William Shakespeare

The Shakespeare Question Overview

As part of Paper 1, Section A you will study one Shakespeare play, and write one essay-length answer to one set question in your paper. The question will include an extract from your studied play, but it is a closed-book exam, which means you will not have access to a copy of the text in your exam. You are therefore expected to know your play very well: its plot, its themes and its characters. The six Shakespeare plays that you could study are:

• Macbeth
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Tempest
• The Merchant of Venice
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Julius Caesar

This page is a great place to start when first beginning your revision for the Shakespeare question on your exam. It includes lots of links to useful pages on individual Shakespeare plays, and some exam-specific advice:

• Who was William Shakespeare?
• How is Shakespeare assessed in the English Literature exam?
• Shakespeare's context
• Shakespeare's characters
• Shakespeare's methods and techniques
• Shakespeare themes
• Shakespeare quotes

Who was William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet and is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language. Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England and, coincidentally, died on April 23, 1616 and he is buried in Stratford Church. While William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets - first published in 1609 - he is probably better known for writing more than 30 plays which are usually divided into 3 categories: histories, comedies and tragedies. Shakespeare’s earliest plays were primarily comedies and histories such as Julius Caesar and Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare’s later plays were primarily tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. Each of these forms has particular conventions and structures and it is important to know these conventions, because you can then comment on how far Shakespeare conforms to, or breaks from, these standard conventions and structures in your exam essay. For more detailed analysis of the forms and conventions of Shakespeare's plays, see our section on Shakespeare's Methods and Techniques.

Exam Tip While it is important to know about the period in which Shakespeare lived, you should never include, for example, the above biographical information about Shakespeare in your essay. Instead, all context needs to be integrated into the main ideas within Shakespeare’s plays. An examiner never wants to see what they call “bolt-on” context: random historical information that has little or nothing to do with the theme or focus of your exam question.

How is Shakespeare assessed in the English Literature exam?

• Paper 1 requires you to answer two questions in 1hr 45min so you have approximately 52 minutes to plan, write and check your Shakespeare essay
• Paper 1 is worth 64 marks and accounts for 40% of your overall GCSE grade
• The Shakespeare essay is worth 34 marks in total
• Section A contains the Shakespeare question and you are required to answer one question on the play you have studied
• Regardless of which Shakespeare play you have studied, the type of question you’ll need to write an essay for will be the same:
• You will be asked a question that asks you to analyse and write in detail about an aspect of the play
• Your answer will need to address both an extract from the play that you will be given, and the play as a whole

Exam Tip Answering just one essay question can seem daunting. However, examiners just want to see your ideas and opinions on the Shakespeare play you have studied. When writing your essay, it is important to understand: 1) how to answer the question effectively; 2) how to plan your essay; and 3) how to write and structure your essay on Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's Context

As Shakespeare wrote all of his plays during the Jacobean and Elizabethan era, it is useful to have a sense of the behaviours and attitudes of Shakespeare’s time and to consider what the audience’s attitudes and behaviours would have been in general: 

For example, some of the contextual factors which relate to the play Macbeth are: James I; Witchcraft; Gender and God and the Great Chain of Being

While all of Shakespeare’s plays will have been influenced by the context in which they were written, you should try to consider what the text has to say about people, human nature, societal structures etc. and recognise these as universal themes, which are just as relevant today

Having a good grasp of how contextual factors link with the themes of the play will enable you to create the “conceptualised response” that is awarded the highest mark in the exam. So, for a question on Lady Macbeth, it would be very relevant to explore Jacobean expectations of wives and women (contextual knowledge) when arguing that Shakespeare deliberately subverts these expectations in the way he presents gender roles (theme). 

• Shakespeare Context
• Macbeth Context
• Romeo and Juliet Context
• The Merchant of Venice Context

Exam Tip A Jacobean audience would have been well acquainted with tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy in particular. This means a contemporary audience member would be expecting these plays to conform to the conventions of tragedy. Types of Shakespearean play

Shakespeare's Characters

• Shakespeare uses his characters to symbolise various ideas prevalent in his society and the differences between characters reflect contemporary debates.
• It is vital that you understand that characters are often used symbolically to express ideas
• For example, Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a character who subverts the typical attributes of women of that time, for she is not dutiful, compassionate or nurturing
• It is very useful not only to learn about each character individually but how they compare and contrast to other characters in the play you have studied
• Macbeth characters
• Romeo and Juliet characters
• The Merchant of Venice characters

Exam Tip It is important to consider the range of strategies used by Shakespeare to create and develop characters within his plays. This includes: how characters are established; how characters are presented (physical appearance, actions and motives for them, what they say and think; how they interact with others; what others say and think about them) how far the characters conform to or subvert stereotypes; their relationships between other characters

Shakespeare Themes

Shakespeare explores a wide range of ideas and themes within his plays:

• For example, in Macbeth, Shakespeare explores ideas about ambition and its consequences  
• For example, in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare explores ideas about patriarchal expectations regarding masculinity which could be seen to encourage conflict rather than love

Having a good grasp of the play’s themes and crucially, why Shakespeare is exploring these themes, will enable you to produce a “conceptualised response” in the exam:

• Macbeth Themes
• Romeo and Juliet Themes
• The Merchant of Venice Themes

Exam Tip Exam responses that are led by ideas are more likely to reach the highest levels of the mark scheme. By exploring the ideas of the text, specifically in relation to the question being asked, it will help to increase your fluency and assurance in writing about the play.

Shakespeare's Methods and Techniques

‘Methods’ is an umbrella term for anything Shakespeare does on purpose to create meaning in his plays

Shakespeare uses a wide of methods and techniques so you must consider dramatic devices such as, structure, stagecraft, characterisation and dramatic speech and language in your essay. Shakespeare’s methods and techniques in Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet:

• Shakespeare's Methods and Techniques in Macbeth
• Shakespeare's Methods and Techniques in Romeo and Juliet
• Shakespeare's Methods and Techniques in The Merchant of Venice

Exam Tip Examiners are looking to reward what you say about the craft of the writer, not the number of technical terms referenced in your response. You do not need to display a knowledge of literary and linguistic methods but are best advised to use simpler terminology (if any) to focus and build your analysis/argument.

Shakespeare Quotes

Overall, you should aim to secure a strong knowledge of your chosen Shakespeare play, rather than rehearsed quotations, as this will enable you to respond to the exam question; however, if you are going to revise quotations, the best way is to group them by character, or theme. 

Key quotations relating to Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet:

• Macbeth Quotes
• Romeo and Juliet Quotes
• The Merchant of Venice Quotes

Exam Tip Remember the assessment objectives explicitly states that you should be able to ‘use textual references, including quotations’ in your exam essay. This means summarising, paraphrasing, referencing single words and the referencing of plot events are all as valid as quotations in demonstrating that you understand the play. It is important that you remember that you can evidence your knowledge of the text in these two equally valid ways: both through references to it and direct quotations from it.