Specimen Papers and Mark Schemes for
English Literature
For first AS Examination in 2009
For first A2 Examination in 2010
Subject Code: 5110

Contents
Specimen Papers
Assessment Unit AS 2
Assessment Unit A2 1
Resource Booklet
Assessment Unit A2 2

1
3
9
15
25

Mark Schemes
Assessment Unit AS 2
Assessment Unit A2 1
Assessment Unit A2 2

29
31
61
95

Subject Code
QAN
QAN

5110
500/2493/0
500/2421/8

A CCEA Publication © 2007

Further copies of this publication may be downloaded from www.ccea.org.uk

Specimen Papers

1

2

ADVANCED SUBSIDIARY (AS)
General Certificate of Education
2009

English Literature
Assessment Unit AS 2 assessing The Study of Poetry Written after 1800 and the Study of Prose 1800-1945
SPECIMEN PAPER

TIME
2 hours
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Write your Centre number and Candidate Number on the Answer Booklet provided. Answer two questions. Answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B.
Section A is open book.
INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES
The total mark for this paper is 120.
All questions carry equal marks, ie 60 marks for each question.
Quality of written communication will be assessed in all questions.

3

Section A: The Study of Poetry Written after 1800
Answer one question on your chosen pairing of poets.
Heaney: Opened Ground
Montague: New Selected Poems
1

John Montague and Seamus Heaney both write about the Irish past.
Compare and contrast the two poets’ treatment of the Irish past in two poems you have studied. Hopkins: Selected Poems
Dickinson: A Choice of Emily Dickinson’s Verse
2

Gerard Manley Hopkins and Emily Dickinson both express intense anguish in their poetry.
Compare and contrast how both poets express intense anguish in two poems you have studied. Duffy: Selected Poems
Lochhead: The Colour of Black and White
3

Carol Ann Duffy and Liz Lochhead both explore childhood experiences.
Compare and contrast the two poets’ exploration of childhood experiences in two poems you have studied.

Thomas E: Selected Poems
Frost: Selected Poems
4

Edward Thomas and Robert Frost both write about the natural world.
Compare and contrast the two poets’ treatment of the natural world in two poems you have studied. Yeats: Selected Poems
Kavanagh: Selected Poems
5

William Butler Yeats and Patrick Kavanagh both express frustration with aspects of Ireland.
Compare and contrast how both poets express this frustration with aspects of Ireland in two poems you have studied.

4

Section B: The Study of Prose 1800-1945
Answer one question in this section.
Bronte: Wuthering Heights
Answer (a) or (b)
1

(a) The world of Wuthering Heights is too insular to offer significant insight into nineteenth-century class division.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
(b) Twenty-first century readers of Wuthering Heights are not likely to agree with midnineteenth century readers who criticised the novel for its shocking impression of humanity. With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.

Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
Answer (a) or (b)
2

(a) The Great Gatsby is too concerned with conveying a picture of 1920s American society to have relevance to modern readers.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
(b) The Great Gatsby’s female characters suggest that Fitzgerald had very mixed views about the emancipation which American women began to experience during the 1920s.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.

5

Austen: Mansfield Park
Answer (a) or (b)
3

(a) Fanny Price is a very passive character; she is not a feminist’s idea of a heroine.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
(b) The ideas about duty and decorum presented in Mansfield Park are nineteenth-century notions. They are foreign to the mindset of the twenty-first century reader.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.

Forster: A Passage to India
Answer (a) or (b)
4

(a) With the disappearance of the Anglo-Indian world, A Passage to India has lost its relevance for the twenty-first century reader.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
(b) Fielding reflects the racial prejudice typical of the Anglo-Indian Raj.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.

Gaskell: North and South
Answer (a) or (b)
5

(a) Although written in the nineteenth century, North and South is still relevant today for the insight that it gives into the conditions of the working-class.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
(b) North and South is more of a romance than an industrial novel.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.

6

Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbridge
Answer (a) or (b)
6

(a) Michael Henchard is a heroic figure.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
(b) Nineteenth-century modernisation appears in a negative light in The Mayor of
Casterbridge.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.

7

8

ADVANCED
General Certificate of Education
2010

English Literature
Assessment Unit A2 1 assessing The Study of Poetry 1300-1800 and Drama
SPECIMEN PAPER
TIME
2 hours
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Write your Centre number and Candidate Number on the Answer Booklet provided. Answer two questions. Answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B.
INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES
The total mark for this paper is 100.
All questions carry equal marks, ie 50 marks for each question.
Quality of written communication will be assessed in all questions.

9

Section A: The Study of Poetry, 1300-1800
AO1

AO2

AO4

Answer one question from this section.
1

Chaucer: The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
Answer either (a) or (b)
(a)

By referring closely to extract 1(a) printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the text, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Chaucer uses to convey the nature of preaching in the fourteenth century.
*lines 243-286
Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other relevant parts of the text.

(b) By referring closely to extract 1(b) printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the text, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Chaucer uses to convey corruption in the medieval Church.
*lines 43-85
Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other relevant parts of the text.
2

Donne: Selected Poems
Answer either (a) or (b)
(a)

By referring closely to ‘A Valediction Forbidding Mourning’, printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet, and one other appropriately selected poem, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Donne uses to link the relationship between the couple and the world of their time. Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and the selected poem.

(b) By referring closely to ‘Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward’, printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet, and one other appropriately selected poem, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Donne uses to express an early seventeenth-century view of religion.
Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and the selected poem.
10

3

Pope: The Rape of the Lock
Answer either (a) or (b)
(a)

By referring closely to extract 3(a) printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the text, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Pope uses to convey the way of life of the upper classes in the reign of Queen Anne.
*Canto III, lines 1-44
Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other relevant parts of the text.

(b) By referring closely to extract 3(b) printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the text, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Pope uses to present a trivial situation in epic form.
*Canto II, lines 1-46
Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other relevant parts of the text.
4

Goldsmith: Selected Poems
Answer either (a) or (b)
(a)

By referring closely to extract 4(a) from ‘The Deserted Village’, printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the poem, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Goldsmith uses to express social protest.
*lines 265-302
Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other relevant parts of the text.

(b)

By referring closely to extract 4(b) from ‘The Traveller or A Prospect of Society’, printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the poem, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Goldsmith uses to criticise the political and commercial systems of Britain at the time of writing**.
*lines 335-392
**the poem was first published in 1764.
Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other relevant parts of the text.

11

Section B: The Study of Drama
AO1

AO2

AO3

AO4

Answer one question from this section.
1

Satire
Jonson: Volpone
Sheridan: The School for Scandal
While we may admire the skill with which Jonson in Volpone and Sheridan in the School for Scandal satirise the vices and follies of their societies, we are aware of a nastiness in
Jonson’s approach that Sheridan’s more good-natured play avoids.
By comparing and contrasting appropriately selected parts of the two plays, show how far you would agree with the view expressed above.

2

Historical Drama
Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral
Bolt: A Man for All Seasons
The effectiveness of the principal characters, Becket in Murder in the Cathedral and More in A Man for All Seasons, does not depend on the audience’s knowledge of the historical periods in which the plays are set.
By comparing and contrasting appropriately selected parts of the two plays, show how far you would agree with the view expressed above.

3

Drama of Social Realism
Ibsen: A Doll’s House
Osborne: Look Back in Anger
In his presentation of the character of Nora Helmer, Ibsen offers a more convincing condemnation of a society than Osborne does in his characterisation of Jimmy Porter.
By comparing and contrasting appropriately selected parts of the two plays, show how far you would agree with the view expressed above.

12

4

Tragedy
Shakespeare: King Lear
Heaney: Burial at Thebes (Sophocles’ Antigone translated by Seamus Heaney)
The tragic outcome of both plays results from a failure of leadership.
By comparing and contrasting appropriately selected parts of the two plays, show how far you would agree with the view expressed above.

13

14

ADVANCED
General Certificate of Education
2010

English Literature
Assessment Unit A2 1 assessing The Study of Poetry 1300-1800 and Drama
SPECIMEN PAPER

RESOURCE BOOKLET
FOR SECTION A ONLY

If you are answering on Chaucer, Pope or Goldsmith, you must make sure that you select the appropriate extract for the question you are doing. For example, if you are doing Question 1(a), you must select extract 1(a).

