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This holy mandate states that a monarch derives his right to rule from the will of God and is not subject to earthly authority. Hence, alongside The Divine Right of Kings, this ideal gave monarchs huge power over their subjects. In early s England, there was a defined social hierarchy and class system. Everyone had a place in the hierarchy, and there was little movement between the classes.

Within each class, men were considered superior to women. Shakespeare encourages us to ask a few questions of our supposedly holy leader and his actions. However, the Duke is pretty shady when he plots his bed-trick plan with Isabella and Mariana. Is this deceptive behavior still holy? Furthermore, is it not sacrilege to pretend to be a holy friar when one is not truly a holy man? Moreover, when the Duke assigns Angelo as his deputy, would this transform Angelo into a divine ruler too?

Could he be divine, considering his cruel rule and despicable request to Isabella? Women were considered subservient, lower class citizens then men. Alliances were forged between powerful families through arranged marriages of daughters.

These girls may have received an education through tutors attending their homes there were no schools for girls , but their endgame would be marriage, children and maintaining the home.

Women and girls of a lower class did not receive any formal education but would have learned how to govern a household and become skilled in all housewifely duties.

Impoverished and desperate women Mistress Overdone would turn to prostitution to stay alive. Shakespeare perhaps highlights the struggle of women in his female characters; Isabella, Mistress Overdone, Juliet, and Kate Keepdown. A year earlier came the end of the 45 year long Elizabethan era and began the Jacobean era under the rule of King James. Since the late Queen Elizabeth had no direct heirs, King James of Scotland a relative took to the throne.

Little was known by the English people of this foreign king. The playwright characterizes the Duke as loving his people, but not enjoying being before their eyes and in the spotlight; much like King James, a quiet ruler who relished studying privately in his great library. The rich gentry paid 2 pennies for seating in the galleries, often using cushions. The really rich nobles could watch the play from a chair set on the side of the stage itself. Playhouses in Shakespeare's time were often close to brothels, both in terms of their physical locations in the suburbs and the way they were viewed by some of polite society.

Talking about authorial intent in your analytical essay leads to a more in-depth analysis. Think of it as an opportunity to make your very own soup!

Add some themes, stir in character analysis, sprinkle in some quotes and serve with historical context and authorial intent. Just try not to overcook it, like I have done with this soup metaphor.

Grab a snack, a drink, and enjoy this tasty Shakespeare meme. Are you ready for part 2 of the Shakespeare train? As you can see, the themes are interconnected. Do you like the diagram? Made it myself : Why does this matter? Keep in mind that depending which pieces of evidence you look at, the Bard could be saying something different. The beauty of Shakespeare is that much is open to interpretation.

You can interpret characters and ideas in so many different ways! The Duke is the leader of Vienna, ordained by God. He hands this power to his deputy Angelo, who misuses it in his request of Isabella. Now consider Isabella - she has power too, but a different kind… Also consider characters who have little to no power - Mistress Overdone, Pompey etc. Perhaps Shakespeare is suggesting that power is a dangerous weapon and that in the wrong hands, it could be deadly.

This is an interesting theme. What defines sin? Bit of a pickle that one. So many of the characters take part in questionable deeds.

Was it immoral for the Duke to pretend to be a holy friar? Deep stuff man. Perhaps Shakespeare tries to tell us that there is a fine line between something moral and something sinful.

Everyone from the almighty Duke to a lowly prostitute has committed potentially immoral acts. Perhaps audiences are encouraged to be more understanding of others, and their reasons for these deeds. Mmm, this theme ties in nicely with just about all of the others. How does one define justice? The play explores this idea; does justice mean punishment? Or mercy?

Characters that dispense justice include The Duke, Angelo although they have differing ideas of justice and Isabella. Since Vienna is a religious place, consider the divine justice system ie. Laws exist in an attempt to ensure justice. But does it always work? Perhaps Shakespeare says that since we humans are inevitably flawed, that any justice system created by us will too be imperfect.

Who are we to decide the fates of our fellow man? Furthermore, the Bard may be encouraging us to be kind when dispensing justice, leaning more to mercy than punishment. Who run the world? The exploration of the female characters in this play are very interesting, and kind of sad. Of 20 named characters, only 5 are women. There is a lot to unpack here. Their situations: a maiden poised to enter a nunnery, a prostitute, a pregnant girl about to lose her husband, a nun, and another prostitute.

Quite gloomy, isn't it? Over the course of the play, our female characters are put into worse situations by men. Their experiences are dictated by men. Perhaps Shakespeare suggests that women are treated unfairly in society.

