critical essay higher english examples

Critical Essay

Definition of critical essay.

Contrary to the literal name of “critical,” this type of essay is not only an interpretation, but also an evaluation of a literary piece. It is written for a specific audience , who are academically mature enough to understand the points raised in such essays. A literary essay could revolve around major motifs, themes , literary devices and terms, directions, meanings, and above all – structure of a literary piece.

Evolution of the Critical Essay

Critical essays in English started with Samuel Johnson. He kept the critical essays limited to his personal opinion, comprising praise, admiration, and censure of the merits and demerits of literary pieces discussed in them. It was, however, Matthew Arnold, who laid down the canons of literary critical essays. He claimed that critical essays should be interpretative, and that there should not be any bias or sympathy in criticism.

Examples of Critical Essay in Literature

Example #1: jack and gill: a mock criticism (by joseph dennie).

“The personages being now seen, their situation is next to be discovered. Of this we are immediately informed in the subsequent line, when we are told, Jack and Gill Went up a hill. Here the imagery is distinct, yet the description concise. We instantly figure to ourselves the two persons traveling up an ascent, which we may accommodate to our own ideas of declivity, barrenness, rockiness, sandiness, etc. all which, as they exercise the imagination, are beauties of a high order. The reader will pardon my presumption, if I here attempt to broach a new principle which no critic, with whom I am acquainted, has ever mentioned. It is this, that poetic beauties may be divided into negative and positive, the former consisting of mere absence of fault, the latter in the presence of excellence; the first of an inferior order, but requiring considerable critical acumen to discover them, the latter of a higher rank, but obvious to the meanest capacity.”

This is an excerpt from the critical essay of Joseph Dennie. It is an interpretative type of essay in which Dennie has interpreted the structure and content of Jack and Jill .

Example #2: On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth (by Thomas De Quincey)

“But to return from this digression , my understanding could furnish no reason why the knocking at the gate in Macbeth should produce any effect, direct or reflected. In fact, my understanding said positively that it could not produce any effect. But I knew better; I felt that it did; and I waited and clung to the problem until further knowledge should enable me to solve it. At length, in 1812, Mr. Williams made his debut on the stage of Ratcliffe Highway, and executed those unparalleled murders which have procured for him such a brilliant and undying reputation. On which murders, by the way, I must observe, that in one respect they have had an ill effect, by making the connoisseur in murder very fastidious in his taste, and dissatisfied by anything that has been since done in that line.”

This is an excerpt from Thomas De Quincey about his criticism of Macbeth, a play by William Shakespeare . This essay sheds light on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and their thinking. This is an interpretative type of essay.

Example #3: A Sample Critical Essay on Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (by Richard Nordquist)

“To keep Jake Barnes drunk, fed, clean, mobile, and distracted in The Sun Also Rises , Ernest Hemingway employs a large retinue of minor functionaries: maids, cab drivers, bartenders, porters, tailors, bootblacks, barbers, policemen, and one village idiot. But of all the retainers seen working quietly in the background of the novel , the most familiar figure by far is the waiter. In cafés from Paris to Madrid, from one sunrise to the next, over two dozen waiters deliver drinks and relay messages to Barnes and his compatriots. As frequently in attendance and as indistinguishable from one another as they are, these various waiters seem to merge into a single emblematic figure as the novel progresses. A detached observer of human vanity, this figure does more than serve food and drink: he serves to illuminate the character of Jake Barnes.”

This is an excerpt from an essay written about Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises . This paragraph mentions all the characters of the novel in an interpretative way. It also highlights the major motif of the essay.

Functions of a Critical Essay

A critical essay intends to convey specific meanings of a literary text to specific audiences. These specific audiences are knowledgeable people. They not only learn the merits and demerits of the literary texts, but also learn different shades and nuances of meanings. The major function of a literary essay is to convince people to read a literary text for reasons described.

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• Persuasive Essay
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Higher English Help

Useful tips for your english revision., critical essay.

As part of your exam, you’ll have to write two critical essays. Each is worth twenty-five marks, and you get one and a half hours in total, or forty-five minutes each. That’s not a long time. The secret to writing a good essay in this time is planning.

The best way to write an essay at Higher level is to approach it ‘thematically’. This means that the key themes in the text should form the basis of your paragraphs. This will help you to analyse the text, rather than just describing it. Think about it this way – if someone asked you to explain why one football team beat another, and you simply explained what happened on a minute-by-minute basis, that wouldn’t be a very good answer. Instead, if you explained key aspects in which Team A was better than Team B, you would be more concise and give a better answer. That is the thematic approach.

So, when you come to plan your essay, you should aim to write three or four body paragraphs (not including the introduction and conclusion) that are each based around relevant themes. As part of your revision, you should make a ‘spider chart’ of key themes in the text, which you can then apply to the question.There are probably five or six key themes of each text (have a look at the ‘Help with Texts’) section to help you identify the key themes.

To give you an example, in 2012, one of the questions said:

If you were answering using “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” as your text, your three key themes might be: 1) The battle between good and evil in humans; 2) Addiction and the loss of control; 3) The contrast between Science and Morality.

Each of these paragraphs will allow you to explore different themes within the text, which means you can focus on analysis of the story, rather than simply describing what’s going on.

