to Othello. What happens is Iago gets mad because he doesn’t get promoted and Michael Cassio gets promoted instead so he hates him and Othello and he decides to get his own back. Iago is very intelligent so he can fool people and take them in, like he does Rodrigo and Othello. What they don’t know is that he uses them to get his revenge. He even thinks that Othello has slept with his wife Emilia, ‘done my office between the sheets’ so he feels even more mad about him. He doesn’t like Cassio because he’s a ‘Florentine and a

Character description supported with quotation

mathematician’.

Some personal response and evaluation

In a way you admire Iago because he is so clever and you don’t really care about Rodrigo, even if Iago is ripping him off because he’s so stupid ‘Ever do I make my fool my purse’. When he wants to get Cassio into trouble, he gets him drunk, even though he doesn’t like drinking, them he gets into a fight. And he gets Othello to think that Desdemona has been having an affair with Cassio. He doesn’t say this but he hints it, so Othello thinks he is too kind


M

acbe

th D

ynam

ic L

earn

ing:

AQ

A a

sses

smen

t

17

to tell him the truthSome indirect comment on Othello’s nature

. ‘Didst thou see that?’, ‘Honest, ay I dare say he’s honest’. The worst thing about him is the way he uses Some personal

response Desdemona’s handkerchief. Desdemona drops it and Emilia picks it up and he takes it off Emilia and then mentions Cassio with a handkerchief, so Othello asks her where her handkerchief is that he gave her as a present and she says she doesn’t know Mainly

narrative mode so this seems like proof to Othello, all because of Iago’s cunning trick. So when Othello kills Desdemona it’s because of the lies Iago told. He hated Othello so much he let him kill an innocent young woman who had never done anything wrong so you know at the end he’s really evil and you don’t feel sorry for him because he deserved to die after the damage he caused. Shakespeare shows you how bad you can turn out if Authorial

purpose you have a grudge against someone. Macbeth was a tragic hero because he started good and ended bad. Iago started bad really, and got worse. One had ambition and the Witches to make

Some appropriate linkage

him bad and the other had jealousy. They are both Focus on task tragic heroes because they did what their feelings told them and it got them nowhere in the end, and spoilt other people’s lives too. (around 1000 words)

This script shows familiarity with the text and some focus on the task, but little awareness of Shakespeare as a writer or of the play as something to be performed. There is little attempt to set themes and ideas in any cultural context, and textual detail is offered to support comment but not as something to be explored or analysed for purpose or effects.

Some familiarity with writers’ ideas supported by a range of textual detail 2

Some familiarity with obvious features of language and structure supported by some relevant textual detail 2

Some relevant comments about links between texts 2

Limited awareness of contexts and very limited comment on their significance 1


GCSE English Literature: response to an example Controlled Assessment Task: Write about the ways Shakespeare presents a central character as a tragic hero in two of his plays.

Band 3 example response: the improvements from the Band 2 example response are shown in bold

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

18

A tragic hero is a person who is the main Clear focus on

the task character in a play but not the main one because he’s a good hero. You could say he’s a victim or a protagonist. Macbeth is a tragic hero because he starts off as a hero and then ends up as an evil man who loses everything in life because he was the victim of the Witches. Shakespeare presents him as a hero to start with by having other characters tell us what he is like before he comes on stage ‘Worthy thane’, ‘noble Macbeth’. They all think he is a good man and a good soldier and King Duncan makes him Thane of Cawdor as a reward for fighting against the Norwegians. We also learn Clear comment

on quotations that he is a good soldier because he can be violent – ‘unseamed him from the navel to the chaps’ so we know from the start Macbeth has violence in him. Macbeth begins to show signs of not being a good man when he meets the Witches and they tell him he will become king, and he likes the sound of this. When he writes to his wife, she knows he is mainly a good man and needs to be helped to make his ambition come true because he is too soft to do the dirty work of killing Duncan. ‘Thou art too full of the milk o’ human kindness’. We see this when he Clear focus on

character’s thoughts and feelings

Effective use of quotation to support comment

thinks to himself ‘If chance will have me king, it may be without my stir’ meaning he won’t have to do anything bad. When he comes back, Lady Macbeth puts more pressure on him to get rid of the king but he still has some good in him. He says the king is his guest Clear

explanation of comment

and a good man and it would be bad to kill a guest in your house and a king who was loved by everybody, ‘He’s here in double trust’. He decides ‘We will go no further in this business.’ But


she carries on, making him feel he is a wimp if he doesn’t and saying she would even kill her own baby if she had given her word to do it.