The Bard potentially says that such sexual and gender politics do not create a cohesive and just society.

This theme, again, connects to many others. It can link to all groups of people The wealthy, the poor, women, criminals etc. Most of the mercy is dispensed at the end of the play when the Duke does his grand reveal. Characters who choose to mete out mercy over punishment include The Duke and Isabella. We might think this is harsh, but it a legal and lawful decision.

Perhaps Shakespeare encourages us to look at mercy and punishment from different perspectives. Angelo believes he is punishing Claudio for his own good, and cleaning up Vienna of lechery too. Maybe we ought to be merciful in our opinion of the deputy.

Nonetheless, the Bard shows that in the case of young Claudio, mercy and forgiveness is the right path to choose. Finally, consider why Shakespeare may have portrayed a merciful leader to his Jacobean audience. Maybe if he were to portray a leader as fair and merciful, the Jacobean audience would trust that their new king a man similar in character to the Duke could be kind and merciful too.

Earning the favour of the king and writing a killer play? He wants to save his own ass, fearing Claudio will seek vengeance. The Duke is flawed too. Then he plans to swoop in and look like a hero. Kinda dodgy. Consider Claudio and Juliet too. They, like Angelo, succumbed to lust and slept together before they were officially married. Are the poor frail in a different way? In that way she is virtuous. However, she sells her body to survive. Perhaps she is not prone to desire like Angelo, but serves another desire - a desire to survive?

Perhaps Shakespeare suggests that no one is truly perfect, not even a leader supposedly ordained by God, a law-abiding deputy, or a maiden who is poised to enter a nunnery. Yet while Angelo is overcome by his lust and emotion, the Duke and Isabella attempt to better themselves by showing mercy and temperance.

So, society in Vienna is very much religious. Their beliefs dictate actions and laws within the city. Some very religious characters include Isabella and Angelo. However, our novice nun, who is obsessed with virtue and chastity, agrees to and takes part in the bed-trick, a deception that is not particularly Christian. Even The Duke, supposedly semi-divine, makes some dubious choices.

He spends most of the play posed as a holy man, even though he is not. He plans the bed-trick to deceive Angelo and lets poor Isabella think her poor brother is dead, instead of saving her so much pain.

The question of how much we should let religion dictate us is another reason this piece is a problem play. Perhaps Shakespeare criticises religious extremism in his portrayal of characters like Isabella and Angelo.

Or maybe he just wants us to remain open-minded about ideas and our spirituality. Yikes, there are so many themes in this play!

Each character can be viewed in different lights, even more so than themes can be. Here are the characters, in order of how much they speak in the play. Who would you swipe right on? Hint: not Lucio.

These are people, objects, words etc that represent a theme or idea. The idea of heavenly justice vs earthly justice is prominent throughout the text. Is he harsh and equalising?

Is he just and sympathetic? These ideals teach that the person who committed a misdeed shall have the same misdeed done unto them. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. So, when sentencing Angelo the Duke employs the words of the Old Testament.

Wait, who? Well, in Act 4, Scene 4 Line , Lucio says something very intriguing. We can think of Lucio as representing all the sins and misdeeds in Vienna - lechery, immorality, lack of justice, selfishness etc.

Hence, Lucio is saying that these shortcomings and flaws will always be present to people and in Vienna, sticking to the city like a nasty burr. The metre of the verse ie. This means that each line is divided into 5 feet.

Within each foot, there is one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. Verse does not have to rhyme, as the above lines do. Shakespeare often employs a rhyming couplet to close a scene and add some drama. Verse is usually reserved for the higher class citizens, with those who are less fortunate speaking in prose. Certain characters, such as Lucio, switch between verse and prose depending on who they are speaking to.

Escalus is the ever reasonable and loyal lord and close confidant of the Duke. His name gives connotations of scales and balance - characteristic of the rational man. If we judge him only by his name, he should be a pure and heavenly being. We can see that appearance is very different from reality. There is so much to unpack about this douchebag. Let us briefly consider 2 ideas.

Maybe this obsession leads to his immorality and poor leadership. He weaves his way around the request, propositioning Isabella so indirectly that at first, she does not even seem to understand his request! Or maybe this scene is yet more evidence of a patriarchal society, with the men knowing very well the power they hold.

We never actually meet this fellow. Fascinatingly, Ragozine is the only person who dies in the entire play. ALSO, he dies of natural causes. It feels like the play is full of death, grief and many heads on the chopping block. But curiously, there is only one death, of a minor character, of natural causes. Perhaps this says something about fate and justice or offers some commentary on life and hope.

