Introduction = road map.
Destination = question you have been asked.
Plan your route (brainstorm).
Let examiner know what directions you’ll take.
“During the play, Macbeth loses but ultimately regains our sympathy”
You must immediately address the question. Don’t simply agree 100% with the question – give a more balanced & detailed response:
“There is no doubt that our sympathy for Macbeth ebbs and flows throughout the play. (1) Initially, I had mixed feelings about his character – although a valiant soldier he also seemed to relish violence. (2) Following the murders of Duncan and (3) Banquo my sympathy for him declined at first but then reappeared in the face of his profound remorse. (4) However his brutal tyranny as King and his unnecessary murders of Lady Macduff and her children annihilated any sympathy I had left. (5) He never fully regained my sympathy, despite delivering a very moving speech upon hearing news of Lady Macbeth’s death”. (6) (Also discuss how the play ends)
Conclusion = highlights of your journey.
•Don’t give a summary of the story. Don’t introduce new information.
•Repeat the main idea (thesis) you’ve developed in your answer–but rephrase. Be wary of repeating exactly what you said in the introduction – change your phrasing if you repeat an idea.
•Sum up the major things you’ve learned from studying this aspect of the play.
•Show how what you have said has proven and/or disproven the question.
CONCLUSION: “Thus I only partially agree with the statement that “Macbeth loses but ultimately regains our sympathy”. His increasingly violent, volatile and reckless behaviour made it more and more difficult for me to sympathise with him, so in that sense he did lose my sympathy completely, particularly following the murders of Lady Macduff and her children. I can identify with his suicidal despair when his wife dies, and his reluctance to commit any more crimes when Macduff challenges him to fight. However, he never fully regained my sympathy because I couldn’t excuse the way he brought Scotland to its knees. Ultimately, his death seemed a fitting punishment for the bloody tyranny of his reign as King”.