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

19

After they kill the king, Macbeth gets a lot worse. He hires murderers like a gang boss and has his Clear comment

on Macbeth’s actions and situation

friend Banquo killed and he tries to have his son Fleance killed but he gets away. He has spies in the castles of all the thanes and he even has Lady Macduff and her son killed because he thinks Macduff is against him, which is even worse,

Personal response to Macbeth’s situation

killing innocent women and children. He says, ‘I am so far in blood that going back were as tedious as go o’er’ so he carries on getting worse and worse. He is sort of trapped in his bad ways because there is no way he can go back to the way things were before. He goes to the Witches again and even they call him ‘something wicked this way comes’ so he is really bad now and everyone is afraid of him. At the end of the play, ‘brave Macbeth and worthy thane’ starts to go to pieces. He realises that he has been tricked by the Witches, and Macduff is not normally ‘born of a woman’ and the ‘Birnam woods come to Dunsinane’. This is the tragic bit because you think he’s been a victim too, as well as making other people victims. He’s been a victim of Hecate and the Witches, who enjoyed tricking him for pleasure and just doing harm. You feel a bit sorry for him because all his thanes have run away and Lady Macbeth has died and he knows he’s lost, but he says he’s going to fight on and die with “harness on his back”, which is a good attitude for a soldier and it makes you think there’s a bit of the old Macbeth left like at the start but you know he’s done bad things and been a bad King, so you’re glad he gets killed but it was a shame he got led into all this by the Witches and his wife. Perhaps it’s Shakespeare’s way of warning people not to trust these things, or not to let ambition take over.

Clear focus on task Clear comment on various responses to Macbeth Clear comment on Shakespeare’s purpose

Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a hero who becomes a villain and then you think how tragic it was he lost everything like his reputation and his wife and everything so that’s what is tragic about it. Clear personal

response He wasn’t bad at the start but he got led into it. Iago is a tragic hero because he starts off well but he turns into a villain who causes the death of


M

acbe

th D

ynam

ic L

earn

ing:

AQ

A a

sses

smen

t

20

Desdemona and Othello at the end of the play. He’s a good soldier at the start and his boss Othello treats

Clear development of comment

him well and trusts him ‘Honest Iago’ but he doesn’t know everything about him, like he’s getting money off Rodrigo by telling him he can get off with Desdemona, who is married to Othello. What happens is Iago gets mad because he doesn’t get promoted and Michael Cassio gets promoted instead so he hates him and Othello and he decides to get his own back. He’s a bit racist, too, because he Clear comment

on attitudes calls Othello the ‘thicklips’ and ‘The Moor’. Iago is very intelligent so he can fool people and take them in, like he does Rodrigo and Othello. What they don’t know is that he uses them to get his revenge. He even thinks that Othello has slept with his wife Emilia, ‘done my office between the sheets’ so he feels even more mad about him. He doesn’t like Cassio because he’s a ‘Florentine and a mathematician’ which means he thinks he’s a bit Clear

explanation of meaning

soft and not up to being promoted. In a way you admire Iago because he is so clever and you don’t really care about Rodrigo

Clear comment on effects on audience

, even if Iago is ripping him off because he’s so stupid ‘Ever do I make my fool my purse’. When he wants to get Cassio into trouble, he gets him drunk, even though he doesn’t like drinking, then he gets into a fight so that Othello thinks he has been out of order. And he gets Othello to think that Desdemona has been having an affair with Cassio. He doesn’t say

Clear comment on Iago’s methods this straight out but he hints it, so Othello thinks

he is too kind to tell him the truth. ‘Didst thou see that?’, ‘Honest, ay I dare say he’s honest’. This makes Othello think he knows something but is holding it back, so he wants to know what it is.