Elbow is a silly policeman who speaks in malapropisms using a similar but incorrect word for humorous effect. Pompey is a clever pimp who seems to have a deep understanding of justice and the Viennese people. The comparison of these characters, fortunate and dumb to unfortunate and clever, perhaps serves to show that the law is not always apt and that sometimes those who break the law are more clever than it.

Mistress Overdone is a pitiable prostitute. Furthermore, this happens in Act 3 of 5, around halfway through the play! The audience never hears from Mistress Overdone again, and her future is left uncertain. Even Barnadine, a convicted murderer, is given freedom and a happy ending. What is Shakespeare saying by portraying Mistress Overdone and other women in such a way? This blog post is by no means an exhaustive list of all its quirks and complexities.

You are very lucky to be studying a text with such universal themes and ideas that you can carry with you even after high school. So keep watching or reading! If you were to put these lenses on, how would it change your interpretation of the text? I touch more on feminist and ecocritical lenses at the end of the video above :. This prompt specifies two characters — Dixon-Brown and Piper — and therefore mandates an in-depth discussion of them within your essay.

However, it is important to be careful of focusing exclusively on the explicitly mentioned characters when given a character prompt. After all, while Dixon-Brown and Piper are both very important to Extinction, they are not the only relevant characters!

In order to ensure that your discussion covers enough of the text, make sure your brainstorming stage includes the ideas and themes exemplified by the unmentioned characters , and how they relate to the ones that are specified. Body Paragraph 1: Contemporary demands for female competitiveness undoubtedly underlie the dynamics between Dixon-Brown and Piper Ross. Body Paragraph 3: Conversely, while the spheres of politics certainly overlap occasionally within feminism and the question of female competition, they nevertheless form a largely distinct motivation behind the conflict between Piper and Dixon-Brown.

For further reading see our Extinction blog post where we cover themes, characters, symbolism and more!

And for more essay help, you'll definitely want to take a look at Risini's fully annotated Extinction essay. In it, we teach you to think like a 50 study scorer through advanced discussions on things like structural feature analysis, views and values, different interpretations and critical readings.

Montana is narrated by David Hayden, now a middle-aged history teacher, reflecting on the summer of that changed his entire life. However, Marie reacts to this idea with fear, anxiety and resistance. Gail concludes that something sinister must be happening for her to have such a reaction and she presses Marie for why she is so afraid. Marie then reveals to Gail that she has heard that Dr Frank has been sexually abusing many of his female Native American patients.

This becomes the central source of tension, as Wes must decide between his duty as the Sheriff and his loyalty to his family. This is all told from the perspective of David, our protagonist, who has to watch his father confront his Uncle Frank about these taboo accusations.

Eventually, it seems they reach an agreement with Frank to stop the abuse. Marie is discovered dead the next day in her bed when Gail goes to check up on her. As the Sheriff of the town, Wesley is obligated to arrest Frank, but in order to spare Frank the embarrassment, he keeps Frank in their basement instead of sending him to jail.

Julian accuses Wesley of arresting him out of jealousy and he threatens to use his power within the community to set Frank free. At this point, Wesley realises that the power of his father would only be matched by the law, and he decides that he must officially prosecute his brother. That next day, David, Wes and Gail wake up to find Frank dead, having used broken glass to slit his wrists and commit suicide.

Young David believes that this was the right action and hopes that everything would go back to normal. But as the story goes, this is not the case. Another key theme is prejudice, discrimination and the abuse of power. Firstly, it means that Frank managed to escape persecution, public denouncement and jail time. Thus, Watson touches on the failures of the judicial system to consistently hand out judgements that are morally fair and instead reveals the flaws within the legal system of the time that reflect widespread and corrupt social attitudes.

Watson also touches on the conflict between loyalty and morality. Should Wes arrest and prosecute his brother Frank or not? Should he stay loyal to his family or uphold the moral values that he must stand by as the towns Sheriff?

She is a compassionate, idealistic and courageous woman. This can also be seen as she stands up for Marie, despite the prejudices in the society at the time.

After Wesley arrests Frank and takes him to the basement for imprisonment, David assumes his father killed Frank despite Wesley not being depicted as a particularly violent person in the novel. All it takes is an indistinct noise from the basement for David to conjure up ways his father could have killed his Uncle Frank.

