Literature Essays

Macbeth is a play about a man who kills the king because he wants to be king himself. He is very ambitious.The opening does not address the question about how Shakespeare presents ambition. It simply states what Macbeth does.

In the play, Macbeth meets three witches who tell him he will be king. This makes him want to kill Duncan. His wife helps him and they kill Duncan in his sleep.Plot retelling with no analysis of language. The student describes events but does not examine how Shakespeare uses language to present ambition.

Macbeth's ambition is bad because it makes him do terrible things. He kills his friend Banquo and tries to kill Banquo's son. In the end he gets killed by Macduff. This shows that ambition is dangerous.A basic moral judgement rather than literary analysis. There is no quotation and no engagement with Shakespeare's techniques.

Dickens presents Scrooge's transformation through the visits of the three spirits. At the start, Scrooge is described as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinnerGood quotation selection but the analysis that follows is descriptive rather than evaluative..” The list of adjectives creates a sense of relentless greed and suggests Scrooge is defined entirely by his desire for money. The word “sinner” has religious connotations and implies that his behaviour is morally wrong.

By the end of the novella, Scrooge has completely changed. He is described as “as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old City knewEffective contrast between opening and closing descriptions..” The repetition of “good” emphasises how much he has changed. Dickens uses this transformation to show Victorian readers thatgenerosity is more important than wealth, which was an important message in Victorian society where there was a big gap between rich and poorContext is relevant but separated from the textual analysis..