The ‘critical’ aspect of a critical essay is the analysis. You should be able to say why the author chose a particular word, event or character. Thinking about the message behind the text is a good place to start. Also, have a look at the author’s biography. Usually their own life experiences influence their writing. For example, Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible” as a direct allegory of his own experiences of the Communist ‘witchhunts’ of 1950s America.

When it comes to writing your essays in the exam, the best way to divide your time is as follows:

10 minutes planning,

30 minutes writing (6 minutes per paragraph),

5 minutes checking your work.

Obviously, this doesn’t give you a lot of time to actually write your paragraphs. This will force you to be straight to the point (if you are someone who waffles, then the short writing time is a blessing in disguise). Keep your sentences short when you are writing. This will help you to be direct, and to keep you focused on the question at hand. Try reading past essays out loud to yourself, and seeing where the sentences are too long.

You can keep your topic sentences in particular very short. In fact, it’s best to make them straight to the point. Using the “Jekyll and Hyde” example above, the topic sentence for the first paragraph could be: “The battle between Jekyll and Hyde is symbolic of the battle between good and evil in humans.” This is direct, and shows the reader exactly what you will talk about in the paragraph.

Make sure that you finish each paragraph with a one sentence mini-conclusion that links back to the question. Usually the question is split into two, and the finish of the sentence should refer to the second part of the question. So, using the “Jekyll and Hyde” example, the final sentence of the first paragraph could be: “Jekyll’s growing realisation that he cannot control Hyde forces him to isolate himself, and shows that Jekyll has come to regret his earlier immoral decisions.” Writing a one sentence mini-conclusion will help you when it comes to writing your final conclusions, and will also keep your work focused on the question.

In your paragraphs, the best sentence structure is the P.E.A. approach. This stands for Point, Evidence, and Analysis. Make your point, then back it up with a quotation or an example from the text, and then explain why this is important or relevant to the question. You can practice this simple approach by using the following framework in your revision:

Point – One of the key themes in the text is…

Evidence – This is shown when…

Analysis – This highlights/emphasises….

Although it is best not to use these exact phrases every time, this does give you an idea of how you should approach the content of your paragraphs.

The Introduction

The format of your introduction should be:

1) A synoptic statement about the text (i.e. explaining when it was written, who wrote it, and a one sentence summary of the plot).

2) An explanation of the relevance of the question to the text. For example, using the sample question above, you should say why Dr. Jekyll is good to talk about as to a character who has a changing view of himself.

3) Identify the key themes of the text. In reality, this is you explaining what your paragraphs are going to be. Instead of saying “In this essay I will talk about…”, say “The most important themes are…” and then mention what your paragraphs will be. Be confident in what you are writing!

4) Try and draw your themes together into one ‘mega theme’. This will be the final sentence of your introduction, and so should be short and snappy (to get the reader’s attention). There should be an underlying point that links all of your themes together. For example, using the “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” question above, the three paragraphs are all linked by the idea of man’s internal conflict, and the ongoing battle between being ethical and fulfilling desires. This would be the ‘mega theme’.

The Conclusion

Conclusions are really very simple, although a number of students don’t even write one. If you’ve planned your time properly, then you will have time to conclude your argument. Not only is this critical for getting good marks for structuring, but it will allow you to actually answer the question. The format of the conclusion should be:

1) Spend one sentence summing up each of the paragraphs you wrote. The mini-conclusions you wrote will help with this.

2) Draw these all together again using your mega theme.

3) Your final sentence of the entire essay should give a direct answer to the question. Look at how the question is worded and use that to help you phrase your answer. Think about the final sentence as a one-sentence ‘in a nutshell’ answer. An examiner should be able to read just your last sentence to get a sense of what you are arguing. For the “Jekyll and Hyde” example, the final sentence could be: “Ultimately, Jekyll’s changing relationship with Hyde is an allegory for man’s internal conflict, and Stevenson’s belief in man’s capacity for both good and evil.”

Lessons to take away

Work on a ‘spider diagram’ of the key themes in your texts.

Keep your sentences short/read practice essays out loud to yourself.

Remember P.E.A.

Practice writing 10 minute plans.

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Miss Innes' Revision Resources

Higher critical essay-a view from the bridge.

Your critical essay is worth 20% of your overall grade at Higher, and is part of your hr and a half long critical reading paper, alongside the textual analysis.

Try to dedicate more time to writing your essay than your textual analysis-if you have revised properly, the textual analysis should not take you more than 40 mins.

Critical Essay Tips

• Go to DRAMA section of Qs-if you answer on the wrong genre, you won’t pass!
• Read the Q carefully and choose wisely based on what you have revised and practised in class before-if you don’t understand the Q, answer on a different one!
• Use the structures recommended for introduction (TASTE), main paragraphs (PCQEL) and conclusion (SERVE)-notes provided in Essay Writing 101 materials

I have included a variety of resources to help you study for this part of the exam, including:

• Essay Writing 101 materials
• N5 Prose Qs
• model essays
• essay planning sheets

Essay Writing

Essay Writing 101

Higher Drama Qs

Essay Plans

Conflict Essay Plan

Essay Topics-Key Quotations

Conflict Model Essay

Model Essays

Key Scene Model Essay

Main PowerPoint

AVFTB Unitxxx

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Revision Materials and Homework for Pupils