How can I make better use of quotations in my essay?

At A-Level, examiners want you to be able to use your quotation as a springboard for critical and contextual discussion. For this reason, an effective strategy when memorising quotations is to pair each one with a relevant critical or contextual point.For example, if you're answering a question on Hamlet and you want to use the line, "'tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed," it might be wise to also make note of Janet Adelman's comment that "[the Queen's] body is the garden in which her husband dies, her sexuality the poisonous weeds that kill him," and use it to create a feminist analysis. Alternately, you could draw a comparison between the chaotic, "unweeded garden" that is Hamlet's Denmark, and the corruption within Queen Elizabeth's court.In terms of style, one thing you can practice that will mark you out as a high level candidate is embedding quotations within the body of your essay without disrupting the flow of your writing. For example, instead of:Hamlet's depression is not performative. Shakespeare tells the audience this with the line "seems? Nay, it is. I know not seems."You could write:Hamlet says to his Mother, "Seems? Nay, it is. I know not seems" making it clear that his depression is not performative.If you try reading these out loud you'll probably notice that the first sounds rather clunky and unnatural, while the second is more economic in style.