Macbeth Extract Question Model Answer (OCR GCSE English Literature)

Macbeth Extract Question Model Answer

You will always have two options when answering a Macbeth question as part of your OCR English Literature GCSE:

• A question based on an extract from the play or 

• A “discursive” essay, with no extract

We will show you how to write a Grade 9 answer for the extract-based question (a model answer for the discursive essay can be found here).

What’s the difference between the extract question and the discursive question?

Essentially, the extract question (which is always the first question of the two options), provides you with evidence that you can use in your essay in the form of a 40-line extract from Macbeth. For the discursive question, you will have to select your own evidence. 

However — and this is really important — even in the extract question you are expected to include quotations and references from the rest of the play to achieve the highest marks, so check out our Macbeth Key Quotations page for the best quotations to learn.

How is the Macbeth extract question assessed?

The extract question is marked using an identical mark scheme to the discursive question, so check out our Macbeth essay student-friendly mark scheme for a detailed breakdown of the assessment objectives and advice on how to get top marks for each one.

How long do I spend annotating the extract?

You only have 50 minutes to write, plan and check over your Macbeth essay, so annotate the extract while you are creating your essay plan and spend up to 15 minutes on your plan. It may sound like a long time, but the best advice is always to “plan more, write less” to ensure your essay only includes the most relevant analysis and evidence, is well structured, and focuses on the question throughout.

Grade 9 Macbeth Model Answer

Read this sample, top-mark answer for a past OCR GCSE Macbeth extract essay question. As a model answer, it includes annotations to show you where and how this answer has achieved maximum marks. It’s an example answer to the following question:

Grade 9 Model Response

Shakespeare presents violence as both praiseworthy and villainous in Macbeth. His protagonist, Macbeth, is at first championed because of his violence on the battlefield, but as the play progresses his violent nature begins more and more to represent uncontrolled treachery and the breakdown of order.

Initially, violence is closely associated with bravery in Macbeth. In the extract, Macbeth’s successful exploits on the battlefield are widely praised, with King Duncan referring to him as “valiant” and the sergeant using a similar term when describing him as “valour’s minion”. Indeed, the term valour is repeated a third time in Act 1, Scene 2, and is closely associated with goodness and violence, as the sergeant describes Macbeth’s actions as  “justice … with valour arm’d”. A contemporary audience would have understood the link between masculine honour and military bravery. This is emphasised by Shakespeare later in the extract when the sergeant refers to Macbeth as both an “eagle” and a “lion”, both symbols in heraldry. Macbeth’s violence is directly linked to his honour in this extract, and the societal expectation placed on men of this era is used later in the play by Lady Macbeth to manipulate her husband. She challenges Macbeth’s masculinity and bravery by suggesting that only after he kills Duncan can he be considered “a man”, later calling him a “coward” for not wanting to commit regicide. 

However, later in the play, violence is more closely linked to treachery and rebellion. Macbeth’s successive violent acts — the murder of his own King, the assassination of his fellow military captain, Banquo, and perhaps worst of all, the callous slaughter of Macduff’s wife and children — all represent heinous acts that go wildly against societal decency and norms. In the extract, the contrast between Macbeth’s extreme violence (“bloody execution”; “unseam’d”) and Duncan’s gratitude and praise (“O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!”) reflects the inherent traits of the two characters. Duncan is a benevolent ruler who bestows his subjects with rewards (when he meets Macbeth later in the play he gives him the title of Thane of Cawdor), while Macbeth treats his innocent kinsmen and subjects appallingly. It is interesting to note that when order is restored at the end of the play, before he takes the throne, Malcolm isn’t the one to take his sword to Macbeth. Therefore, violence is only associated with those seeking to destabilise the kingdom, and not those who will rule justly. Perhaps Shakespeare is commenting on a more brutal, less “civilised” period of British history, where violence was wrongly praised above decency or loyalty to the crown.

Furthermore, Macbeth’s own violence could be seen as destabilising, not only to the kingdom of Scotland, but also to his own mental state. While it is true that Shakespeare does present Macbeth as courageous and brave in this extract, it could be argued that he does so with a good amount of irony. Shakespeare foreshadows the deterioration of Macbeth’s (and indeed Lady Macbeth’s) mental state when the sergeant mentions he “smok’d with bloody execution” his enemies. The motif of blood is used frequently throughout the play by Shakespeare to represent the guilt felt by Macbeth for his immoral violent acts: he sees a bloody dagger before he commits regicide, and his assertion that “blood will have blood” in Act 3, Scene 4 when he encounters Banquo’s ghost hints at his own death. Shakespeare also gives the audience a sense that Macbeth’s own rule will be ruinous for Scotland when the sergeant refers to “another Golgotha”. The murder of the saintly Duncan, like the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, represents the death of goodness. Lastly, Shakespeare ironically has Macbeth murder a traitor — Macdonwald — and then he’s described as having “fix’d his head upon our battlements”, which will be precisely Macbeth’s own fate as a traitor. Again, Shakespeare could be suggesting that in order to have an ordered kingdom, violence needs to be measured and proportionate, like Macduff’s act of vengeance.

In conclusion, Shakespeare could be suggesting that Macbeth’s violence — while an indicator of his courage on the battlefield — is misplaced in a civilian setting, especially once he becomes king. Indeed, this unchecked violence results in increased acts of treachery and destabilises the kingdom, as well as Macbeth's own mind.

Sources

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Cedric Watts, Wordsworth Classics, 2005