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How To Write A Grade 9 Shakespeare Essay wjec-eduqas Shakespeare

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Exam code:C720

How to Write a Grade 9 Shakespeare Essay

To get a Grade 9 in the Shakespeare section of the exam, you need to know how to write an effective essay. In Section A, you are assessed on three assessment objectives: AO1, AO2 and AO4.

Find out how to approach the exam question with our guides below:

Exam skill 1: Developing an informed personal response (AO1)
Exam skill 2: Analysing dramatic devices through form, structure and language (AO2)

Exam skill 1: Developing an informed personal response (AO1)

In both parts of Section A you are assessed on AO1. Assessment Objective 1 requires you to show a close knowledge and understanding of your Shakespeare text, maintain a critical style, present an informed personal response and use textual references to support your interpretations. Writing an “informed personal response” means offering your individual thoughts and feelings about your text. A “critical style” means interrogating the text, which means sharing your own unique insights, interpretations or any connections you draw from the play.

The extract-based question

Let’s look at the type of question you could be asked for the extract-based question in Section A. This extract is from Romeo and Juliet and focuses on Juliet’s thoughts and feelings in Act 4, Scene 3.

Juliet

What if it be a poison which the Friar

Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,

Lest in this marriage he should be dishonoured,

Because he married me before to Romeo?

I fear it is, and yet methinks it should not,

For he hath still been tried a holy man.

How if, when I am laid into the tomb,

I wake before the time that Romeo

Come to redeem me? There’s a fearful point!

Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,

To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,

And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?

Or if I live, is it not very like

The horrible conceit of death and night,

Together with the terror of the place –

As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,

Where for this many hundred years the bones

Of all my buried ancestors are packed,

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,

Lies fest’ring in his shroud, where, as they say,

At some hours in the night spirits resort –

Alack, alack, is it not like that I,

So early waking – what with loathsome smells,

And shrieks like mandrakes’ torn out of the earth,

That living mortals hearing them run mad –

O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,

Environèd with all these hideous fears,

And madly play with my forefathers’ joints,

And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,

And in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone,

As with a club, dash out my desp’rate brains?

To demonstrate AO1 skills you could include some of these points in your response to this question:

AO1 comments
Juliet is torn between her love for Romeo and her loyalty to her family	Juliet’s isolation and desperation are evident as she contemplates the consequences of her actions
She feels abandoned and betrayed, fearing Friar Lawrence may have deceived her with the potion	Juliet’s uncertainty and vulnerability evokes sympathy from the audience

Once you have identified points which address the question, you need to develop these into a fully developed response. Consider this model answer which develops some of these bullet points.

Question focus

Informed personal response (AO1)

What does the extract show an audience about Juliet’s thoughts and feelings at this point in the play?

In this extract, Juliet’s isolation and desperation are evident and she is torn between her love for Romeo and her loyalty to her family. [Introductory sentence has a clear focus (AO1)] She is aware of the risks involved in defying her family’s wishes but her love for Romeo compels her to take drastic measures to be with him. [Sustains focus on Juliet’s internal conflict (AO1)] The contrast between her love for Romeo and the darkness that surrounds her makes her vulnerability more evident. She contemplates the consequences of her actions and feels abandoned and betrayed, fearing Friar Lawrence may have deceived her with the potion. This fear that the poison may actually be a poison and a desperate act by Friar Laurence to protect himself is clear when she questions, “What if it be a poison which the Friar/Subtly hath administered to have me dead”. This heightens her doubts and fears. [Includes pertinet, direct quote and evaluates impact (AO1)] Also, the prospect of waking up alone in the tomb, surrounded by the “foul mouth” with no air and the decaying bodies of her ancestors, adds to her terror. She continues to imagine the horrific possibility of being “stifled in the vault” or succumbing to madness from the “loathsome smells” and “shrieks” within the tomb. Her vulnerability and uncertainty in this scene evoke sympathy from the audience. [Demonstrates evaluative approach to the effect on the audience (AO1)] She feels she has surrendered control of her fate by taking the potion and her precarious and unpredictable situation creates immense suspense about her situation. [Point is developed into a second sentence of analysis (AO1)] The contemplation of suicide, using a bone “as with a club” to escape her predicament illustrates her desperation in this part of the play.

Examiners are looking for a personal judgement, with evidence, in the form of references and quotations, from throughout your text. Add your own interpretations and make sure all of your points are fully developed.

Examiner Tips and Tricks

You should always ask yourself why the particular extract you have been given has been chosen. For example, is it a turning point in the play? This can then lead you to think about some other important questions:

Does it reveal something new about a character?
Where does this extract fit into the play as a whole?
Which characters are involved and what do we learn about them?
What’s happening, and how does this relate to the focus of the question?

The essay question

Let’s now look at the type of question you could be asked for the essay question in Section A. This time we will focus on a character from The Merchant of Venice.

Question

GCSE Eduqas English Literature Shakespeare

Write about Jessica and how she is presented at different points in the play

To demonstrate AO1 skills you could include some of these points in your response to this question:

AO1 comments
Jessica is presented as a girl frustrated by Shylock’s over-protectiveness and strictness	She is ashamed to be Shylock’s daughter and sees herself as completely different from him
She exhibits a callous attitude towards Shylock and her disobedience is contrasted with Portia’s loyalty to her father	Her elopement demonstrates her eagerness to disassociate herself from her Jewish background

Again, once you have identified points which address the question, you need to develop these into a fully developed response. Consider this model answer which develops some of these bullet points.

