The ambition of the character Macbeth in Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" is a driving force that ultimately leads to his downfall. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a respected and successful general in the Scottish army, but he becomes consumed by his desire for power and position.

Upon receiving a prophecy from three witches that he will one day be the King of Scotland, Macbeth becomes ambitious and begins to plot his rise to the throne. He becomes convinced that the only way to fulfill the prophecy is to kill King Duncan and take his place as ruler. Despite... (More)

What are you being asked to do?

The marker is told to view each question as a task, which you must solve with your answer. Here the task is to show your comprehending skills; you are proving to the marker that you can read or look at a certain text and answer questions based on what you have read or seen. There are three question types used to test this: questions concerning what a written question is about, questions on the style of a written text, and questions on the style of a visual text.

If we look at the... (More)

Finally, keep these basic things in mind when answering your prescribed poetry question:

Six poems

The markers are told to look for evidence that you have studied six poems in your answer. There are two ways to do this:

1. Use examples from six poems
2. If you do not want to focus on six poems you can list six poems in your introduction.

What’s the poem about?

Introduce each poem when you focus on it for the first time, such as what the poet is focusing on here.

Use of I

Give your personal opinion regardless of the question.

Don’t focus... (More)

The play then switches to King Duncan of Scotland’s military camp, located close to his palace in Forres. The king speaks to a wounded captain (who was wounded helping the King’s son Malcolm escape the fighting), seeking an update regarding the Scots’ battle with the Irish invaders who are led by Macdonwald, a rebel. The captain tells the king how the Scottish general Macbeth and Banquo bravely overcame Macdonwald, with Macbeth killing Macdonwald and placing the rebel’s head on the castle’s battlements. The thane of Ross then enters as the the captain is taken away to be treated to, revealing... (More)