Edexcel English Lit Paper 1: Macbeth Section A, Question 1: Grade 9 Answer?

I wrote this answer based on Act 5 Scene 1 on Lady Macbeth's character, what grade/mark out of 20 would you think I would get for this response?

Initially, Shakespeare powerfully portrays Lady Macbeth as psychologically deteriorating, particularly as this scene is the first time the audience would have witnessed her sleepwalking. Her descent into insanity is most explicitly conveyed through the form and structure used. Her shift from iambic pentameter to prose encourages the audience to understand how her speech is less measured and precise, being seemingly incapable of formulating sentences in a structured way. Her lines of dialogue are a lot more substantial than the two other characters on stage; this would have presented a fragmented, disjointed stream of conscious feel, emotively alluding to her mental battle with her overwhelming emotions. Lady Macbeth exclaims ‘the Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?’. Shakespeare incorporates doggerel rhyme to further allude to the deuteragonist’s lack of control, as well as her confusion after the killing of Macduff’s family. Yet her confusion materialises as she cannot wash the blood off her hands, exclaiming ‘Out, damned spot! Out I say!’, with the parallel exclamations connoting to her mentally deprived state.

However, Shakespeare uses this motif of blood to reinforce the guilt Lady Macbeth feels in this scene. She questions ‘will these hands ne’er be clean?’, given that ‘all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’. Shakespeare combines the use of a rhetorical question with hyperbole to emphatically emphasise the sheer amount of guilt Lady Macbeth feels, particularly as this scene reminds the audience of Lady Macbeth’s comment ‘a little water clears us of this deed’ after the murder of Duncan. Furthermore, at the end of the passage, Shakespeare includes a tricolon of imperative verbs (‘Wash your hands, put on your night-gown. Look not so pale’), further allowing readers to recognise how Lady Macbeth feels guilt due to Macbeth, and the commands she has instructed him which have resulted in them committing regicide.

Thirdly, Lady Macbeth is presented as troubled and anxious, particularly as she re-lives the night of Duncan’s murder (‘One, two. Why then ‘tis time to do it’). The enumeration connotes to the audience the ringing of the bells which signalled the murder, thus Shakespeare elucidates Lady Macbeth’s paranoia as she remembers the shocking events of that evening. She questions ‘Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?’, with this rhetorical question not only incriminating Lady Macbeth as she openly addresses her involvement in Duncan’s murder, but also suggests her discomfort with his death, recognising how this act is morally wrong. In her troubled state, she also tries to quell her fears which arose after Banquo’s death, bluntly stating ‘Banquo’s buried: he cannot come out on’s grave’. The use of declarative statements in short, simple sentences, exemplifies Lady Macbeth’s need to reassure herself after the abhorrent acts she committed, being so anxious that she has to remind herself that Banquo cannot retaliate as he is dead, a notion extremely significant to the audience following the banquet scene where Banquo’s ghost appeared in Act 3 Scene 4.

Would appreciate any comments/feedback :smile:

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 1

thewizard55

Yeah seems excellent to me. I love how you developed your responses. I don't have any experience beyond doing the GCSE myself (9) but I can't see much for you to improve along as you can achieve that kind of response in the exam time allocated. If possible, perhaps more embedded quotes because examiners love that but all in all, grade 9 response in my opinion.

Reply 2

jly17

thank you! (Original post by thewizard55)Yeah seems excellent to me. I love how you developed your responses. I don't have any experience beyond doing the GCSE myself (9) but I can't see much for you to improve along as you can achieve that kind of response in the exam time allocated. If possible, perhaps more embedded quotes because examiners love that but all in all, grade 9 response in my opinion.