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Listen Live. Latest audio. Mon 22 Nov , pm. Note: Some schools may express the following points differently, however, they should all boil down to the same points - what is necessary in a Text Response essay. Why is it that we can automatically distinguish between a protagonist from an antagonist? Why is it that we know whether or not the author supports or denounces an idea?

Here you need to start looking at how the author constructs their texts and why they have made that choice. For example, the author describes a protagonist using words with positive connotations kind, brave, charming , whereas the antagonist is described with words using negative connotations vain, egocentric, selfish. For example, 'in Harry Potter , by describing the protagonist Harry as "brave", the author JK Rowling exhibits the idea of how possessing bravery when making tough choices or facing challenges is a strong and positive trait.

Society, history and culture all shape and influence us in our beliefs and opinions. Understanding their values embodied in texts can help us as readers, identity and appreciate theme and character representations. For example, 'through the guilty verdict of Tom Robinson in To Kill A Mockingbird , Harper Lee expresses the belief that the American legal system in the s was not always fair or just.

Be open to the idea that many texts can be interpreted in many ways. Texts are rarely concrete and simple. Take The Bible , a book that is one of the most popular and famous books in history but is interpreted differently by every person. Acknowledging more than one perspective on a certain aspect of the text, or acknowledging that perhaps the writer is intentionally ambiguous, is a valuable skill that demonstrates you have developed a powerful insight into your text.

For example, 'in The Thing Around Your Neck , feminist readers condone Adichie's stories which all revolve around women either as protagonist or as narrators, giving voice to the disempowered gender in Nigerian society. While you should absolutely know how to embed quotes in your essay like a boss , you want to have other types of evidence in your Text Response essay.

This encompasses a huge breadth of things from metaphors to structure to language. For example, 'The personification of Achilles as "wolf, a violator of every law of men and gods", illustrates his descent from human to animal….

To learn more about metalanguage, read our ' What Is Metalanguage? When examiners read essays, they are expected to get through about essays in an hour!

This results in approximately 5 minutes to read, get their head around, and grade your essay - not much time at all! The number of allocated marks are:. Exactly when Text Response is assessed within each unit is dependent on each school; some schools at the start of the Unit, others at the end. The time allocated to your SAC is also school-based. Often, schools use one or more periods combined, depending on how long each of your periods last.

In your exam, you get a whopping total of 3 hours to write 3 essays Text Response, Comparative and Language Analysis. The general guide is 60 minutes on Text Response, however, it is up to you exactly how much time you decide to dedicate to this section of the exam. Your Text Response essay will be graded out of 10 by two different examiners. Your two unique marks from these examiners will be combined, with 20 as the highest possible mark.

This is just to get you thinking on the different study methods you can try before a SAC. Rereading a book enables you to refresh your memory on subplots, popular passages and most importantly, helps you fill in any missing gaps in knowledge. Take this as an opportunity to get familiar with the parts of the texts you're less confident with, or to examine a particular theme that you know you're weaker in HINT: A good place to start is to make sure you know the difference between themes, motifs and symbols!

This is like an advanced version of rereading a book. As you move through the passage, you can pick out interesting word choices made by the author and try to interpret why they have made this choice. Doing a close analysis will immensely strengthen your metalanguage analysis skills, and also give you the opportunity to stand out from other students because you can offer unique and original analysis and evidence in your essay.

I know this can be a bit confusing, so this video below shows a full close analysis of a Macbeth passage in action:. Doing this study all by yourself can be rather daunting, so we've got your back. We specialise in supporting VCE English by creating helpful videos, study guides and ebooks. Here are some just to get your started:.

Check out our entire YouTube channel and don't forget to subscribe for regular new videos! Our awesome team of English high-achievers have written up study guides based on popular VCE texts. Here's a compilation of all the ones we've covered so far:. Tip: You can download and save many of these study guides for your own study use!

How good is that? Most people seem to the think the most difficult part of Text Response is the writing component - and they're not completely wrong. However, what I've found is that not even students place emphasis on the brainstorming, preparation and planning of Text Response.

Even if you write an exceptional essay, if it doesn't answer the prompt, your teacher won't be sticking a smiley face on your work. We need to avoid these common teacher criticisms, and I have no doubt you've experienced at least once the dreaded, 'you're not answering the prompt', 'you could've used a better example' or 'more in-depth analysis needed'.

This is a strategy I developed over the past 10 years of tutoring, and I've seen my students improve their marks every time. Often, teachers will provide you with a list of prompts to practice before your SAC.