15

1(a)

Chaucer: The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale (extract to go with Question 1(a))
The apostel weping seith ful pitously,
‘Ther walken manye ofwhiche yow toold have I I seye it now weping, with pitous vois That they been enemys of Cristes crois,
Of whiche the ende is deeth, wombe is hir god. ,
O wombe! O bely! O stinking cod,
Fulfilled of dong and of corrupcioun!
At either ende of thee foul is the soun.
How greet labour and cost is thee to finde!
Thise cookes, how they stampe, and streyne, and grinde,
And turnen substaunce into accident,
To fulfille a1 thy likerous talent!
Out of the harde bones knokke they
The mary, for they caste noght awey
That may go thurgh the golet softe and swoote.
Of spicerie of leef and bark and roote
Sha1 been his sauce ymaked by delit,
To make him yet a newer appetit.
But certes, he that haunteth swiche delices
Is deed, whil that he liveth in tho vices.
A lecherous thing is wyn, and dronkenesse
Is ful of striving and of wrecchednesse.
O dronke man, disfigured is thy face,
Sour is thy breeth, foul artow to embrace,
And thurgh thy dronke nose semeth the soun
As though thou seydest ay ‘Sampsoun, Sampsoun!’
And yet, God woot, Sampsoun drank nevere no wyn.
Thou fallest as it were a stiked swyn;
Thy tonge is lost, and a1 thyn honeste cure;
For dronkenesse is verray sepulture
Of mannes wit and his discrecioun.
In whom that drinke hath dominacioun
He kan no conseil kepe, it is no drede.
Now kepe yow fro the white and fro the rede,
And namely fro the white wyn of Lepe,
That is to selle in Fisshstrete or in Chepe.
This wyn of Spaigne crepeth subtilly
In othere wines, growinge faste by,
Of which ther riseth swich fumositee
That whan a man hath dronken draughtes thre,
And weneth that he be at hoom in Chepe,
He is in Spaigne, right at the toune of Lepe Nat at the Rochele, ne at Burdeux toun;
And thanne wol he seye ‘Sampsoun, Sampsoun!’

16

1(b)

Chaucer: The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale (extract to go with Question 1(b))
Lordinges,' quod he, ‘in chirches whan I preche,
I peyne me to han an hauteyn speche,
And ringe it out as round as gooth a belle,
For I kan al by rote that I telle.
My theme is alwey oon, and evere was Radix malorum est Cupiditas.
First I pronounce whennes that I come,
And thanne my bulles shewe I, alle and some.
Oure lige lordes seel on my patente,
That shewe I first, my body to warente,
That no man be so boold, ne preest ne clerk,
Me to destourbe of Cristes hooly werk.
And after that thanne telle I forth my tales.
Bulles of popes and of cardinales,
Of patriarkes and bishopes I shewe,
And in Latin I speke a wordes fewe,
To saffron with my predicacioun,
And for to stire hem to devocioun.
Thanne shewe I forth my longe cristal stones,
Ycrammed fu! of cloutes and of bones, Relikes been they, as wenen they echoon.
Thanne have I in latoun a sholder-boon
Which that was of an hooly Jewes sheep.
"Goode men," I seye, "taak of my wordes keep;
If that this boon be wasshe in any welle,
If cow, or calf, or sheep, or oxe swelle
That any worm hath ete, or worm ystonge,
Taak water of that welle and wassh his tonge,
And it is hool anon; and forthermoore,
Of pokkes and of scabbe and every soore
Shal every sheep be hool that of this welle
Drinketh a draughte. Taak kep eek what I telle:
If that the good-man that the beestes oweth
Wol every wyke, er that the cok him croweth,
Fastinge, drinken of this welle a draughte,
As thilke hooly Jew oure eldres taughte,
His beestes and his stoor shal multiplie.
And, sires, also it heeleth jalousie;
For though a man be falle in jalous rage,
Lat maken with this water his potage,
And nevere shal he moore his wif mistriste,
Though he the soothe of hir defaute wiste,
Al had she taken prestes two or thre.

17

2(a)

Donne: Selected Poems
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
As virtuous men passe mildly away,
And whisper to their soules, to goe,
Whilst some of their sad friends doe say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No teare-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
'Twere prophanation of our joyes
To tell the layetie our love.
Moving of th'earth brings harmes and feares,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheares,
Though greater farre, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers love
(Whose soule is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love, so much refin'd,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care lesse, eyes, lips, and hands to misse.
Our two soules therefore, which are one,
Though I must goe, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to ayery thinnesse beate.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin compasses are two,
Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other doe.
And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth rome,
It leanes, and hearkens after it,
And growes erect, as it comes home.
Such wilt thou be to mee, who must
Like th'other foot, obliquely runne;
Thy firmnes makes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begunne.

18

2(b)

Donne: Selected Poems
Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward
Let man’s Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this,
The intelligence that moves, devotion is,
And as the other Spheares, by being growne
Subject to forraigne motions, lose their owne.
And being by others hurried every day,
Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey:
Pleasure or businesse, so, our Soules admit
For their first mover, and are whirld by it.
Hence is't, that I am carryed towards the West
This day, when my Soules forme bends toward the East!
There I should see a Sunne, by rising set,
And by that setting endlesse day beget;
But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall,
Sinne had eternally benighted all.
Yet dare I almost be glad, I do not see
That spectacle of too much weight for mee.
Who sees Gods face, that is selfe life, must dye;
What a death were it then to see God dye ?
It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
It made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne winke.
Could I behold those hands which span the Poles,
And tune all spheares at once, peirc 'd with those holes?
Could I behold that endlesse height which is
Zenith to us, and to our Antipodes,
Humbled below us? or that blood which is
The seat of all our Soules, if not of his,
Make durt of dust, or that flesh which was worne
By God, for his apparell, rag'd, and torne?
If on these things I durst not looke, durst I
Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye,
Who was Gods partner here, and furnish'd thus
Halfe of that Sacrifice, which ransom'd us ?
Though these things, as I ride, be from mine eye,
They are present yet unto my memory,
For that looks towards them; and thou look'st towards mee,
Saviour, as thou hang'st upon the tree;
I turne my backe to thee, but to receive
Corrections, till thy mercies bid thee leave.
O thinke mee worth thine anger, punish mee,
Burne off my rusts, and my deformity,
Restore thine Image, so much, by thy grace,
That thou may'st know mee, and I'll turne my face.

19

3(a)

Pope: The Rape of the Lock (extract from Canto III to go with Question 3(a))
Close by those meads, for ever crown'd with flow'rs,
Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs,
There stands a structure of majestic frame,
Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name.
Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom
Of foreign Tyrants, and of Nymphs at home;
Here thou, great ANNA! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take- and sometimes Tea.
Hither the Heroes and the Nymphs resort,
To taste awhile the pleasures of a Court;
In various talk th' instructive hours they past,
Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;
One speaks the glory of the British Queen,
And one describes a charming Indian screen;
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At ev'ry word a reputation dies.
Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,
With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.
Mean while, declining from the noon of day,
The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray;
The hungry Judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that Jury-men may dine;
The merchant from th' Exchange returns in peace,
And the long labours of the Toilet cease.
Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites,
Burns to encounter two advent'rous Knights,
At Ombre1 singly to decide their doom;
And swells her breast with conquests yet to come.
Straight the three bands prepare in arms to join,
Each band the number of the sacred Nine.
Soon as she spreads her hand, th' aerial guard
Descend, and sit on each important card:
First Ariel perch'd upon a Matadore,
Then each according to the rank they bore;
For Sylphs, yet mindful of their ancient race,
Are, as when women, wond'rous fond of place.
Behold, four Kings in majesty rever'd,
With hoary whiskers and a forky beard;
And four fair Queens whose hands sustain a flow'r ,
Th' expressive emblem of their softer pow'r;
Four Knaves in garbs succinct, a trusty band,
Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand;
And particolour'd troops, a shining train,
Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain.

20

3(b)

Pope: The Rape of the Lock (extract from Canto II to go with Question 3(b))
Not with more glories, in th' ethereal plain,
The Sun first rises o'er the purpled main,
Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams
Launch'd on the bosom of the silver Thames.
Fair Nymphs, and well-drest Youths around her shone,
But ev'ry eye was fix'd on her alone.
On her white breast a sparkling Cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore.
Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose,
Quick as her eyes, and as unfix'd as those:
Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;
Oft she rejects, but never once offends.
Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,
And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.
Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,
Might hide her faults, if Belles had faults to hide:
If to her share some female errors fall,
Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.
This Nymph, to the destruction of mankind,
Nourish'd two Locks, which graceful hung behind
In equal curls, and well conspir'd to deck
With shining ringlets the smooth iv'ry neck.
Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,
And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.
With hairy springes we the birds betray,
Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey,
Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare,
And beauty draws us with a single hair.
Th' advent'rous Baron the bright locks admir'd;
He saw, he wish'd, and to the prize aspir'd.
Resolv'd to win, he meditates the way,
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
For when success a Lover's toil attends,
Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends.
For this, ere Phoebus rose, he had implor'd
Propitious Heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r ador'd,
But chiefly Love -to Love an Altar built,
Of twelve vast French Romances, neatly gilt.
There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,
And all the trophies of his former loves;
With tender Billet-doux he lights the pyre,
And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire.
Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes
Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize:
The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r,
The rest, the winds dispers'd in empty air.

