English lit help required?!

How do I improve my English lit grades in AIC AND Macbeth essays, I just can’t get past a 5?

Obviously it is difficult to offer specific advice, as there is no evidence of your work to assess, but there are general criteria you can make sure you are following. Firstly both Macbeth and An Inspector Calls are plays, and so your analysis of them must bear this in mind. If, for example, you had a question analysing the change in Sheila's character, perhaps consider the prop of the ring; her clothing; the stage lighting at different points, etc. Same with Macbeth, if you were analysing Lady Macbeth, you could talk about the dramatic impact of her soliloquies, the change in her character as reflected in her clothing- i.e. when she is greeting Duncan she would be dressed up, and then she is stripped down in her sleep-walking scene toward the end of the play at her most mentally vulnerable. So basically consider how these dramatic choices are important features of these plays and lend themselves to the meaning, but also the writer's purpose. Why are these playwrights doing this? For example, the change in Sheila is perhaps Priestley trying to galvanise society toward his egalitarian principles by signifying that change lies with the youth (the new generation), placing an emphasis on the potential of the future, etc. Obviously as long as you can back up your view it doesn't really matter what you think the author is trying to do, but always make comment on what you believe the evidence shows the author is trying to say.

Another good thing to comment on would be 'tone'. So if you were analysing the way Lady Macbeth greets Duncan in Act 1 Scene 6, for example, you could comment on her exaggerated humility:

"All our service,
in every point twice done and then done
double,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honors deep and broad
wherewith Your majesty loads our house."

The tone employed by Lady Macbeth here is obviously contrasted with her Act 1 Scene 5 soliloquy. By looking at the tone, this then makes space to more closely look at the language- for example the double repetition of 'double'/ 'twice' draws attention to the duplicity that Lady Macbeth is employing, but "twice done then done double" is also an example of the rhetorical device chiasmus, and so serves to show that Lady Macbeth's language here is very constructed and not naturalistic. This exaggerated tone, the contrast to her previous soliloquy, and thus her obvious duplicity create very obvious dramatic irony by drawing on her falseness- as the audience watching the play are aware that she is plotting to kill Duncan, whereas he is not. Then you would talk about why Shakespeare is using dramatic irony here and casting Lady Macbeth in such an 'unnatural' light to bring it back to the author's purpose, and if appropriate, use relevant context. E.g. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony in Lady Macbeth's greeting of Duncan to emphasise her duplicitous qualities. Through the use of rhetorical devices such as the chiasmus "twice done then done double" and repetition of the 'doubling' motif, Shakespeare highlights Lady Macbeth's 'constructed' facade. The exaggerated tone, expressed through the dichotomies of 'servitude' and 'majesty', serve to reinforce these social values, whilst discrediting Lady Macbeth's 'unnatural' flouting of such. Through this Shakespeare aims to express to his audience that defying social hierarchies is wrong. (and then maybe elaborate on why this would have been his message, e.g. patriarchal society, the feudalistic system, instability of monarchy, Shakespeare commissioned by King James, etc.)

Then crucially, every good essay needs a good essay structure. Whatever your question you want to answer it in the introduction and then show it through a couple of elaborated points and then reinforce in the conclusion. Obviously, this would be specific for the exam board you are doing because of the type of question. But say for example you had this question on Sheila: How does Priestley present Sheila in An Inspector Calls?

In your intro you would define your main line of argument, e.g. Priestley presents Sheila as a symbol of change.

Para 1: She arguably experiences the most change over the course of the play- compare her at the start and then at the end

Para 2: She becomes an echo of the inspector and a second mouthpiece for Priestley.

Para 3: She represents the new generation (alongside Eric), and is contrasted against the intransigence of the older generation.

Conclusion: Ultimately, therefore, Priestley presents Sheila as a symbol of change.


I'm writing this quite late at night, and so I may not have made sense in everything I've said, so if you need clarity, please let me know. And, obviously
the feedback isn't 'specific', but hopefully something I said was helpful, ha!

I believe in the rng conspiracy. English teachers randomly give out grades based on classwork. I have studied and got 4s but I once put a 2 quotes in the whole essay and got a 7. it doesn't make sense

Thanks so much so for example does each paragraph have to express a specific point I’m arguing.
How many lines of language analysis do you do.
And can you tell me how you structure a paragraph in literature as I tend to go over the top,
Also, in the introduction does it have to be long to get a top grade, how would I structure the introduction- could you provide an example?

Sure, what exam board are you?

Aqa

Could you answer all the questions above please as well like separate from the example you provide

I have replied via PM