Essay Examples: A Grade Essays (Part One)

To help you see how to construct a good A-Grade essay, I'm going to provide you with a couple, and then with the marks they recieved at the end. This helps me to remember essay technique, too, so it's all good :)

How do Shakespeare and Shaffer explore the importance of self-awareness in presenting characters as individuals in society?

In both Shakespeare's 'Othello' and Shaffer's 'Equus', the theme of self awareness (and the lack thereof) is crucial to driving the plot and creating characters. Although it plays a crucial role in the downfalls of both protagonists, it is perhaps most interesting in the cases of Iago and Dysart, who are both presented as highly individual because of their uniquely acute self awareness, and the ways in which they deal with this.

In typical Shakespearean style, Iago's self-awareness is presented through regular and repetitive soliloquy, including regular use of the first person pronoun "I" to demonstrate the extent of his self-obsession to the audience in a less evident manner. Through statements such as "I hate the Moor. My cause is hearted" he demonstrates an acute awareness of his own passions and motivations as a character while never explicitly explaining them to the audience, presenting him as somewhat of an individual because of the air of intrigue which this surrounds him. The extent of his emotional awareness is illustrated through the hyperbolic use of stative verbs such as "hate", as well as through repetition of "I" and the possessive "my" to personalise emotions.

Through this presentation of him, the audience is lead to see him as an individual: in a society as polite and diplomatic as Shakespeare presents Venice to be, Iago's passions and the brutality with which he openly expresses them cause him to stand out. The fact that he evidently does not feel the need to explain these passions further ostracises him, in that he is thius breaking further social conventions/

This is only illustrated further by his fervent repetition of the phrase "I hate" throughout Act One, during which he also tells the audience exactly what he intends to do, showing him as not only uniquely aware of his emotions but also as self-obsessed: his need to voice his plans shows a degree of pride in them which breaks from the expected, given their nature.

Soliloquy is also a technique employed by Shaffer to illustrate Dysart's self awareness at the beginning of the play. Through the narration of his dream, metaphor is used to show a subconscious self-awareness at this point in the play, which then grows to become conscious later - linking in with the audience's understanding of Dysart and a psychiatric professional, which will be very different now given that psychiatry as a form of mental help has more or less been dropped. The metaphor "the mask is slipping" is used here to suggest Dysart;s growing realisation that he has no faith in his profession, with him thereby being presented as an individual in society because most would agree that curing a child would be a worthy cause. This also leads the audience to question the morality of Dysart's profession, in parallel with the character himself, something which is stated as one of Shaffer's final dramatic intentions for the play.

In Dysart's closing monologue, he speaks the line "There is now, in my mouth, this sharp chain. And it never comes out." The metaphor in this illustrates his uderstanding of the restrictions which society has placed upon him, in terms of expectations, and his final simple sentence shows, thorugh bitterness implied, exactly how he feels, as well as demonstrating that such societal expectations are eternal. Use of present tense in this soliloquy, where so many others have been in the past tense, shows understanding of the eternal nature of these restruictions, highlighting how they occurred and will always happen. Dysart's unique understanding of the way society works, which is here presented, shows him to be almost omniscient; truly an individual in society.

Elements of spoken language are also used by both playwrights to present their characters as individuals in society, and as uniquely self aware. Dysart, for example, uses simple sentences in his confession to Hesther in Act Two: "I'm jealous Hesther. Jealous of Alan Strang". The greater pause implied by the grammatical choice of a full-stop here shows Dysart's distaste for his own feelings, a notion echoed in the fact that he feel the need to speak them aloud, as though this might rationalise them. The use of stative verbs to express emotion is a regular device used to show self awareness, and Dysart's use of "jealous" in this case further demonstrates his own emotional choices, despite how evidently "other" they are. The audience are thus guided to question and sympathise with Dysart, subtly guiding them to potentially make his moral decision later in the play.

One notable element of spoken language employed by Shakespeare in the presentation of Iago as an individual in society is premodification. In this soliloquy in Act Two, Scene One, he speaks the line "That Cassio loves her, I do well believe't", with the intensifier "well" being used as premodification. This could be used to argue against Iago's self awareness, as everything he has spoken so far contradicts this statement, making this initially appear as self-deception. However, it could also show Iago's awareness of the irrationality of his passions, and that he is therefore trying to justify them. The use of premodification shows complex thought being given to a line, thus suggesting a continued awareness of the irrationality of his beliefs, and a continued need to justify them.

A similar situation occurs in Act One Scene Six of 'Equus', when Dysart first discusses his dream with Hesther. His use of the second person pronoun "you" shows him trying to persuade Hesther to take the floor, perhaps implying a lack of understanding of the true nature of his dream. However, it could also be argued that it demonstrates a clarity of understanding of the dream, and shows Dysart's unwillingness to accept this, in the knowledge that it will make him an individual in society.

MARKS -

"This is a mature and well developed response with an impressive level of technicality and understanding"

AO1 - 9 (/10)
AO2 - 8 (/10)
AO3 - 35 (/40)

52/60 = approx 90%

High A grade.

Really? To me, this isn't brilliant at all... it's one of the worst I've written! What do readers think?

HistGrrl x