21

4(a)

Goldsmith: Selected Poems (extract to go with Question 4(a))
The Deserted Village
Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen who survey 265
The rich man's joy's encrease, the poor's decay.
'Tis yours to judge, how wide the limits stand
Between a splendid and an happy land.
Proud swells the tide with loads of freighted ore,
And shouting Folly hails them from her shore;
Hoards, even beyond the miser's wish abound,
And rich men flock from all the world around.
Yet count our gains. This wealth is but a name
That leaves our useful products still the same.
Not so the loss. The man of wealth and pride,
Takes up a space that many poor supplied;
Space for his lake, his park's extended bounds,
Space for his horses, equipage, and hounds;
The robe that wraps his limbs in silken sloth,
Has robbed the neighbouring fields of half their growth;
His seat, where solitary sports are seen,
Indignant spurns the cottage from the green;
Around the world each needful product flies,
For all the luxuries the world supplies.
While thus the land adorned for pleasure all
In barren splendour feebly waits the fall.
As some fair female unadorned and plain,
Secure to please while youth confirms her reign,
Slights every borrowed charm that dress supplies,
Nor shares with art the triumph of her eyes.
But when those charms are past, for charms are frail,
When time advances, and when lovers fail,
She then shines forth sollicitous to bless,
In all the glaring impotence of dress.
Thus fares the land, by luxury betrayed,
In nature's simplest charms at first arrayed,
But verging to decline, its splendours rise,
Its vistas strike, its palaces surprize;
While scourged by famine from the smiling land,
The mournful peasant leads his humble band;
And while he sinks without one arm to save,
The country blooms--a garden, and a grave.

22

4(b)

Goldsmith: Selected Poems (extract to go with Question 4(b))
The Traveller or A Prospect of Society
Thine, Freedom, thine the blessings pictur'd here,
Thine are those charms that dazzle and endear;
Too blest indeed, were such without alloy,
But foster'd even by Freedom ills annoy:
That independence Britons prize too high,
Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie;
The se1f-dependent lordlings stand alone,
All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown;
Here by the bonds of nature feebly held,
Minds combat minds, repelling and repell'd;
Ferments arise, imprison'd factions roar,
Represt ambition struggles round her shore,
Till over-wrought, the general system feels
Its motions stopt, or phrenzy fire the wheels.
Nor this the worst. As nature's ties decay,
As duty, love, and honour fail to Sway,
Fictitious bonds, the bonds of wealth and law,
Still gather strength, and force unwilling awe.
Hence all obedience bows to these alone,
And talent sinks, and merit weeps unknown;
Till Time may come, when, stript of all her charms,
The land of scholars, and the nurse of arms;
Where noble stems transmit the patriot flame,
Where kings have toil'd, and poets wrote for fame;
One sink of level avarice shall lie,
And scholars, soldiers, kings unhonor'd die.
Yet think not, thus when Freedom's ills I state,
I mean to flatter kings, or court the great;
Ye Powers of truth that bid my soul aspire,
Far from my bosom drive the low desire ;
And thou fair freedom, taught alike to feel
The rabble's rage, and tyrant's angry steel;
Thou transitory flower, alike undone
By proud contempt, or favour's fostering sun,
Still may thy blooms the changeful clime endure,
I only would repress them to secure;
For just experience tells in every soil,
That those who think must govern those that toil,
And all that freedom's highest aims can reach,
Is but to lay proportion'd loads on each.
Hence, should one order disproportion'd grow,
Its double weight must ruin all below.
O then how blind to all that truth requires,
Who think it freedom when a part aspires
Calm is my soul, nor apt to rise in arms,
Except when fast approaching danger warms:
But when contending chiefs blockade the throne,
Contracting regal power to stretch their own,
23

When I behold a factious band agree
To call it freedom, when themselves are free;
Each wanton judge new penal statutes draw,
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law;
The wealth of climes, where savage nations roam.
Pillag'd from slaves, to purchase slaves at home;
Fear, pity, justice, indignation start,
Tear off reserve, and bare my swelling heart;
'Till half a patriot, half a coward grown.
I fly from petty tyrants to the throne.

24

ADVANCED
General Certificate of Education
2010

English Literature
Assessment Unit A2 2 assessing The Study of Prose – theme based
SPECIMEN PAPER

TIME
2 hours
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Write your Centre number and Candidate Number on the Answer Booklet provided. Answer two questions. Answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B.
Section A is open book.
INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES
The total mark for this paper is 100.
All questions carry equal marks, ie 50 marks for each question.
Quality of written communication will be assessed in all questions.

25

Section A
Answer one question in this section.
1

War: The Things They Carried
By close analysis of the way themes, characters and situation are introduced, and taking account of the narrative point of view, language (including imagery) and tone, show how effective you think the extract below is in forming the opening section of the book.
The extract starts at the beginning of the book and ends on page 7 with
…. the terrible power of the things they carried.

2

Women In Society: The Illusionist
By close analysis of the given extract, taking account of the themes developed, narrative point of view, situation, characterisation, language and tones, show how effective you think
Johnston has been in presenting the relationship between the wife (‘Star’) and her husband
(Martyn) in the extract given below.
The extract begins on page 98 with the words,
Mother was there to greet me … and ends on page 102 with
… we ate our meal in painful silence.

3

The Outsider: The Butcher Boy
By close analysis of the given extract, taking account of the themes developed, narrative point of view, situation, characterisation, language and tone, show how effective you think the excerpt below is in presenting a picture of young Francie Brady as an outsider.
The extract begins on page 43 with the words,
I don’t know what time it was when I went round to Nugent’s backyard. It ends on page 47 with
… then on he went.

26

4

Childhood: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
By close analysis of the given extract, taking account of the themes developed, narrative point of view, situation, characterisation, language and tone, show how effective you think the author has been in representing the thoughts and feelings of a 10-year-old Dublin boy.
The extract begins on page 97 with the words,
They were checking the B.C.G. ….
It ends on page 103 with
I didn’t tell him about his underpants.

27

Section B
Answer one question in this section.
1

War
War novels force us to revise our ideas of what makes a hero.
Compare and contrast the two novels you have studied in this group in light of the above opinion. 2

Women In Society
Given women’s position in society, it is no wonder that female characters are nearly always presented as victims.
Compare and contrast the two novels you have studied in this group in light of the above opinion. 3

Childhood
Few writers on childhood have ever been able to take us convincingly into the mind of the child. Compare and contrast the two novels you have studied in this group in light of the above opinion. 4

The Outsider
The outsider’s perspective usually tends to be too extreme to be able to offer any valuable new ways of seeing the world.
Compare and contrast the two novels you have studied in this group in light of the above opinion. 28

Mark Schemes

29

30

ADVANCED SUBSIDIARY (AS)
General Certificate of Education
2009

English Literature
Assessment Unit AS 2
The Study of Poetry Written after 1800 and the Study of Prose 1800-1945
SPECIMEN PAPER

MARK
SCHEME

31

32

Band 5
42−47
COMPETENT

• communicates competent understanding of the texts • conveys ideas with a competent sense of order and relevance, using competent evidence
• writes with competent accuracy, using literary terms • communicates understanding of the texts
• conveys some ideas with some sense of order and relevance, using some appropriate examples writes with some accuracy, using some literary terms • communicates basic understanding of the texts
• conveys ideas with a little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[emergence of relevance]
• writes fairly accurately, using a few common literary terms

Band 3
30−35
EMERGENCE

• identifies a competent selection of methods – ie language (including imagery), tone, form and structure
• explains in a competent way how these methods create meaning

• identifies some aspects of language (including imagery) • identifies some aspects of tone
• may show some awareness of form and structure • makes some comments on identified methods

• identifies a few basic aspects of language
(including imagery)
• identifies tone(s)
• may mention basic aspects of form and structure – but with limited understanding
• offers a few comments on identified methods
[emergence of methods]

• identifies a few basic aspects of language
(including imagery)
• may refer to tone
• may mention basic aspects of form and structure – but with limited understanding
[suggestion of methods]
• occasionally comments on identified methods

