VCE ENGLISH · ANNOTATED MODELS

Sample Essays

Full model VCE English essays with margin annotations, so you see exactly where marks are won, line by line. Free, and as many as you need. Search by topic, or filter by text and author, to find the one you want. Curated by the tutors behind 14 perfect English scores since 2021.

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Sample Essays

A note on sample essays

Macbeth William Shakespeare

Macbeth traces how wrongdoing leads inevitably to isolation. Discuss.

"When you durst do it, then you were a man." In Macbeth, warped ideals of masculinity drive characters to cruelty. Discuss.

In Macbeth, violence becomes a habit that cannot be broken. Do you agree?

In Macbeth, the violation of hospitality represents the deepest breach of sacred bonds. Discuss.

Those who seize power unlawfully are doomed to lose it. Discuss.

Macbeth demonstrates that tyranny inevitably breeds its own resistance. Discuss.

Macbeth is a study of how temptation overwhelms even the strongest of minds. Do you agree?

In Macbeth, the supernatural reveals human weakness rather than creating it. To what extent do you agree?

"A little water clears us of this deed." In Macbeth, self-delusion is the first step toward ruin. Do you agree?

"False face must hide what the false heart doth know." Secrecy corrodes every relationship in Macbeth. Discuss.

Macbeth presents revenge as a force for renewal rather than hatred. To what extent do you agree?

In Macbeth, remorse arrives only when it is too late to matter. Do you agree?

In Macbeth, prophecy destroys those who place their faith in it. Discuss.

In Macbeth, partial knowledge proves more perilous than ignorance. Discuss.

In Macbeth, paranoia proves a harsher tormentor than any external enemy. Discuss.

In Macbeth, obsession with the future destroys all peace in the present. Discuss.

"He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust." Misplaced trust enables catastrophe in Macbeth. Do you agree?

Macbeth depicts a world in which mercy is mistaken for frailty. Do you agree?

In Macbeth, marriage magnifies rather than restrains its partners' worst impulses. Discuss.

In Macbeth, manipulation proves more dangerous than open aggression. Discuss.

To what extent is madness the price of suppressing the truth in Macbeth?

Macbeth ultimately presents a vision of despair. To what extent do you agree?

Macbeth explores what happens when loyalty collides with self-interest. Discuss.

Macbeth suggests that evil, once invited in, cannot be controlled. Do you agree?

"Look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under't." In Macbeth, innocence is a mask rather than a virtue. Discuss.

In Macbeth, inner conflict inflicts deeper wounds than open war. Discuss.

Macbeth argues that humans always retain the freedom to choose, whatever forces surround them. Do you agree?

In Macbeth, honour once lost can never be recovered. Do you agree?

Macbeth shows that guilt is a punishment no wrongdoer can escape. Do you agree?

Macbeth reveals that greed can never be satisfied. Discuss.

Macbeth is a play in which fear infects every level of society. Discuss.

"None of woman born shall harm Macbeth." Fate in Macbeth is a trap disguised as a promise. Discuss.

"Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him." In Macbeth, false security is the prelude to downfall. Discuss.

"And be these juggling fiends no more believed, / That palter with us in a double sense." In Macbeth, equivocation proves more destructive than outright lies. Discuss.

Macbeth affirms that justice, however delayed, will always prevail. Discuss.

In Macbeth, deception of others begins with deception of oneself. Discuss.

"Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires." In Macbeth, darkness ultimately gives way to light. Do you agree?

"I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none." Macbeth questions whether true courage lies in action or restraint. Discuss.

In Macbeth, the consequences of transgression reach far beyond the transgressor. Discuss.

"Confusion now hath made his masterpiece." Macbeth depicts a world where chaos overwhelms stability. Discuss.

Every act of betrayal in Macbeth plants the seeds of its own undoing. Discuss.

In Macbeth, ambition blinds individuals to the true cost of their desires. Discuss.

Macbeth shows that abandoning one's morality costs more than it gains. Discuss.

In Macbeth, abandoning duty invites disorder. Discuss.

Macbeth reveals that abandoning compassion strips individuals of their humanity. Discuss.

The Lottery and Other Stories Shirley Jackson

"she realized with a slight stinging shock that she had no idea which face was hers!" Is this true of The Lottery and Other Stories?

How does Jackson make familiar, ordinary spaces feel unfamiliar and threatening in The Lottery and Other Stories?

The Lottery and Other Stories shows that the most unsettling horror is found not in the supernatural but in ordinary daily life. Discuss.

In The Lottery and Other Stories, communities stay united by turning one of their own into an outsider. To what extent do you agree?

"Gonna have to shoot him, I guess?" How does The Lottery and Other Stories show communities deciding who must be cast out?

"Shut up, Tessie" 'In The Lottery and Other Stories, once someone is marked as an outsider, ordinary decency towards them disappears.' Do you agree?

The Lottery and Other Stories shows that prejudice is most damaging when it hides behind kindness and good manners. To what extent do you agree?

"The Jones children are half-Negro" What does The Lottery and Other Stories reveal about prejudice that presents itself as simple fact?

"I'm just disappointed in you, that's all." 'In The Lottery and Other Stories, prejudice is shown through condescension rather than open hostility.' Do you agree?

In The Lottery and Other Stories, the most damaging isolation comes from being surrounded by people who cannot see or believe a character's reality. Discuss.

"the lonely ugly evenings in one chair with one book and one ashtray" How does The Lottery and Other Stories show loneliness hardening into daily routine?

"Everyone thinks it's so funny" Is this true of The Lottery and Other Stories?

What does Jackson suggest about the gap between who her characters really are and who they pretend to be?

In The Lottery and Other Stories, Jackson shows that people are shaped by the roles others expect them to play. Do you agree?

"I have on old stockings and I just dumped everything into my good pocketbook." 'In The Lottery and Other Stories, identity is fragile and can slip away from a person.' Do you agree?

"the golden house-in-the-country future" 'In The Lottery and Other Stories, fantasy is a golden cage that stops characters from seeing their lives honestly.' Do you agree?

In The Lottery and Other Stories, Shirley Jackson suggests that self-deception is the only way her characters can survive. To what extent do you agree?

"she ran barefoot through hot sand." Is this true of The Lottery and Other Stories?

"the way to a man's heart" 'In The Lottery and Other Stories, women are taught that domestic skill is the key to love and security.' Do you agree?

"You're thirty-four years old after all" Is this true of The Lottery and Other Stories?

To what extent do the women in The Lottery and Other Stories find fulfilment in marriage and domestic life?

Why do Jackson's characters so often talk past one another instead of truly understanding each other in The Lottery and Other Stories?

In The Lottery and Other Stories, people fail to understand one another not because language fails them, but because they prefer their own assumptions to another person's reality. Discuss.

"It's very important, please believe me. I'm not teasing you." Is this true of The Lottery and Other Stories?

"It's terribly hard for people to understand the desire for a really peaceful life." What does The Lottery and Other Stories reveal about characters who insist that no one can understand them?

"We don't have any Charles in the kindergarten." Is this true of The Lottery and Other Stories?

The Lottery and Other Stories suggests that children are naturally innocent until the adult world corrupts them. To what extent do you agree?

"They both began to laugh" 'In The Lottery and Other Stories, Jackson's children do not recoil from cruelty but learn to enjoy it.' Do you agree?

The Lottery and Other Stories shows that people would rather believe a comforting appearance than face a disturbing truth. Do you agree?

"their hands, moving so quickly and similarly, communicated more easily and sympathetically than their minds ever could." Is this true of The Lottery and Other Stories?

Why do the characters in The Lottery and Other Stories so often misread the people closest to them?