Analysing texts, Year 9: comparing texts and Shakespeare

whereas

HintIt starts like a question word about place.

The whyComparative connectives hold two texts in one sentence. This one, like 'by contrast', signals a difference; 'similarly' and 'likewise' signal a likeness. Choosing the right one tells the reader which kind of comparison is coming.

how

HintThink of the writers' methods rather than their subject.

The whyTwo texts on the same subject can be compared for content in a sentence. The richer comparison is of method: the word choices, structure and techniques each writer uses, and what those do to the reader.

Any link between the two poems

HintCount how many sentences mention both at once.

The whyTwo separate analyses placed end to end leave the comparing for the reader to do. A comparison paragraph keeps both texts in view: one point, evidence from each, and a sentence saying how they are alike or different.

Tennyson honours it; Owen calls its glory a lie

HintOne poet salutes; the other accuses.

The whyBoth poets write about soldiers dying, so the subject is shared; the attitude is opposite. Tennyson, writing at home in 1854 from a newspaper report, commands the reader to admire. Owen, a soldier who had seen such an attack, sets out to strip the admiration away.

His guilt

HintThe stain he means is on his conscience, not his skin.

The whyNeptune was the Roman god of the sea, so Macbeth is saying that all the water in the world is not enough. The exaggeration shows how large the deed feels to him. On stage, the actor's bloody hands make the audience see what he cannot stop seeing.

Her conscience has overwhelmed her

HintCompare how sure she sounds early on with what her mind does to her later.

The whyA scene gains meaning from its place in the whole play. Her early confidence that water will be enough is answered, three acts later, by hands that will not come clean. Reading the later scene alone would miss that the play has been preparing it since the murder.

Soliloquy

HintIt shares its first three letters with 'solo'.

The whyIt lets the audience hear what a character would never say to anyone else, so it is the most trusted evidence of what they really think. Macbeth's 'Is this a dagger' speech is one.

An aside

HintThe actor turns away from the others for a moment to let you in on a secret.

The whyIt makes the audience the character's confidant and often reveals a gap between what is said aloud and what is meant. Because it is brief and slipped into a conversation, it differs from a soliloquy, where the speaker is alone.

It exists only in his mind

HintAsk who, in that version, is able to see it.

The whyThe words are the same in both productions, but the staging changes what they mean. A visible dagger suggests that some outside force is leading him; an invisible one suggests his own imagination is. Analysing a scene means reading the words and the staging together.

five; iamb

Hint'Penta' is the same prefix as in 'pentagon'; the second answer is hiding inside the name of the line.

The whyFive pairs make ten syllables. It is the rhythm of most of Shakespeare's verse, close to the beat of ordinary English speech: da-DUM, da-DUM. When a line breaks the pattern, or a character drops into prose, it is worth asking what has disturbed them.