• communicates broad or generalised understanding of the texts
• writes with very little sense of order and relevance and with limited accuracy

• communicates basic understanding of the texts
• conveys simple ideas but with little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[suggestion of relevance]
• writes with basic accuracy using a few common literary terms

Band 4
36−41
SOME

AO2
Methods

• shows very little understanding of the texts or ability to write about them

Band 2
23−29
SUGGESTION

Band 1 (b)
14−22
GENERAL

Band 1 (a)
0−13
VERY LITTLE

AO1
Communication

Internal Assessment Matrix for AS 2: Section A

• offers competent comments on similarities and differences between texts

• offers some comments on similarities and differences between texts

• offers a few comments on similarities and differences between texts [emergence of comparison/contrast] • makes simple comments on basic similarities and differences between texts [suggestion of comparison/contrast] AO3
Comparison/Argument

33

Band 6 (b)
55−60
EXCELLENT

Band 6 (a)
48−54
GOOD

• excellent in all respects

• communicates a good understanding of the texts
• conveys mostly sound, well-supported ideas in a logical, orderly and relevant manner
• writes accurately and clearly, using an appropriate literary register

AO1
Communication
• identifies a good range of aspects of methods – ie language (including imagery), tone, form and structure
• explores in good detail how these methods create meaning

AO2
Methods
• comments well on similarities and differences between texts

AO3
Comparison/Argument

Section A: The Study of Poetry Written after 1800
1

Heaney: Opened Ground
Montague: New Selected Poems
John Montague and Seamus Heaney both write about the Irish past.
Compare and contrast the two poets’ treatment of the Irish past in two poems you have studied. The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section A Mark
Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

Likely poems are A Lost Tradition by Montague and Bogland by Heaney.
The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded. Other poems may be chosen and candidates will be required to justify their selection.
AO1: Communication and AO3: Comparison
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology; skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in comparing and contrasting two poets’ treatment of the Irish past.
•

form and structure in comparing and contrasting their treatment of the Irish past – A
Lost Tradition:
- theme developed: the neglect of a past culture despite continuing physical and linguistic reminders;
- mingling of reflections on the past with personal experience;
- based on an old Gaelic tribal lament – see account of the defeat of the O’Neills (final stanzas). 34

•

form and structure in comparing and contrasting their treatment of the Irish past –
Bogland:
- theme developed: uncovering of Ireland’s past in terms of the stripping of layers of bog; - central image of the bog as symbol of passing time;
- series of images to suggest the ancient bogland heritage;
- combination of physical fact and image.

•

language (including imagery) and tone in comparing and contrasting their treatment of the Irish past - A Lost Tradition:
- glorifying of place names: ‘uncultivated pearls’, ‘image-encrusted’ name
- sardonic use of the English translations of traditional place names eg ‘the Golden
Stone’ (Clogher);
- pathetic fallacy in account of Barnagh’s death;
- failure to interpret historic place names compared with a blind man fumbling to read a manuscript in braille (‘along the fingertips of instinct’);
- condemnatory – of the neglect of the past;
- elegiac – traditional Irish elegiac formula ‘So breaks the heart, Brish-mo-Cree’);
- lament for the decline of the O’Neills and the Gaelic order.

•

language – including imagery – and tone in comparing and contrasting their treatment of the Irish past – Bogland:
- depiction of bleak landscape eg ‘bog that keeps crusting/between the sights of the sun’ contrast of vast American landscape with the more intimate Irish ‘tarn’;
- evocation of qualities of bogland eg ‘melting and opening under foot’; the ground as
‘kind, black butter’;
- suggestion of infinity (‘our pioneers keep striking/Inwards and downwards’);
- ingenious imagery eg the elk as ‘crate full of air’;
- speaking on behalf of the Irish (‘we have no prairies…’).

35

2

Hopkins: Selected Poems
Dickinson: A Choice of Emily Dickinson’s Verse
Gerard Manley Hopkins and Emily Dickinson both express intense anguish in their poetry.
Compare and contrast how both poets express intense anguish in two poems you have studied. The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section A Mark
Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

Likely poems are No Worst, There is None by Hopkins and I Felt a Funeral in my Brain by
Dickinson.
The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded. Other poems may be chosen and candidates will be required to justify their selection.
AO1: Communication and AO3: Comparison
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology; skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in comparing and contrasting the two poets’ expression of intense anguish: •
•

the themes and ideas developed: I Felt a Funeral in my Brain:
- traces the stages of increasing anguish through comparison of mental processes to a funeral; the themes and ideas developed: No Worst, There is None:
- explores extreme mental torment;

36

• form and structure: I Felt a Funeral in my Brain:
- the halting, uncertain effects of the punctuation increases tension;
- inconclusive last line ending with dash;
- disciplined and economic;
• form and structure: No worst, There is None:
- sonnet form conveys intensity of feeling;
- twisting and turning of syntax give a sense of tension;
- condensed, densely packed lines;
•

language (including imagery): I Felt a Funeral in my Brain:
- use of funeral imagery: ‘mourners’; ‘service’; ‘coffin’; ‘bell’;
- use of repetition to give a sense of mounting pressure and tension;
- terrifying description of descent into despair;
• language (including imagery): No worst, There is None:
- emphatic opening: ‘No worst’;
- terrifying imagery of landscape;
- use of repetition to emphasise suffering;
• tone: I Felt a Funeral in my Brain:
- nervous terror;
- oppression;
• tone: No Worst, There is None:
- anguish;
- desolation.

37

3

Duffy: Selected Poems
Lochhead: The Colour of Black and White
Carol Ann Duffy and Liz Lochhead both explore childhood experiences.
Compare and contrast the two poets’ exploration of childhood experiences in two poems you have studied.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section A Mark
Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

Likely poems are In Mrs Tilscher’s Class by Duffy and The Metal Raw by Lochhead.
The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded. Other poems may be chosen and candidates will be required to justify their selection.
AO1: Communication and AO3: Comparison
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology; skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in comparing and contrasting the two poets’ exploration of childhood experiences: • the themes and ideas developed: In Mrs Tilscher’s Class:
- describes the security of a primary school classroom as a prelude to the uncertainties of adolescence and the wider world (Brady and Hindley);
• the themes and ideas developed: The Metal Raw:
- describes a childhood memory of a particular place, which leads on to the remembrance of people, attitudes and the 1950s (Cold War, Kruschev);

38

• form and structure: In Mrs Tilscher’s Class:
- stanzas one and two deal with the pleasures of the child’s world; stanzas three and four consider the movement towards adolescence;
• form and structure: The Metal Raw:
- flexibility of free verse allows for an easy, anecdotal style;
• language (including imagery): In Mrs Tilscher’s Class:
- accumulation of detail of child’s experience (stanza 1);
- frog imagery to signify children’s development;
- imagery of passion and sexuality (stanza 4);
- symbolism of gates (stanza 4);
• language (including imagery): The Metal Raw:
- use of colloquial and dialect words;
- accumulation of concrete detail;
- childlike expression and perspective: ‘that big man with the stick’; ‘somebody’s big cousin’; • tone: In Mrs Tilscher’s Class:
- contented, comfortable;
- agitated, impatient;
• tone: The Metal Raw:
- chatty;
- fearful.

39

4

Thomas E: Selected Poems
Frost: Selected Poems
Edward Thomas and Robert Frost both write about the natural world.
Compare and contrast the two poets’ treatment of the natural world in two poems you have studied. The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section A Mark
Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

Likely poems are The Owl by Thomas and The Oven Bird by Thomas.
The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded. Other poems may be chosen and candidates will be required to justify their selection.
AO1: Communication and AO3: Comparison
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology; skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in comparing and contrasting the two poets’ treatment of the natural world: • the themes and ideas developed: The Owl:
- describes how the speaker of the poem heard the cry of an owl; the bird’s voice spoke for those ‘unable to rejoice’;
• the themes and ideas developed: The Oven Bird:
- describes the song of the oven bird, a song different from those of other birds, and perhaps symbolic of the poet’s art.