Question focus

Informed personal response (AO1)

Write about Jessica and how she is presented at different points in the play

Although Jessica is a minor character in The Merchant of Venice, her role within the play is pivotal as Shakespeare uses her to explore the question of Jewish identity. [Clear focus on the question (AO1)] Her decision to elope with Lorenzo and take her father’s casket of gold ducats is the trigger for Shylock’s desire for revenge against Antonio. Shakespeare uses Jessica’s character as a contrast to Portia’s: Portia’s devoted loyalty to her father’s will is contrasted with Jessica’s neglect of her expected duties as a daughter. In contrast, Jessica exhibits a callous attitude towards her father, taking his money, running away from home and even trading his cherished ring for a monkey. [Gives a personal response to Jessica’s actions (AO1)] However, as a character she does not express any significant dissatisfaction with her father, except for the monotony of their life together and his overt strictness. However, Jessica decides to break free from her father and her Jewish background in order to wed Lorenzo and become a Christian. [Shows perceptive understanding of Jessica’s motives (AO1)] Through the marriage of Jessica and Lorenzo, Shakespeare may be highlighting the potential for two people with significant differences to come together in unity and equality. [Evaluates and interprets Shakespeare’s possible intentions (AO1)] Her elopement demonstrates her eagerness to disassociate herself from her Jewish background, perhaps due to the perceived negative perceptions attached to it. Further, Jessica and Lorenzo’s elopement could appear to be somewhat ambiguous. [Analyses the complexity of Jessica’s actions, offering a nuanced interpretation (AO1)] Her desire to elope and convert could be viewed as recklessly impulsive and bordering on selfishness, due to her insistence on taking a large amount of Shylock’s treasure with them.

Exam skill 2: Analysing dramatic devices through form, structure and language (AO2)

Both questions in Section A assess AO2 which means you need to consider how form, structure and language are used to present ideas within your text. Your play is meant to be acted out and so you need to always consider this when writing about any Shakesepare text. Dramatic devices are techniques that playwrights use to structure and stage their plays and engage with theatre audiences. They are communicated through their use of stagecraft, so it is just as important to explore the stage directions in your play as it is the characters’ dialogue.

Form

When writing about a drama text, it is important to consider why Shakespeare has chosen that particular form to convey his message and what genre of drama he has chosen.

Some genres of drama are:

Drama genre	Definition
Tragedy	A type of play involving human conflict which ends in defeat and suffering Often the main character has a tragic flaw that leads to their destruction
Comedy	A genre which has a light or humorous tone It depicts amusing incidents in which the characters ultimately triumph over evil or adversity
Morality play	Morality plays explore moral and ethical themes, using allegory They focus on the consequences of individual actions and societal attitudes towards responsibility and accountability
Farce	A farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable
Romance	A genre that explores the complexities of love The plot usually centres around an obstacle that is preventing love between two people
Tragicomedy	A tragicomedy might be a serious drama interspersed with comedic moments that periodically lighten the mood, or a drama that has a happy ending

Pay particular attention to the genre used in your play: for example, is it written as a tragedy or as a comedy? Then consider why you think Shakespeare has chosen to use this particular genre.

Let’s take a look at an example using Much Ado About Nothing. Consider some of these ideas which explore Shakespeare’s choice of genre for this play.

Genre

Analysis

Comedy

Shakespeare uses this genre to explore the themes of love and mistaken identity:
- Mistaken identities, misunderstandings and accusations all help to create a level of chaos within the play which align to the comedic genre
The genre enables Shakespeare to satirise societal conventions, particularly in relation to matters of love and courtship:
- It enables characters such as Benedick and Beatrice to engage in witty dialogue and clever wordplay
While the darker elements of the play involve Hero’s public humiliation and “death”, it includes many classical comedic elements, such as wit and foolery:
- The subplot involving Claudio and Hero’s relationship adds an element of farce

When exploring form in a Shakespeare play you should also consider how the characters speak. Are the characters speaking in prose or verse? Why might this be? If there is verse, is it blank (unrhyming) or is there a rhyme scheme? Why might Shakespeare have chosen to do this?

Structure

Similar to a novel or a poem, a play will adhere to a particular structure. Typically, a play will have five or six core elements within its structure: exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.

Let’s explore the meaning of these terms.

Exposition (or introduction)	The exposition brings the audience up-to-date as quickly as possible, describing the setting (year, time of day, locale, etc.), the atmosphere (mood) and the main characters
Rising action (or complication)	Rising action refers to all the events that happen in a story on the way to the climax The rising action pushes the plot along, building tension to keep an audience invested in the story as it moves forward
Dramatic climax	This is the highest point of tension or drama in the plot Often, the climax is also when the main problem of the story is faced and solved by the main character or protagonist
Falling action (or second complication)	Falling action is everything that takes place immediately after the climax The purpose of falling action is to bring the story from climax to a resolution
Denouement (or resolution)	The final part of a play in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved

The examiner expects you to comment on how the playwright has used structure for effect. For example, in the exposition of Othello, Othello exhibits a composed demeanour, devoid of any signs of jealousy, which is in stark contrast to Iago, whose jealousy is evident from the beginning of the play. However, by the play’s climax, Iago’s influence corrupts Othello and he becomes just as consumed by jealousy as Iago is. Shakespeare therefore uses the exposition to foreshadow Othello’s downfall.

When analysing Shakespeare’s structural choices, asking the following questions will help you evaluate his intentions:

Structural device	Questions to consider
Acts and scenes	How does the division of the play into acts and scenes contribute to the structure and the pacing of the play? Do the acts and scenes mark significant shifts in time, location, character or theme? What is the purpose of each act or scene? How does the opening and ending of each act or scene contribute to the audience’s understanding and engagement with the play? Are there moments of climax or resolution within particular acts or scenes?
Setting	Where is the play set? Does it have multiple settings which contrast each other or is the action set in one location? What might these settings symbolise?

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English Literature GCSE WJEC EDUQAS