Integrating Quotations in the Macbeth Text Response Essay

Using quotes • Sometimes better to use short quotes • Don’t use quotes longer than a sentence • Rote learn quotations – select them strategically • Be accurate

You select, present and discuss material from the text to PROVE your point. Don’t quote to tell the story or convey basic information…quote to MOVE YOUR ARGUMENT FORWARD.

Integrating Quotations in the Macbeth Text Response Essay • Your textual evidence needs to attach itself to ideas and analytical commentary… don’t be random about quotation selection. • Eg. “Give me some wine; fill full. ” • Ask yourself: what is this proving about my case? If it adds nothing don’t use it.

Evidential Quotes – Prove it • This kind of quote integration demonstrates your understanding of the text and the writer’s intentions • Extends and supports discussion and elaboration in a more detailed way • Eg. Lady Macbeth is an ambitious woman who is concerned that her husband “is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” to fulfil what she views as their destiny. Lady Macbeth considers the human qualities of kindness and consideration for others as a negative emotion. When Macbeth wavers and suggests they “will proceed no further in this business” of regicide she urges her apprehensive husband to be bold and “screw [his] courage to the sticking place” to complete the murder and ascend the Scottish throne.

Incidental Quotes – Talk the Talk • Short quotes or single words used while the sentence is in progress • they are ‘absorbed’ by your writing and help you to ‘talk the talk’ of the text. • This sort of quote integration demonstrates familiarity with the text. • Eg. The “Great Glamis” and “brave Macbeth” who once commanded “golden opinions” from others starts his irrevocable descent into a “bloody tyrant” upon murdering King Duncan.

Don’t “Yet do I fear thy nature. / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness ”. This quote is interesting because it shows that Lady Macbeth is nasty and evil.