40

• form and structure: The Owl:
- simple, plain, reflective mode;
- four-line stanza form: easy pace, regular metre and rhyme;
• form and structure: The Oven Bird:
- use of the sonnet form: patterned, structured;
- rhythm steadied by prose statement;
• language (including imagery): The Owl:
- series of oppositions to describe the speaker’s state: hunger/food; heat/fire, tired/rest;
- description of the owl’s cry is foregrounded: runs from second to the third stanza;
- use of alliteration to emphasise speaker’s reaction to the owl: ‘salted….sobered’;
• language (including imagery): The Oven Bird:
- use of repetition - ‘he says’ - to give a sense of how the bird voices, rather than sings his knowledge of the changing seasons;
- unobtrusive metaphor;
- ambiguity of final lines: ‘diminished thing’;
• tone: The Owl:
- plain and direct;
- thankful tone of the last stanza;
• tone: The Oven Bird:
- even tone;
- more troubled tone of last two lines.

41

5

Yeats: Selected Poems
Kavanagh: Selected Poems
William Butler Yeats and Patrick Kavanagh both express frustration with aspects of Ireland.
Compare and contrast the how both poets express this frustration with aspects of Ireland in two poems you have studied.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section A Mark
Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

Likely poems are September 1913 by Yeats and Stony Grey Soil by Kavanagh.
The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded. Other poems may be chosen and candidates will be required to justify their selection.
AO1: Communication and AO3: Comparison
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology; skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in comparing and contrasting the two poets’ expression of frustration with aspects of Ireland.
• the themes and ideas developed: September 1913:
- frustration with the materialism and formalised religion of the Ireland of his time;
• the themes and ideas developed: Stony Grey Soil:
- frustration with rural Ireland and its limitations; attacks glorification of agricultural life; 42

• form and structure: September 1913:
- use of the refrain: brings each stanza to a climax, and contrasts past and present;
- resignation of last stanza: modification of the refrain;
- addressed to the Dublin people: ‘What need you…’;
• form and structure: Stony Grey Soil:
- robust rhythm conveys anger and frustration;
- relentless regularity;
• language (including imagery): September 1913:
- juxtaposition of past and present;
- language of disgust: ‘fumble’; ‘greasy till’; ‘dried the marrow’;
- repetition of ‘for this’ in third stanza to assert the grimness of the present;
• language (including imagery): Stony Grey Soil:
- barrenness conveyed: ‘stony’; ‘grey’ ;
- comparison to a ‘lea-field’;
- repetition of ‘O’: conveys frustration;
- heavy alliteration of ‘clod conceived’; ‘clogged’ emphasises frustration at stunted development; •

•

tone: September 1913:
- contemptuous tone;
- despairing tone;
- tone of admiration when considering the past; tone: Stony Grey Soil:
- bitter tone;
- accusatory tone: repeated use of ‘you’.

43

44

Band 5
42−47
COMPETENT

• communicates competent understanding of the text • conveys ideas with a competent sense of order and relevance, using competent evidence
• writes with competent accuracy, using literary terms • communicates understanding of the text
• conveys some ideas with some sense of order and relevance, using some appropriate examples
• writes with some accuracy, using some literary terms • communicates basic understanding of the text
• conveys ideas with a little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[emergence of relevance]
• writes fairly accurately, using a few common literary terms

Band 3
30−35
EMERGENCE

• offers a competent consideration of the question and reaches a competent personal conclusion • addresses key terms in a competent manner
• offers competent reasoning in support of her/his opinion

• offers some consideration of the question and reaches a personal conclusion
• takes some account of key terms
• makes some attempt at reasoning in support of her/his opinion

• offers a simple consideration of the question and reaches a simplistic personal conclusion
• takes a limited account of key terms
• shows a basic attempt at reasoning in support of her/his opinion [emergence of relevant argument] • offers a simple consideration of the question without necessarily coming to a personal conclusion • takes a little account of key terms
• shows a very basic attempt at reasoning in support of her/his opinion [suggestion of relevant argument]

• communicates broad or generalised understanding of the text
• writes with very little sense of order and relevance and with limited accuracy

• communicates basic understanding of the text
• conveys simple ideas but with little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[suggestion of relevance]
• writes with basic accuracy using a few common literary terms

Band 4
36−41
SOME

AO3
Comparison/Argument

• shows very little understanding of the text or ability to write about it

Band 2
23−29
SUGGESTION

Band 1 (b)
14−22
GENERAL

Band 1 (a)
0−13
VERY LITTLE

AO1
Communication

Internal Assessment Matrix for AS 2: Section B

• makes a competent use of relevant external contextual information in answering the question

• offers some relevant external contextual information in answering the question

• identifies a little relevant external contextual information [emergence of relevant external context] • may mention a little external contextual information [suggestion of context]

AO4
Context

45

Band 6 (b)
55−60
EXCELLENT

Band 6 (a)
48−54
GOOD

• excellent in all respects

• communicates a good understanding of the text
• conveys mostly sound, well-supported ideas in a logical, orderly and relevant manner
• writes accurately and clearly, using an appropriate literary register

AO1
Communication
• offers a good consideration of the question and reaches a good personal conclusion
• addresses key terms well
• offers good reasoning in support of her/his opinion AO3
Comparison/Argument
• makes good use of relevant external contextual information in answering the question

AO4
Context

Section B: The Study of Prose 1800-1945
Bronte: Wuthering Heights
1

(a) The world of Wuthering Heights is too insular to offer significant insight into nineteenth-century class division.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
- offers opinion or judgement in response to the given reading of the text: takes account of the key terms: ‘world of Wuthering Heights’; ‘insular’; insight’; nineteenth century’; ‘class division’;
- makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
- provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion eg class;
- distinctions made explicit through the speech of Nelly and Joseph in contrast to that of Linton; mystery surrounding Heathcliff’s antecedents; differences between
Heathcliff and Linton; life at Wuthering Heights in contrast to that at Thrushcross
Grange;
- shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement: that the world of Wuthering Heights is not too insular to offer significant insight into nineteenth-century class division.

46

AO4
•

Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel:
- nineteenth-century attitudes about class and social position; the gentry as represented by Linton and Thrushcross Grange; speculation regarding Heathcliff’s mysterious origins.

47

1

(b) Twenty-first century readers of Wuthering Heights are not likely to agree with midnineteenth century readers who criticised the novel for its shocking impression of humanity. With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
- offers opinion or judgement in response to the given reading of the text;
- takes account of the key terms: ‘twenty-first century readers’; ‘not likely to agree’;
‘mid-nineteenth century readers’; ‘criticised’; ‘shocking impression’; ‘humanity’;
- makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
- provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion eg episode where
Lockwood encounters Catherine at the window; scenes of graphic, gruesome violence; suggestions of incest and necrophilia etc;shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement: that twentieth-first century readers are not likely to agree with mid-nineteenth century readers who criticised the novel for its shocking impression of humanity.
AO4
• Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written and received by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel:
- may argue that twenty-first century readers are more accustomed to gratuitous violence and therefore less shocked by Bronte’s treatment of this;
- may argue that fewer social taboos exist in post-modern society so that again, readers are less shocked by extreme expressions of passion, grief and the suggestion of incest/necrophilia;
- influence of the (Female) Gothic on Bronte.
48

Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
2

(a) The Great Gatsby is too concerned with conveying a picture of 1920s American society to have relevance to modern readers.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
- offers opinion or judgement in response to the given reading of the text;
- takes account of the key terms: ‘too concerned’; ‘1920s American society’;
‘relevance’; ‘modern readers’;
- makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
- provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion eg lavish detail regarding houses and parties; atmosphere and mood evoked of the Jazz Age and 1920s hedonistic excesses; portentous undercurrent of self- destruction and social disintegration which pervades the text;
- shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the statement: that the novel is too concerned with conveying a picture of 1920s American society to have relevance to modern readers.

49

AO4
• Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written and received by drawing on appropriate information for outside the novel:
- Post - World War I American hedonism and the Jazz Age are remote to the modern reader; - Concerns such as money, ambition, greed and the nature of the American Dream are still of relevance to the modern reader.

50

2

(b) The Great Gatsby’s female characters suggest that Fitzgerald had very mixed views about the emancipation which American women began to experience during the 1920s.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
- offers opinion or judgement in response to the given reading of the text;
- takes account of the key terms: ‘female characters’; ‘Fitzgerald’; ‘mixed views’;
‘emancipation’; ‘American women’; ‘1920s’;
- makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
- provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion eg Myrtle Wilson pays for her overt sexual and social coarseness through death; Jordan Baker is apparently devoid of integrity and femininity; Daisy Buchanan as a woman is too much in love with wealth and social status to make any real attempt to claim the emancipation increasingly available to females of her generation;
- shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus: that The
Great Gatsby’s female characters suggest that Fitzgerald had mixed views about the emancipation which American women began to experience during the 1920s.

