Summary AQA GCSE English Literature Macbeth Revision Notes (Quotes and Context)
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Course
English
Institution
GCSE
This document contains an extensive list of key quotes from Macbeth, organised by character and by theme (including ambition, guilt, supernatural, kingship, loyalty/betrayal, appearance/reality, order/disorder, evil, manliness, femininity, violence, fate and free will). The techniques used in each ...
English Literature Paper 1 ....................................................................................................................... 3
Quotations - Characters ....................................................................................................................... 4-8
Macbeth................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Lady Macbeth ................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Banquo and Duncan........................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Macduff, Malcolm and The Witches ............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Lennox, Ross, Donalbain, Angus................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Quotations - Themes ......................................................................................................................... 9-15
Ambition ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Guilt and The Supernatural ..........................................................................................................................................................................10
Kingship / Leadership and Appearance Vs. Reality ..........................................................................................................................11
Loyalty & Betrayal and Order Vs. Disorder ...........................................................................................................................................12
Evil and Manliness............................................................................................................................................................................................13
Femininity and Violence ................................................................................................................................................................................14
Fate & Free Will and Macbeth & Lady Macbeth’s Relationship ....................................................................................................15
Context ........................................................................................................................................... 16-22
Shakespeare and the Victorian Era ...........................................................................................................................................................16
Contemporary Beliefs .....................................................................................................................................................................................17
Kingship and King James I ............................................................................................................................................................................18
The Gunpowder Plot .......................................................................................................................................................................................19
Fate, Free Will, Destiny and Fortune ........................................................................................................................................................20
Events in the Play and A Tragedy ..............................................................................................................................................................21
Political Context ................................................................................................................................................................................................22
Relating Themes to Other Aspects of the Play ....................................................................................... 25
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English Literature Paper 1 – Section A (Shakespeare)
1 Hour 45 Minutes Total for the Entire Paper
Literature Paper 1
• Section A: Shakespeare - Macbeth (30 marks +4 SPaG marks)
• Section B: Nineteenth Century Novel – Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (30 marks + 4 SPaG marks)
What are the Examiners Looking For?
• Balanced treatment of the passage and the whole text.
• Tight focus on the task.
• Focus on Shakespeare as the writer of the play. - What methods has he used to shape meaning? What has he done
deliberately?
• Implicit comments about the characters, events, and ideas.
• Subject terminology.
• Use of textual evidence.
• A formal style.
• Specific contextual comments.
o Links / differences between Shakespeare’s audience and a modern audience.
Planning
What should you do when you see the question?
1. Read the information, skim the extract and then read the question.
2. Underline the key terms in the title. Note next to it what aspects of context of the play are relevant.
3. Jot down in rough what you think is the OVERALL IDEA you want to say about Shakespeare’s message – think about
this properly.
Using the extract
• Read it and look for any imagery patterns in the play – this will help to understand Shakespeare’s message.
• Underline these and make notes on how they support your overall idea – read it properly.
What should you look for?
o Imagery first
o Sentence types (questions / exclamations / interruptions) and speech type – but ONLY IF YOU CAN MAKE A POINT
o Any contrasts between charcaters
o Similes & Metaphors
o Interesting words with layers of meaning
o Anything interesting about the structure of verse
o Rhyme? Interruption? Sharing a line? Iambic pentameter?
o Any interesting stage directions
Thinking about the rest of the text
o Two or three references to the rest of the text are ideal.
o Select points carefully; show progression or contrast between the extract and the rest of the text.
o Ideally, select parts of the text where key imagery patterns are used.
o NB: Events immediately before or after the extract are treated as the rest of
the text.
Structure of the Response
1. Thought-out, thorough introduction
2. Three main points which use analysis to support your argument
a. Context should be included in at least 2 paragraphs
b. One could be a counter arguments
3. Conclusion – only if you have enough time
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Quotations - Characters
Macbeth
• “He seamed him from the nave to the chops, / And fixed his head upon our battlements.” – A Captain (about Macbeth) A1
S2 L22-3
o Theme: Violence / War
o Technique: Violence imagery, Foreshadowing
• “What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.”
o Theme: Good and Evil
• “Why do you dress me / In borrowed robes?” – Macbeth A1 S3 L108-9
o Technique: Clothes Imagery Pattern
• “There’s no art / To find the mind’s construction in the face; / He was a gentleman on whom I built / An absolute
trust.” – Duncan A1 S4 L11-4
o Theme: Deception
o Technique: Echoes (L. Macbeth A1 S5 L64-5), (Macbeth A3 S2 L34-5)
• “he [Macbeth] is so valiant, / And in his commendations I am fed; / It is a banquet to me.” – Duncan A1 S4 L54-6
o Translation: ‘Macbeth is so brave that I have a lot of praise for him’
o Theme: Kingship
o Technique: Dramatic Irony (We know Macbeth will betray Duncan)
• “I do fear thy nature, / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” – L. Macbeth (about Macbeth) A1 S5 L15-6
o Theme: Good and Evil
• “Wouldst thou have that / Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, / And live a coward in thine own esteem, / Letting ‘I
dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’, / Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?” – L. Macbeth A1 S7 L41-4
o Translation: ‘Do you wish to have the crown but not have the courage to take it, just like a cat who likes eating fish
but is afraid to get its paws wet’
o Theme: Ambition
o Technique: Simile; Comparison of Macbeth to a cat
• “I am in blood / Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er” – Macbeth A3 S4
L135-7
o Translation: ‘I am already so committed to this life of murder that it would be easier to continue than to give up now.’
• “Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth.” –
Second Apparition A4 S1 L78
o Theme: The Supernatural
• “Then live, Macduff, what need I fear of thee? / But yet I’ll make assurance double sure. / And take a bond of fate – thou
shall not live.”
o Theme: Fate, Ambition
• “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; / Seize upon Fife; give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword / His wife, his babes, and all
unfortunate souls / That trace him in his line.” – Macbeth A4 S2 L149-52
• “the heart I bear, / Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear” – A5 S3 L9-10
o Theme: Ambition
• “I have almost forgot the taste of fears” – Macbeth A5 S5 L9
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