How do you write a close analysis for an extract from a Shakespeare play?

Close analysis questions at A Level English require a lot of detailed attention to the text provided. In the extract based questions, examiners are looking for detailed understanding of language and its effects in relation to the text or topic area. You must remember that all quotations and effects have to be explained and analysed. When approaching a close analysis of an extract from a Shakespeare play, you must focus on his use of language and its dramatic effects. This could include reference to audience response, soliloquy, blank verse or prose or couplets, staging, setting, stage directions, dramatic irony, dramatic structure; tragedy/comedy/tragicomedy. OCR stated that ‘students who explore Shakespeare’s language in terms of the characters who use it and the situations in which they utter it, show they understand the dramatic effects of the language’.
You may find starting essays a bit intimidating, however if you always follow this structure I am going to demonstrate you will find yourself a lot less stressed and producing an effective opening to your essay. So, it is important to begin by stating the immediate context of the scene. For example, the immediate context for Act 1 Scene 2 of The Tempest, is that it is the exposition scene, Prospero has just explained the back story and it is the first time we meet Caliban, revealing Prospero’s two contrasting relationships with his slaves. This outline should be brief and it provides a great introduction to the scene for the examiner. It is then important to outline the wider context of the scene, for example, highlighting the themes and raised in this extract in relation to the wider play. The description of the immediate context, followed by the description of the wider context makes a great introduction and it is a formula you can use for any scenes in the play. It is important you remember that this is all that is needed for an introduction, which should be brief for a close analysis. You must then dive straight into focus on Shakespeare’s use of language and its dramatic effects.