51

AO4
• Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel:
- post-war economic power enjoyed by women during the 1920s; the cultural phenomenon of the ‘New Woman’;
- Fitzgerald’s own acknowledgement of the subordination of female characters in
The Great Gatsby and his admission that the novel failed to achieve the commercial success he so desired partly due to the ambivalence of its female readers. 52

Austen: Mansfield Park
3

(a) Fanny Price is a very passive character; she is not a feminist’s idea of a heroine.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
-

offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text; takes account of key terms: ‘passive’; ‘feminist’s idea’; ‘heroine’; makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion; provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion; shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement that Fanny Price is not a passive character, and that she could appeal to a feminist reader. AO4
• Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written and received by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel:
- literary context: the characteristics of feminist critical readings; the search for strength and independence in the portrayal of women; the changing attitude over time to women’s role/position in society.

53

3

(b) The ideas about duty and decorum presented in Mansfield Park are nineteenth-century notions. They are foreign to the mindset of the twenty-first century reader.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
- offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text
- takes account of key terms: ‘duty’; ‘decorum’; ‘nineteenth century’; ‘foreign’;
‘mindset’; ‘twenty-first century’;
- makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
- provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
- shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement that the ideas about duty and decorum presented in the novel are not foreign to the mindset of the twenty-first century reader.
AO4
• Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written and received by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel;
- twenty-first century emphasis on individualism, scepticism and the pursuit of personal gratification;
- decorum as social protection in the nineteenth century; duty as a cohesive societal force. 54

Forster: A Passage to India
4

(a) With the disappearance of the Anglo-Indian world, A Passage to India has lost its relevance for the twenty-first century reader.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
- offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
- takes account of key terms: ‘disappearance’; ‘Anglo-Indian world’; ‘lost its relevance’; - makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
- provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
- shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement that A Passage to India has not lost its relevance for the twenty-first century reader.
AO4
• Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written and received by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel:
- aspects of Anglo-Indian - Indian relationships: racial mistrust/superiority
- universal aspects of human relationships which might ensure continued relevance for the twenty-first century reader.

55

4

(b) Fielding reflects the racial prejudice typical of the Anglo-Indian Raj.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
-

offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text; takes account of key terms: ‘racial prejudice’; ‘typical’; ‘Raj’; makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion; provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion; shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement that Fielding does not reflect the racial prejudice typical of the Raj.

AO4
• Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel:
- racial stereotypes;
- notions of racial superiority: eugenics.

56

Gaskell: North and South
5

(a) Although written in the nineteenth century, North and South is still relevant today for the insight that it gives into the conditions of the working-class.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
- offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
- takes account of key terms: ‘still relevant’; ‘insight’; ‘conditions of working class’; - makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
- provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
- shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement North and South is no longer relevant.
AO4
•

Demonstrate understanding of the context in which texts are written and received by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel:
- information about nineteenth-century industrialisation and social conditions
- twenty-first century employment: globalisation; decline of British industry; call centre work.

57

5

(b) North and South is more of a romance than an industrial novel.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
•

Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.

AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
-

offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text; takes account of key terms: ‘more of’; ‘love story’; ‘romance’; makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion; provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion; shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement that North and South is more of an industrial novel than it is a romance.

AO4
• Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel;
- characteristics of the genre of the industrial novel; characteristics of the romance.

58

Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbridge
6

(a) Michael Henchard is a heroic figure.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
-

offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text; takes account of key terms: ‘Michael Henchard’; ‘heroic’; makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion; provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion; shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement that Michael Henchard is not a heroic figure.

AO4
• Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel:
- notions of the heroic; characteristics of the tragic hero.

59

6

(b) Nineteenth-century modernisation appears in a negative light in The Mayor of
Casterbridge.
With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant contextual information, give your response to the above view.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the AS 2 Section B
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 13
14 – 22
23 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41
42 – 47
48 – 54
55 – 60

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1
• Communicates effectively knowledge and understanding of the novel.
AO3
• Shows awareness of the interpretations of other readers by constructing an argument in response to the stimulus statement:
- offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
- takes account of key terms: ‘nineteenth-century’; ‘modernisation; ‘presented’;
‘negatively’;
- makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
- provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
- shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement that nineteenth-century modernisation is not always presented negatively.
AO4
•

Demonstrates understanding of the context in which texts are written and received by drawing on appropriate information from outside the novel:
- information about nineteenth century modernisation; attitudes to current era of rapid modernisation and change.

60

ADVANCED
General Certificate of Education
2010

English Literature
Assessment Unit A2 1
The Study of Poetry 1300-1800 and Drama
SPECIMEN PAPER

MARK
SCHEME

61

62

• communicates some understanding of the poem(s) • conveys some ideas with some sense of order and relevance, using some appropriate examples
• writes with some accuracy, using some literary terms • communicates basic understanding of the poem(s) • conveys ideas with a little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[emergence of relevance]
• writes fairly accurately, using a few common literary terms

Band 3
25−29
EMERGENCE

Band 4
30−34
SOME

• communicates basic understanding of the poem(s) • conveys simple ideas but with little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[suggestion of relevance]
• writes with basic accuracy using a few common literary terms

• identifies some aspects of language (including imagery) • identifies some aspects of tone
• may show some awareness of form and structure • makes some comments on identified methods

• identifies a few basic aspects of language
(including imagery)
• identifies tone(s)
• may mention basic aspects of form and structure – but with limited understanding
• offers a few comments on identified methods
[emergence of methods]

• identifies a few basic aspects of language
(including imagery)
• may refer to tone
• may mention basic aspects of form and structure – but with limited understanding
[suggestion of methods]
• occasionally comments on identified methods

• communicates broad or generalised understanding of the poem(s)
• writes with very little sense of order and relevance and with limited accuracy

Band 1 (b)
12−19
GENERAL

Band 2
20−24
SUGGESTION

• shows very little understanding of the poem(s) or ability to write about it/them

AO2
Methods

Band 1 (a)
0−11
VERY LITTLE

AO1
Communication

Internal Assessment Matrix for A2 1: Section A

• offers some relevant external contextual information in answering the question

• identifies a little relevant external contextual information [emergence of relevant external context] • may mention a little external contextual information [suggestion of context]

AO4
Context

63

• excellent in all respects

• communicates a good understanding of the poem(s) • conveys mostly sound, well-supported ideas in a logical, orderly and relevant manner
• writes accurately and clearly, using an appropriate literary register

Band 6 (a)
40−45
GOOD

Band 6 (b)
46−50
EXCELLENT

• communicates competent understanding of the poem(s) • conveys ideas with a competent sense of order and relevance, using competent evidence
• writes with competent accuracy, using literary terms Band 5
35−39
COMPETENT

AO1
Communication

• identifies a good range of aspects of methods − ie language (including imagery), tone, form and structure
• explores in good detail how these methods create meaning

• identifies a competent selection of methods − ie language (including imagery), tone, form and structure
• explains in a competent way how these methods create meaning

AO2
Methods

• makes good use of relevant external contextual information in answering the question

• makes a competent use of relevant external contextual information in answering the question

AO4
Context

Section A
1

Chaucer: The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
Answer either (a) or (b).
(a) By referring closely to extract 1(a) printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the text, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Chaucer uses to convey the nature of preaching in the fourteenth century.
*lines 243-286
NB: Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other parts of the text.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 1 Section A
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology; skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

64

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in conveying the nature of preaching in the fourteenth century:
•

form and structure in conveying the art of preaching in the fourteenth century:
-

•

language – including imagery – and tone in conveying the nature of preaching in the fourteenth century:
-

•

the tale is not a sermon – but borrows features of the medieval sermon; sermon features are part of the digression in the telling of the ‘moral’ tale;
Pardoner’s treatment of individual sins eg gluttony and drunkenness (extract); use of eg scriptural allusions and topical references (extract); the tale’s incorporation of exempla (the tale of the revellers itself is a type of exemplum). reference (garbled) to the doctrine of transubstantiation (extract); use of rhetorical devices eg exclamation (extract); language to repel the sinner eg details of the drunkard’s condition (extract); suggestion of humour in repetition of ‘Sampsoun, Sampsoun’ (extract); throughout the tale – preacher’s language of condemnation, of warning, of pretended concern.

tone in conveying the nature of preaching in the fourteenth century:
- underlying irony – Pardoners were not permitted to preach;
- range of tones at the disposal of a preacher: condemnation, pretended sorrow, attempts to shock, humour;
- pretended passion and concern (extract);
- disgust with the sins (extract).