Some teachers can be kind enough to hint you in the direction of a particular prompt that may be on the SAC. We have a number of free essay topics curated by our team at LSG, check some of them out. Also go scroll back up to our list of study guides above, as most of those also have essay prompts included:. Once you've done some preliminary revision, it's time to write plans! Plans will help ensure you stick to your essay topic and have a clear outline of what your essay will cover.

This clarity is crucial to success in a Text Response essay. Doing plans is also an extremely time-efficient way to approach SACs. Rather than slaving away hours upon hours over writing essays, writing plans can will save you the burnout and will get you feeling confident faster. I've curated essay topic breakdown videos based on specific VCE texts.

Writers only get better by actually writing. Even if you just tackle a couple of essays then at least you will have started to develop a thinking process that will help you to set out arguments logically, utilise important quotes and time yourself against the clock.

It will help you write faster as well — something that is a major problem for many students. With that said, let's get into how to write a Text Response next. If you need any more tips on how to learn your text in-depth, Susan's English study score 50 Steps for Success in Text Study guide provides a clear pathway for how to approach your text and is a must read for VCE English students!

Understanding the different types will help you move beyond a 'basic' one-size-fits-all structure. Try to keep your introduction to the point. There's no need to prolong an introduction just to make a set number of sentences.

It's always better to be concise and succinct, and then move into your main body paragraphs where the juicy contents of your essay resides. If your teacher or school teaches you something slightly different - that's okay too.

At the end of the day the foundations are the same. Now quite sure how to nail your text response essays? Then download our free mini-guide, where we break down the art of writing the perfect text-response essay into three comprehensive steps. Click below to get your own copy today! Then you're not alone! If you struggle to understand and stay on topic, learn how to answer the prompt every time with this quick free how-to guide.

We've curated essay prompts based off our The Golden Age Study Guide which explores themes, characters, and quotes. Before getting started on your own essay writing using our essay topics, feel free to watch the video below where Lisa brainstorms and breaks down the topic:. Do you agree?

Despite the grim context, The Golden Age highlights and celebrates the potential of life. Memories of past successes and failures have significant lingering effects on characters in The Golden Age. Is this an accurate assessment? It is largely loneliness which defines the struggles of the children in The Golden Age. Fear of the unknown is something which permeates The Golden Age. Is this true? Throughout The Golden Age , London draws attention to beauty rather than to suffering.

In spite of their youth, it is the children of The Golden Age who understand best what it means to be an individual in the world. How do characters from The Golden Age learn, grow and mature as the novel takes its course?

Due to the range of different onset stories, each of the children and their families in The Golden Age face a different struggle with their identity. To what extent do you agree? The Complete Maus is a graphic novel that depicts the story of Vladek Spiegelman , a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor who experienced living in the ghettos and concentration camps during the Nazi regime.

For example, Vladek explains to Art that he was able to exploit his work constantly through undertaking the roles of a translator and a shoemaker in order to access extra food and clothing by being specially treated by the Polish Kapo. Although survival is a key theme, the graphic novel explores how Holocaust survivors in The Complete Maus grapple with their deep psychological scars.

Throughout the graphic novel, her depression is apparent. Her ears are additionally drawn as drooped, with her hands positioned as if she was in prison in the context is that she must go to a sanatorium for her depression.

He believes he is partly responsible for her death, due to him neglecting their relationship. Spiegelman also conveys to readers his sense of frustration with Vladek where he feels like he is being treated like a child, not as an adult.

Since we're talking about themes, we've broken down a theme-based essay prompt one of five types of essay prompts for you in this video:.

The Complete Maus is a graphic novel that may seem daunting to analyse compared to a traditional novel. However, with countless panels throughout the book, you have the freedom to interpret certain visuals so long as you give reasoning and justification, guiding the teacher or examiner on what you think these visuals mean. Here are some suggested tips:. Spiegelman may have purposely drawn the eyes of the Jewish mice as visible in contrast to the unapparent eyes of the Nazis to humanise and dehumanise characters.

By allowing readers to see the eyes of Jewish mice, readers can see the expressions and feelings of the character such as anger and determination. Effectively, we can see them as human characters through their eyes. When the readers see their eyes, they appear sinister , with little slits of light. By analysing the depictions and expressions of characters, readers can deduce how these characters are intended to be seen.

Throughout the graphic novel, symbols of the Holocaust appear consistently in the background. Some of the panels in the graphic novel are of different sizes which Spiegelman may have intended to emphasise the significance of certain turning points, crises or feelings. For example, on page 34, there is a disproportionate panel of Vladek and Anja passing a town, seeing the first signs of the Nazi regime compared to the following panels.

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