Clear personal response The worst thing about him is the way he uses

Desdemona’s handkerchief. Desdemona drops it and Emilia picks it up and He takes it off Emilia and then mentions Cassio with a handkerchief, so Othello asks her where her handkerchief is that he gave her as a present and she says she doesn’t know so this seems like proof to Othello, all because of Iago’s cunning trick. So when Othello kills

Effective use of detail

Desdemona it’s because of the lies Iago told and Othello trusted him and didn’t believe his own wife. Iago hated Othello so much he let him kill an innocent young woman who had never done anything wrong so you know at the end he’s really


evil and you don’t feel sorry for him because he deserved to die after the damage he caused. Shakespeare shows you how bad you can turn out if you have a grudge against someone. Macbeth was a tragic hero because he started good and ended bad. Iago started bad really, and got worse, one had ambition and the Witches to make him bad and the other had jealousy. They are both tragic heroes because they did what their feelings told them and it got them nowhere in the end, and spoilt other people’s lives too. (around 1300 words)

This response has more awareness of Shakespeare as a writer with specific purposes and skills. It presents comments largely in a narrative style, with little to show personal response or interpretation, and little to show appreciation of writing for performance, or of ideas and themes in a cultural context.

Clear/consistent understanding of writers’ ideas and use of relevant appropriate supporting textual detail 3

Clear/consistent understanding of features of language and structure supported by relevant and appropriate quotation 3

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

21

Clear/consistent understanding of links and some points of comparison between texts 3

Some relevant comments about the significance of the contexts 2


GCSE English Literature: response to an example Controlled Assessment task: Write about the ways Shakespeare presents a central character as a tragic hero in two of his plays.

Band 5 example response: the improvements from the Band 3 example response are shown in bold

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

22

One of the things that made Shakespeare a great writer is the way he makes his characters complex and not stereotypes. Some writers

Sophisticated grasp of authorial purpose

would write a play with the villain a corrupt and evil person and the hero a decent honest person, and the hero winning at the end, but not Shakespeare. He wrote more realistic play, and he showed that villains can be people who were originally good, but made bad choices, or were influenced by something that they could not resist. Two characters who illustrate this are Macbeth and Iago. Macbeth is a tragic hero because he made some bad choices and he fell under the power of forces that he could not resist. He starts off as a hero and then ends up as an evil man who loses everything in life because he chose to follow his dream of ambition and because he was the victim of the Witches. Shakespeare presents him as a hero to start with by having other characters tell us what he is like before he comes on stage, some of them

Sophisticated understanding of relevance in different contexts Effective use of detail

people below him who looked up to him with respect like the Sergeant and some above him, like King Duncan ‘Worthy thane’, ‘noble Macbeth’. They all think he is a good man and a good soldier and King Duncan makes him Thane of Cawdor as a reward for his loyal service and bravery in fighting against the Norwegians. We also learn that he is a good soldier because he can be violent – ‘unseamed him from the navel to the chaps’ so we know from the start Macbeth has violence in him. The point is that he had a lot going for him at the start, but lost it all at the end because he wanted more – which is Assured

personal response

sometimes true of ordinary people, and so


makes Macbeth more frightening as he’s got a bit of what’s in everyone.

Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

23

Iago is a tragic hero because of his jealousy, not any outside influence. Shakespeare presents his jealousy as something personal and inside him, like Macbeth’s ambition, so it’s more to do with his personality than supernatural forces taking him over. He starts off well but he turns into a villain who causes the death of Desdemona and Othello at the end of the play. He’s a good soldier at the start and his boss Othello treats him well and trusts him ‘Honest Iago’ but he doesn’t know everything about him, like exploiting Rodrigo by telling him he has a chance with Desdemona, who is married to Othello. Iago becomes resentful and jealous because