AO4: Context
Appropriate use of external contextual information – in relation to the nature of preaching in the fourteenth century on:
•
•
•
•

the nature of medieval rhetoric and ars praedicandi; structure of a characteristic medieval sermon; the sermon’s appeal to the largely illiterate congregations; the fundamentalist nature of medieval preaching.

NB: Equal marks are given for treatment of the given extract and the text as a whole. 65

1

(b) By referring closely to extract 1 (b) printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the text, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Chaucer uses to convey corruption in the medieval Church.
*lines 43-83
NB: Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other parts of the text.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
•
•
•
•
•

Knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation.
Order and relevance in conveying ideas.
Appropriate and accurate expression.
Appropriate use of literary terminology.
Skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in conveying corruption in the medieval Church:
•

form and structure in conveying corruption in the medieval Church:
-

prologue allowing Pardoner to advertise his dishonest practices (extract);
Pardoner’s enactment of his behaviour in the pulpit (extract and beyond); anecdotes used by Pardoner to illustrate his dishonest practices (extract); tension between the apparently genuine moralising in the tale of the three revellers and the Pardoner’s shameless self-exposure elsewhere;
- Pardoner’s irreverent use – even deliberate misinterpretation – of the Scriptures in his allusions;
- use of the Host at the end of the tale to condemn the Pardoner’s corrupt behaviour; - underlying sense of narrator’s criticism of the Pardoner.
66

•

language – including imagery – and tone in conveying corruption in the medieval
Church:
- Pardoner’s off-hand reference to his credentials ‘’bulles of popes … bisshopes’(extract); - sense of his own eloquence ‘rynge it out as round as gooth a belle’ (extract);
- details of Pardoner’s methods: Latin ‘to saffron with my predicacioun’;
- language of the medicine man in the alleged curing of animals (extract);
- language of condemnation in Pardoner’s hypocritical and detailed denunciation of sins;
- Pardoner’s language in addressing the pilgrims: allusions; rhetorical devices such as exclamatio and digressio; storytelling.

•

tone in conveying corruption in the medieval Church:
- Pardoner’s effrontery in presenting false credentials (extract);
- his sly humour in his reference to priestly laxity (‘al had she taken preestes two or thre (extract);
- his boastful claim to pulpit eloquence (extract);
- apparently genuine tone in the tale of the revellers and the denunciation of tavern sins; - his undermining of this in his invitation to the company to buy his pardons.

AO4: Context
Appropriate use of external contextual information - in relation to corruption in the medieval Church:
•
•
•
•
•

the limits of a Pardoner’s office – he was not allowed to preach; the corruption of the doctrine of Penance eg sale of indulgences by unlicensed people; the lax administration which allowed corruption to flourish; the bad reputation of Pardoners – especially those from ‘Rouncival’ (Hospital of St
Mary Roncevall at Charing Cross); the readiness of church officials to commit simony.

NB: Equal marks are given for treatment of the given extract and the text as a whole. 67

2

Donne: Selected Poems
Answer either (a) or (b)
(a) By referring closely to ‘A Valediction Forbidding Mourning’, printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet, and one other appropriately selected poem, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which
Donne uses to link the relationship between the couple and the world of their time.
NB: Equal marks are available for your treatment of each poem.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 1 Section A
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The suggestions which follow apply to the given poem. Candidates will be expected to supply similar comments on a second poem. The candidates are not required to compare/contrast the poems although they will not be penalised for doing so. The information is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses.
Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.

AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology; skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in linking the relationship between the couple and the world of their time. • form and structure in linking the relationship between the couple and the world of their time:

68

- monologue – speaker to the (absent?) beloved;
- takes the form of a debate on absence;
- debate supported by reference to contemporary understanding of cosmology, chemistry, mathematics.
• language - including imagery in linking the relationship between the couple and the world of their time:
- mingling of the language of tender love with technical terms;
- use of religious terminology in a time of religious debate and controversy;
- use of analogies with features of contemporary life to show strength of their love eg the Ptolemaic theory of the spheres – which underlay Renaissance cosmology; the principles of the mathematical compass; the expansion of gold;
- language of Platonic views on the relationship between soul and sense.
• tone in linking the relationship between the couple and the world of their time:
- tender but not sentimental;
- intellectual in linking personal emotion with a wider world;
- confidence in the maturity of their love.
AO4: Context
Appropriate use of external contextual information concerning the relationship between the couple to the world of their time on:
•
•
•

nature of metaphysical poetry – mingling the homely with scientific and philosophical issues; philosophical and religious issues debated at the period eg Plato’s views on the fusion of souls; age of territorial discoveries.

NB:
1
2

Equal marks are given for treatment of the given extract and the text as a whole. Appropriate second poems might include: ‘The Good Morrow’, ‘The Sunne
Rising’, ‘The Canonization’, ‘Twicknam Garden’.

69

2

(b) By referring closely to ‘Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward’, printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet, and one other appropriately selected poem, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which
Donne uses to express an early seventeenth-century view of religion.
NB: Equal marks are available for your treatment of each poem.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The suggestions which follow apply to the given poem. Candidates will be expected to supply similar comments on a second poem. The candidates are not required to compare/contrast the poems although they will not be penalised for doing so. The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
•
•
•
•
•

Knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation.
Order and relevance in conveying ideas.
Appropriate and accurate expression.
Appropriate use of literary terminology.
Skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in expressing an early seventeenth-century view of religion.
•

form and structure in expressing an early seventeenth-century view of religion.
- dominant antithesis of east and west;
- presented as a hypothesis to be developed – ‘let man’s Soule be a Spheare…so, our Soules admit…’;
- recurring paradox of rising and setting;
- movement from intellectual speculation to personal involvement – ‘Hence is’t, that I…’.

70

•

language – including imagery – in expressing an early seventeenth-century view of religion: - detailed analogy of the soul and the spheres;
- scriptural imagery developed eg ‘made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne wink’; - enumeration of the implication of the physical sufferings of Christ: ‘pierced with those holes…that blood…mad durt of dust’;
- image of Mary – ‘God’s partner…half of that sacrifice;
- conceit of turning the back – to receive redemptive punishment.

•

tone in expressing an early seventeenth-century view of religion:
-

initially speculative; self-condemnatory; sense of unworthiness; appeal – to Christ.

AO4: Context
Appropriate use of external contextual information in expressing an early seventeenth century view of religion:
•
•
•
•
•

details of the Biblical accounts of the Passion – written two years after the appearance of the King James Bible; a strong sense of sin typical of a period of commitment and religious disputation; the church’s symbolic views of east and west; combination of seventeenth century theology with contemporary notions of cosmology; acknowledgement of the role of Mary.

NB: Equal marks are given for treatment of the given and the selected poem.
Appropriate second poems might include: ‘Thou hast made me’, ‘I am a little world…’; ‘At the round earth’s imagin’d corners’.

71

3

Pope: The Rape of the Lock
Answer either (a) or (b)
(a)

By referring closely to extract 3(a) printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet* and other appropriately selected parts of the text, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Pope uses to convey the way of life of the upper classes in the reign of Queen Anne.
*Canto III, ll. 1-44
NB: Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other parts of the text.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 1 Section A
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology; skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

72

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language
(including imagery) and tone in conveying the way of life of the upper classes in the reign of Queen Anne.
•

form and structure in conveying the leisure activities of the upper classes in the reign of Queen Anne:
- upper class life presented in context of a mock epic eg the card game a trivialised form of heroes’ contests (extract);
- juxtaposition of the Queen’s Court at Hampton and ‘the pleasures of a court’ at the tea party – an upper class recreation (extract);
- juxtaposition of the trivial activities of the upper classes with the realities of the law eg ‘wretches hang that jurymen may dine’ (extract) and commerce
(th’Exchange returns in peace’);
- upper class activities related to events of a particular day - preparation, journey and arrival;
- effect of the use of couplets indicating satirical presentation: eg bathos of ‘One speaks the glory of a British Queen…screen’ (extract);
- other uses of the couplet in presenting the upper class way of life – may be in the form of zeugma, emphases, unexpected verbal pairings, epigram, humour.

