SQA Higher english critical essay help

hi, for macbeth, i just make loads of essay plans for preparation. its quite useful if you set a 5 min timer and bullet point three main points (each one becomes a paragraph) that are very conceptualised and perceptive because examiners are really looking for different interpretations that they haven’t seen before.in that 5 mins i also list all the quotes that i think could be useful for the theme or character. by making a bunch of these essay plans it helps me to become familiar with all of the themes and is also good practice for writing an essay in exam conditions without having to spend the full time!! definitely dont learn full essays, focus on learning adaptable quotes. i found quotes for each theme but like within a character eg. macbeth’s ambition, macbeth’s guilt, macbeth’s kingship, lady macbeth’s gender etc. it helps me to group it by character. i also tried to find as many overlapping quotes as possible. for example, i use “fair is foul and foul is fair” in almost every single essay because it applies to pretty much every part of the play. my other go to is “i have no spur to prick the sides of my intent only vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other”. by finding a few of these quotes that are really “explodable” (ie. theres a lot of language analysis and they are quite versatile) i cover loads of themes and characters without needing to learn a billion quotes.
my annotations for fair is foul:
my commentary on “vaulting ambition” in the context of an essay which got full marks (this makes up about 1/2 of a paragraph, so you reallyy dont need that many quotes!):
In his second soliloquy, at the start of Act 1 Scene 7, we once again see Macbeth’s equivocal state of mind, as he comes to realise that the only thing encouraging him to take further action and to murder Duncan is his own ambition; ‘I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other –’. This metaphor encapsulates his confliction as he is both displayed as the horse and the rider, both in control of his own destiny though simultaneously influenced by so much of the environment around him. The verb ‘vaulting’ personifies his ambition, making it overpowering, with a life of its own. This sense of momentum is emphasised by the iambic pentameter which as a riding-like rhythm, as well as by the use of enjambment between the lines. This verb also suggests an upwards trajectory, implying that his ambition is growing with every passing moment, however the caesura at the end of the line undermines this, mimetic of a “fall” and foreboding unwelcome consequences to the ‘horrid deed’. Nevertheless, the verb ‘o’erleaps’ conveys how his ambition is still far greater than his ability, and this ambition is too overwhelming to ignore, despite the definite “fall” that awaits him. Therefore, although a misogynistic Jacobean society may have considered Lady Macbeth most at fault, a modern audience would place more value in the fact that killing Duncan was originally Macbeth’s idea, and that he was ‘spur[ed]’ forwards predominantly by his ambition to be King.
that might be all useless nonsense because i do AQA GCSE macbeth but hopefully some of it is helpful to you!!