Can someone mark my english lit paper 1 question 1 Macbeth essay

Question:
How Shakespeare portrays the supernatural in this extract
How Shakespeare portrays the supernatural in the play as a whole
(I'm missing out the extract because I can't copy and paste it and it isn't really necessary)

answer:
In this extract, Shakespeare portrays the supernatural as a deceiving and captivating force through the embodiment of the witches captivating and misleading him in order to sway him into committing more vile/evil deeds. Additionally, throughout the play, the supernatural is expressed in different ways including possession which is seen to be influencing Lady Macbeth and instilling power in her.

As seen in the extract, Macbeth has become captivated with the witches’ prophecies and leads us to believe that they are using their supernatural abilities in order to achieve this. We are shown how they’ve used their supernatural abilities in order to spell-bound Macbeth in the quote ‘Look how our partner’s rapt’. The adjective ‘rapt’ emphasises how he is completely infatuated with the witches and their prophecies. We see Banquo is talking about how Macbeth is currently in a bewitched state as he has been gripped by the witches’ prophecies. Shakespeare uses the witches’ prophecies as a means to captivate Macbeth as prophecies can only be made by the supernatural and goes to show how it is ultimately the abilities of the supernatural which are responsible for the overwhelming captivating force, the witches are just a physical embodiment of the supernatural.

Linking on from the captivating force of the supernatural, we see how it uses deception in order to captivate its victims and also uses it to fool them into making negative decisions such as committing a crime. We are shown that the witches are using their deceptive abilities where Shakespeare uses juxtaposition in the quote ‘this supernatural soliciting, cannot be ill, cannot be good’. The use of juxtaposition in the phrase ‘cannot be ill, cannot be good’ demonstrates the supernatural’s deceiving nature as it describes the witches’ prophecies as being neither good nor bad. We see here how Shakespeare has used the idea of uncertainty to show off the deceiving nature of the supernatural as with uncertainty, there is no possible way of knowing whether the outcome of a decision will be positive or negative and ultimately leads to deception of the victim.

Continuing on from the idea of deception, elsewhere in the play, we see how deception has been used to influence Macbeth into performing negative acts and in this case, murder. In act 1 scene 3 we see that Macbeth receives a prophecy telling him he will be king as seen in the quote ‘All hail Macbeth that shall be king hereafter’. This prophecy is deceiving him as it seems positive at first sight but ultimately is negative as we see in the quote ‘is this a dagger which I see before me’ that the prophecy has influenced him to kill the king. A ‘dagger’ is a murder tool which further evidences that the supernatural’s ability to make hallucinations is influencing Macbeth into committing murder. Shakespeare shows how the supernatural can have a strong influence through its use of visions/hallucinations that play on the mind that can be utilised in order to convince people into committing wrongful acts, in this case, murder.

The supernatural not only uses influence to convince individuals to commit bad deeds, but also uses it to give certain people power. We see how the supernatural has done this to Macbeth in the quote ‘The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth’. The term ‘sovereignty’ shows how Macbeth has become king. Shakespeare has done this to show how the influence of the supernatural through him being convinced to commit murder as led to him becoming king and so becoming extremely powerful.

In conclusion, the supernatural has been presented as a captivating force through its use of deception and how its deception has led to individuals being influenced to commit atrocities and how in some cases the influence has led to people becoming extremely powerful.

Really good effort! I’m not sure as to the exact mark, but I’d suggest it’s a low/mid band 4. To improve, consider delving into points a bit more. For instance, you link the quote ‘cannot be ill, cannot be good’ to the deceiving nature of the prophecies and then proceed to essentially paraphrase the quote for further analysis. While I can see that you clearly understand the more complex aspects of the quote, you need to show the examiner in a more definitive way. Ask yourself a question here: what is it that is deceptive about this phrase in relation to the supernatural? Is it the rhetoric of equivocation, perhaps?

Whenever you finish a paragraph, think about what someone who had never read Macbeth would come away with. Explain, question- essentially be a modern day Socrates and you’ll have your band five. Leave no section of your thoughts unwritten so long as you can write about them eloquently. That way, you show all your skills. I can see that you have a good level of understanding, it’s just a matter of flaunting it.

Thank you so much for this reply!, this was the first test I properly did under timed conditions and your feedback is so much better than that of my English teacher's. You've actually told me how to improve rather than my English teacher just constantly saying that I'm saying 'vague generalisations'. Once again thank you so much,this has been extremely helpful.