Sophisticated grasp of Iago’s motivation Michael Cassio is promoted instead of him

which makes him feel overlooked and unvalued, which is enough to make a lot of ordinary people feel angry – ‘Tis the curse of service: preferment goes by letter and affection, and not by old gradation, where each second stood heir to th’ first’ . He thinks that the old traditions of society are being taken over by a different way of doing things. He doesn’t like Cassio because he’s a ‘Florentine and a mathematician’ which means he thinks he a bit soft and not up to

Perceptive comment on cultural context

being promoted because he ‘never set a squadron in the field’, meaning led soldiers into battle. To him Florence represents a culture of civilised educated people, not like the practical soldiers Iago thinks of a real men. This is not his only motive: he is secretly racist because he calls Othello the ‘thicklips’, which reduces him to one part of his racial identity, and ‘The Moor’ which, again, reduces him to being just an example of his racial group. Also, he thinks that Othello has slept with his wife Emilia, ‘done my office between the sheets’ so he feels even more resentful and jealous, though Shakespeare doesn’t make it clear that this is true or something he imagines. Iago is very intelligent so he can fool people, and the fact that they are stupid enough to be fooled makes him a bit less evil. Shakespeare shows Macbeth beginning to change when he meets the Witches and they tell him he will become King, and their predictions make his secret ambitions become more practical. However, he still has a conscience and a sense


M

acbe

th D

ynam

ic L

earn

ing:

AQ

A a

sses

smen

t

24

of duty, so he needs a further push from being good. The push comes from his wife. When he writes to his wife, she knows he is too good to do the dirty work of killing Duncan. ‘Thou art too full of the milk o’ human kindness’. We see this when he thinks to himself ‘If chance will have me king, it may be without my stir’ meaning he won’t have to do anything bad. When he comes back, Lady Macbeth puts more pressure on him to get rid of the king but he still has some good in him. He says the king is his guest and a good man and it would be bad to kill a guest in your house and a king who was loved by everybody. ‘He’s here in double trust’. Shakespeare is showing how far Macbeth

Perceptive comment on cultural contexts

is still ruled by what is right in a culture where monarchy matters and so does the social duty of a host. He decides ‘We will go no further in this business’ but she makes him seem feeble and unmanly, mocking his goodness as a weakness. Her language sets words like ‘green’ and Sophisticated

comment on language ‘afeard’ and ‘coward’ against words like ‘valour’

and ‘desire’ and ‘stem’, making it seem like a simple choice between one thing or the other. She claims that she would, as a woman, kill the suckling baby at her breast, which is shocking, but reminds us that earlier she thought of him as having the ‘milk’ of human kindness, and milk and motherhood are things she doesn’t value. If he is ‘milky’, then he’s not a man, and she’s setting him an example as not ‘milky’ herself, although she’s a woman. All this works directly on his masculine soldier-culture, thinking it is out of order for a man to seem weaker than a woman. This makes the forces on him to turn bad even stronger, saying she would even kill her own baby if she had given her word to do it. Perceptive

comment on authorial purpose

Shakespeare takes a different approach with Iago. Iago doesn’t have any Witches or a wife to push him to do evil. It all comes from himself. He says goodness is worthless: ‘Virtue, A fig! Tis in ourselves that we are thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.’ He believes it is up to the individual to be responsible for his own actions, so he can’t blame Fate or anything else for making him a victim. He is a victim of his own jealousy. This makes him seem quite honest about being dishonest, especially when people he cheats are themselves dishonest or stupid. ‘Ever do I make


M

acbe

th D

ynam

ic L

earn

ing:

AQ

A a

sses

smen

t

25

my fool my purse’. He uses people’s good nature as a weakness to trap them – like getting Cassio drunk, even though he doesn’t like drinking, and into a fight so that Othello thinks he has been out of order. And he gets Othello to think that Desdemona has been having an affair with Cassio. He doesn’t say this straight out but he hints it, so Othello thinks he is too kind to tell him the truth. ‘Didst thou see that?’, ‘Honest, ay I dare say he’s honest’. This makes Othello think he knows something but is holding it back, so he wants to know what it is. The worst thing about him is the way he uses Desdemona’s handkerchief, a present from Othello, which Desdemona has accidentally dropped. When Emilia finds it, Iago takes it from her and then mentions that he has seen Cassio with a handkerchief. This is what makes Othello feel betrayed. So when Othello kills Desdemona it’s because Othello trusted him and his lies and didn’t believe his own wife. Iago made Othello kill an innocent young woman, which makes the audience hate him, but Shakespeare puts a bit of a doubt in your mind about Othello because if Othello had been less gullible and had listened to his wife, Iago would not have been able to cause such harm. Shakespeare is warning us that some evil can be done by evil

Sophisticated evaluation of responsibility people, but it’s up to others to not make the evil

people’s job easier. Othello is responsible for over-trusting Iago. Shakespeare makes you think that responsibility for wrong is not always black and white.

Persuasive use of detail

Perceptive linkage and comparison

It’s not all black and white with Macbeth either. Shakespeare builds the play as a sequence of events showing how he gets worse after killing Duncan, killing his friend Banquo and Lady Macduff and her son. He has spies in the castles of all the thanes, like a dictator in a police state. Shakespeare presents him as a wicked man, but just when we feel most sure that he is wicked, he reminds us that people are complex creatures and we may feel a bit of sympathy because he’s trapped in a cycle of violence, with no way back – ‘I am so far in blood that going back were as tedious as go o’er’. He becomes more dependent on the Witches, but they don’t feel anything for him, just someone they can enjoy doing harm to – Hecate says she wants to be involved in tricking him, and they call


M

acbe

th D

ynam

ic L

earn

ing:

AQ

A a

sses

smen

t

26

him ‘something wicked this way comes’. He’s totally in their power and deceived about their promises, so he is the exploited victim of their evil plan. Unlike Iago, he has got someone to blame, but again it could be that he is at fault for letting his ambition lead him to bad choices. Sophisticated

response to author’s ideas Perceptive comment on effects on audience

At the end of the play, Shakespeare keeps the audience in two minds about Macbeth. You feel a bit sorry for him as a tragic hero because all his thanes have run away and Lady Macbeth has died and he knows he’s lost, but he says he’s going to fight on and die with ‘harness on his back’, suggests there’s a bit of the old Macbeth left but he’s done bad things and been a bad King, offending against God and against society, so it’s right that he meets a brutal end. What’s heroic about him is that he keeps some of his good qualities as a human being, like feeling guilty about Macduff’s family, but what’s tragic is that all the harm he causes and the loss of everything in his own life was down to his own choices. It’s different with Iago. At the end of Othello you don’t feel any pity for Iago. Shakespeare made him responsible for everything he chose to do and he abused other people’s goodness. He was never a hero, but a hero can be a protagonist, not just a good person. He was tragic in a way, because he finished up with everything lost, and no expression of regret, but his tragedy is that he was the ‘gardener’ of his own garden and no one else can be blamed other than himself for what grew out of it. They are both tragic heroes because they did what their feelings told them and it got them nowhere in the end, and spoilt other people’s lives too. Shakespeare presents them both as people you know are wicked, but you can still have some empathy with because what led them to tragedy was the same sort of feelings that most human beings have at some time or other. You could say, ‘There but for the grace of god (or luck) go I’. (around 1950 words)



Mac

beth

Dyn

amic

Lea

rnin

g: A

QA

ass

essm

ent

27

This is a very thorough piece which would score highly. It is consistently engaged with Shakespeare as the maker of the text, and with ideas surrounding it.

Sophisticated grasp of alternative interpretations and cultural context 5

Sophisticated engagement with writers’ ideas and attitudes 5

Analysis of aspects of language and structure in convincing detail 4

Perceptive and imaginative comment on the significance of the contexts 5

Perceptive and imaginative exploration of points of linkage and comparison 5

Documents

Shakespeare and GCSE Assessment: AQA GCSE English Literature · Dynamic Learning: AQA assessment 3 The resources provided in Dynamic Learning are designed to develop appreciation