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AQA English Literature controlled assessment help: Macbeth and a collection of poems

My school is re-doing our AQA English Literature controlled assessment because a few people cheated last time and the grades were low and this time we are comparing Macbeth with four poems. The poems are 'The Ruined Maid', 'The Laboratory', 'Porphyrias Lover' and 'Sonnet 144'. Also our controlled assessment question is 'Explore the ways Shakespeare, Hardy and Browning present female weakness/flaws in Macbeth and a collection of poems'. For the last controlled assessment I got a B which I was pleased with but I put a lot of effort in and though I'd got an A. Could anyone help me on how to get an A in my controlled assessment please? Any help on the meanings/analysis of these poems and how female weakness is shown in each would be greatly appreciated! My controlled assessment is on Tuesday(we only got told last Friday and we are having two days of all English this week to prepare) so I haven't got much time.

Thank you to anyone who answers :smile:

Reply 1

ozmo19

Original post by Emilypickett

I done a lot of this. I luckily got 40/40 for this which we done last month.
We had to explore power in macbeth, the laboratory and my last duchess. Well, Lady Macbeth's weaknesses are quite obvious, remember to look the development of her character to how she gets to a point of pure guilt that she kills herself. A large amount needed there. Analysis wise you should include dramatic methods like monologues, asides, imagery, tone etc and show the effect of this and link it back to the question.
For the laboratory, you could class the speaker as weak and flawed by the position she is in... she was pushed out by this girl who 'stole her man' and her flaw in my opinion is how she comes to this apothecary to get poison yet she sees nothing wrong with it. In fact, her deranged tone suggest she has become entirely obsessed with this and that is is actually satisfactory to her, she even asks the man for a kiss. Context is also relevant so you could possibly link their weaknesses and flaws to those of the stereotypical women of the Victorian era (Browning) and Jacobean era where they were treated as objects and only good for procreation.
Im afraid im not familiar with the other two poems you mentioned so i how what i said helps to an extent.

Reply 2

crashMATHS

Original post by Emilypickett

In Macbeth, the most obvious flaws of Lady Macbeth are power and obsession. Her manipulation is self-destructive and her inability to face the consequences of her actions - the "spot" of blood on her hand - is emblematic of her denial. Denial could be argued to be one her biggest flaws that leads to her destruction, rather than power itself. It is this denial of her initial status that leads to the murder she causes and it is her denial of Duncan's murder that then leads to her somnambulism, and ultimately, her tragic fall (death). You could also contrast this presentation of female weakness with the characters of the witches, who are seemingly omnipotent and have no flaws. But a closer reading would allow you to see the flaws of Hecate, and how this ironically juxtaposes our expectations that the witches wouldn't have any flaws. Maybe link the witches to Lady Macbeth herself and talk about the flaws evoked there - is the human attempt to rid itself of goodness that Lady Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 5 (I think) shows something that can only lead to downfall? There's a lot more you can say, but those are a few ideas you can ponder about.

With 'The Laboratory', talk about the speaker's witch-like chant throughout the poem, and how her confidence also increases - this can be linked with the 12 stanzas that Browning uses, symbolic of a clock and time progressing. However, then you could also talk about the elements of her insecurity: the second stanza in the Church, for example, has a slow, dreary pace to chillingly mirror her psychotic self-consciousness and obsession with Pauline and Elise. You will also want to discuss the significance of the "will it ever hurt me?" in representing the speaker's personal weakness - link this to Macbeth in terms of the action-reaction structure. In Macbeth, we see the consequence of murder, and here, we don't, and is this Browning representing that the thought of consequence is more self-destructing than the consequence itself? Again, link to Macbeth, where the illusion of Banquo's ghost is destructing, which isn't a consequence, but arguably, a thought of consequence.

Hope it helps :smile:

AQA English Literature controlled assessment help: Macbeth and a collection of poems

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