Claim

In this scene, [character] [does X] so that [Y].

First sentence of a body paragraph about one moment.

In this scene, Lady Macbeth shames her husband so that he will kill the king. She does it with When you durst do it, then you were a man.

[Character] wants [X] more than [Y].

When the motive is the point, not the plot.

Macbeth wants to be safe more than he wants to be king. He says so himself: To be thus is nothing, But to be safely thus.

The writer presents [X] as [Y].

When you are writing about method, not just character.

Dickens presents Scrooge as a stone that will not spark: Hard and sharp as flint.

By [this point], [character] has changed from [A] to [B].

A paragraph about change. You need two quotes, early and late.

By Act 5, Lady Macbeth has changed from the one who said A little water clears us of this deed to the one who cannot wash her hands: Out, damned spot, out, I say!.

What looks like [A] is actually [B].

Appearance and reality. Fair is foul. A smile with a knife in it.

What looks like a welcome is actually a trap. Lady Macbeth's plan is Look like th' innocent flower, But be the serpent under 't.

I claim that [X]. The text [does Y].

US classes that use claim-evidence-reasoning. Say the claim in your own words first.

I claim that Jekyll never split himself in two. The text has him look in the mirror and say Hyde is himself: This, too, was myself..

The play tells you the ending in [early bit], then makes you watch it happen.

Prologues, witches, the Friar warning them. Fate that still needs a choice.

The play tells you the ending in the Prologue, then makes you watch two families bury their children. They are star-cross'd lovers from line one.