Act 1 — Macbeth — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Act 1
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
The witches, the prophecies, Duncan's praise of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth's letter scene and the plan to murder Duncan.
What each scene establishes about character and theme, with key quotations.
Key quotations: 'Fair is foul, and foul is fair', 'Hover through the fog and filthy air', 'This supernatural soliciting / Cannot be ill, cannot be good', 'Two truths are told', 'There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face', 'He was a gentleman on whom I built / An absolute trust', 'Stars, hide your fires', 'The raven himself is hoarse', 'too full o' the milk of human kindness', 'take my milk for gall', 'I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent', 'screw your courage to the sticking-place', 'Bring forth men-children only'.
Language and form: the witches' chiasmus and chanting rhythm, Lady Macbeth's imperatives, the milk imagery, and Macbeth's fear that 'We still have judgment here'.
Edexcel's Shakespeare question has two parts: part (a) on the printed extract marks only language, form and structure (AO2), so context earns nothing there; part (b) on the play elsewhere, from memory, marks the argument and its references (AO1, 15 marks) and context (AO3, 5 marks), not language analysis. Say which part each worked paragraph and exam tip is for.
