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EnglandEnglish Literature

Shakespeare (Paper 1, Section A)

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you answer the Part (a) Shakespeare extract question for Edexcel?

Answering the Edexcel Shakespeare Part (a) extract task: analysing the printed extract of about 30 lines closely for language, form and structure, building a personal response, and using drama terminology (AO1 and AO2).
How to answer the Edexcel GCSE Shakespeare Part (a) extract task on Component 1: analysing the printed extract of about 30 lines for language, form and structure, building a clear personal response, and using accurate drama terminology, with no memorised quotations needed (AO1 and AO2).
9 min answer →

How do you read a Shakespeare play as drama and prepare it for the closed-book Edexcel exam?

Approaching a Shakespeare play for Edexcel: reading it as drama rather than prose, tracking dramatic method (soliloquy, dramatic irony, stagecraft, verse and prose), learning the genre and shape, and building a flexible quotation bank for the closed-book Component 1 question.
How to approach the Edexcel GCSE Shakespeare play for Component 1 Section A: reading it as drama and not a novel, tracking dramatic method, understanding genre and structure, and building a flexible bank of short quotations for the closed-book two-part question.
9 min answer →

How do you analyse character and theme through Shakespeare's dramatic method?

Analysing character and theme in the Shakespeare play: treating character as a construction Shakespeare builds through dramatic method to develop ideas, tracing development from opening to resolution, and writing a method-led interpretation (AO1 and AO2).
How to analyse character and theme in the Edexcel GCSE Shakespeare play: reading character as a construction Shakespeare builds through dramatic method to develop ideas, tracing its development across the play, and writing a method-led interpretation for AO1 and AO2.
8 min answer →

How do you use Elizabethan and Jacobean context to deepen a Shakespeare answer?

Using the context of Shakespeare's world (the divine right of kings, the Great Chain of Being, the supernatural, gender expectations, honour and the feud) to deepen a reading where it changes the meaning, embedded in analysis (AO3).
How to weave Elizabethan and Jacobean context into the Edexcel GCSE Shakespeare answer: the divine right of kings, the Great Chain of Being, the supernatural, gender expectations and honour, used to deepen a reading where it changes the meaning rather than as a detached history paragraph (AO3).
9 min answer →

How do you answer the Part (b) whole-play Shakespeare essay for Edexcel?

Answering the Edexcel Shakespeare Part (b) whole-play task: tracing how a theme from the extract is explored elsewhere in the play, structuring an idea-led essay, and supporting it with memorised quotations (AO1 and AO2).
How to answer the Edexcel GCSE Shakespeare Part (b) task on Component 1: tracing how a theme introduced in the extract is explored elsewhere in the whole play, building an idea-led essay, and supporting every point with memorised quotations (AO1 and AO2).
9 min answer →