•

language – including imagery – and tone in conveying the way of life of the upper classes in the reign of Queen Anne:
- preoccupation with the trivial: ‘singing, laughing, ogling’ (extract);
- exaggerated importance given to card game – cf epics’ accounts of heroic contests (extract);
- the importance to young ladies of their toilet – details of Belinda’s preparation;
- suggestion of upper class indolence – Belinda’s late rising; the Baron’s ‘love altar’; - elevated language describing the preparation of tea eg ‘altars of
Japan…China’s earth’;
- the delights which the virtuous young lady should avoid eg ‘think what an equipage …chair’(Ariel’s speech - Canto I, ll. 45-6);
- superficial preoccupation with beauty – list of questions in Clarissa’s speech;
- attention to appearance – both Belinda and the Baron.

•

tone in conveying the way of life of the upper classes in the reign of Queen Anne:
-

mocking comparison of tea party with Queen’s Council (extract); ironic eg ‘th’ instructive hours they passed’ (extract); pretended seriousness in account of preparations for the card game (extract); instances throughout the text of understatement, teasing, pretended horror, approval, pretended naiveté in presenting the upper class way of life.

73

AO4: Context
Appropriate use of external contextual information in relation to the leisure activities of the upper classes in the reign of Queen Anne on:
•
•
•
•
•
3

leisure activities (tea, cards, gossip); the cult of wit; preoccupation with the fashionable: theatre, dress, possessions; knowledge of the classics; interest in the exotic.

(b) By referring closely to extract 3(b) printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet* and other appropriately selected parts of the text, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Pope uses to present a trivial situation in epic form.
*Canto II, ll. 1-46
NB: Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other parts of the text.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
•
•
•
•
•

Knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation.
Order and relevance in conveying ideas.
Appropriate and accurate expression.
Appropriate use of literary terminology.
Skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

74

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in presenting a trivial situation in epic form.
•

form and structure in presenting a trivial situation in epic form:
- use of the epic meter – the heroic couplet – used to emphasise the mocking – underneath the narrative eg ‘\yet graceful ease…hide’;
- presentation of the hero(ine) and her opponent (extract);
- presentation of the embarkation of the heroine and her followers;
- lead up to the encounter: the mustering of the hero’s forces (the sylphs); the premeditation of the antagonist;
- the aftermath.

•

language – including imagery – and tone in presenting a trivial situation in epic form: - participants and events linked to the sun: periphrasis: ‘Not with more glories…’;
‘Bright as the sun her eyes…the shine on all alike’ (extract);
- suggestion of events presided over by the sun: the sun personified as Phoebus:
‘for this ere Phoebus rose…’ (extract);
- focus on the hero/heroine in splendour: ‘every eye was fixed on her alone’;
- idealisation of the Thames bearing the hero(ine) and her forces – ‘launched on the bosom of the silver Thames’ – cf the Aegean in Iliad (extract);
- the Baron’s love ‘trophies’ – representing trophies of past battles (extract);
- instances throughout the poem of elevated language to present the trivial as significant – eg the card game; the tea-making; the cutting of the lock.

•

tone in presenting a trivial situation in epic form:
-

apparent awe (extract and elsewhere eg Belinda’s toilette); ironic in comparing her eyes to the sun (extract); mock seriousness as the Baron’s preparation is described (extract); instances throughout the text of pretended horror, approval, apprehensiveness, understatement. AO4: Context
Appropriate use of external contextual information about the nature of epic poetry:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

calling on the muse – beginning and end; the ‘machinery’ (the sylphs etc replacing the presiding gods of epic); the arming of the protagonist (Belinda at her toilet); introducing the antagonist – the Baron – and his motives; crossing the sea (the trip down the Thames); the battlefield (Hampton); the contests of the heroes (the game of ombre); descent to the underworld (the Cave of Spleen).

NB: Equal marks are given for treatment of the given extract and the text as a whole. 75

4

Goldsmith: Selected Poems
Answer either (a) or (b)
(a) By referring closely to extract 4(a) from ‘The Deserted Village’, printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the poem, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Goldsmith uses to express social protest.
*lines 265-302
NB: Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other parts of the text.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 1 Section A
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology; skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in expressing social protest.

76

•

form and structure in expressing social protest:
- long reflective poem;
- sustained contrast between a community recalled with the effects of its dissolution; - the machinery of the speaker’s revisiting the site of his lost community;
- speaker’s apostrophising ‘ye statesmen’ who encouraged the pursuit of luxury leading to depopulation of the village (extract);
- use throughout of heroic couplet, common metre of the period – gives – eg ‘Tis yours to judge, how wide the limits stand….happy land’ (extract);
- other uses of the couplet to give emphasis to pertinent comments.

•

language – including imagery – and tone in expressing social protest:
- images of the import of luxuries – ‘loads of freighted ore’ (extract);
- language describing the exploitation of the countryside by ‘the man of wealth’
(extract);
- analogy of the debasement of the countryside with the ageing female forsaking nature for artifice (extract);
- language of idealism in recollecting the village;
- contrasting language conveying present decay and the horrors of emigration;
- pen portraits of representatives of a bygone community.

•

tone in expressing social protest:
- vituperative (extract);
- resentment against the rich and their greed (extract);
- nostalgic, perhaps idealistic, recall of what has been the victim of so-called progress; - sense of personal loss;
- anger at what villagers have been driven to.

AO4: Context
Appropriate use of external contextual information in relation to:
•
•
•
•
•

Goldsmith’s native village of Lissoy – Sweet Auburn; the structure of rural communities before enclosure; landlordism and agricultural enclosure in the eighteenth century; the trade in luxury goods from the East in the eighteenth century; the nature of emigration in the eighteenth century.

NB: Equal marks are given for treatment of the given extract and the text as a whole. 77

4

(b) By referring closely to extract 4(b) from ‘The Traveller or A Prospect of Society’, printed in the accompanying Resource Booklet*, and other appropriately selected parts of the poem, and making use of relevant external contextual material, examine the poetic methods which Goldsmith uses to criticise the political and commercial systems of Britain at the time of writing**.
*lines 335-392
**the poem was first published in 1764.
NB: Equal marks are available for your treatment of the given extract and other parts of the text.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
•
•
•
•
•

Knowledge and understanding of the text in appropriate reference and quotation.
Order and relevance in conveying ideas.
Appropriate and accurate expression.
Appropriate use of literary terminology.
Skilful and meaningful insertion of quotations.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of form, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in criticising the political and commercial systems of Britain at the time of writing:
•

form and structure in criticising the political and commercial systems of Britain at the time of writing:
- extract included in overall contrast between the contentment of the speaker’s brother and his own restless search for good;
- related to the theme that each nation has its own advantages and weaknesses;
- Britain the last examined in portraits of other nations: Italy, Switzerland, France;
- device of the speaker looking down on these countries from an Alpine vantage point; 78

- extract primarily a warning to Britain;
- analysis carried on through the controlled metre of the heroic couplet, common metre of the period.
•

language – including imagery – in criticising the political and commercial systems of Britain at the time of writing:
- personification of Freedom (extract);
- list of evils resulting from abuse of freedom eg ferments arise…wheels’ (extract);
- interplay of abstract - ‘as duty love and honour fail to sway’ – and concrete – ‘the rabble’s rage, and tyrant’s angry steel’ (extract);
- image of commercial colonialism: ‘the wealth of climes…home’ (extract);
- language of his brother’s contented life;
- language of his own sense of isolation and unrest;
- tone in criticising the political and commercial systems of Britain at the time of writing; - initially complimentary about Britain’s reasonableness and moderation (extract);
- shifting to critical warning against the abuse of freedom (extract);
- foreboding – ie possible outcomes of ‘represt ambition’;
- protesting the genuineness of his motives – ‘Yet think not…’; ‘I only would…’.

AO4: Context
Appropriate use of external contextual information about commerce and politics in the
1760s.
•
•
•
•

Goldsmith’s European travels;
English trade and commerce after the Seven Years’ War eg in luxury goods from the
East;
influence of assertive commercial entrepreneurs (‘the self-dependent lordlings’/
‘contending chiefs’ – extract); challenge to royal prerogative of Whig magnates.

NB: Equal marks are given for treatment of the given extract and the text as a whole. 79

80

AO 2
Methods

• communicates basic understanding of the texts
• conveys simple ideas but with little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[suggestion of relevance]
• writes with basic accuracy using a few common literary terms

• communicates basic understanding of the texts
• conveys ideas with a little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[emergence of relevance]
• writes fairly accurately, using a few common literary terms

Band 3
25−29
EMERGENCE
• identifies a few basic aspects of character interactions and language
(including imagery)
• identifies tone
• may mention basic aspects of structure and staging but with limited understanding • offers a few comments on identified methods [emergence of methods]

• identifies a few basic aspects of character interactions and language
(including imagery)
• may refer to tone
• may mention basic aspects of structure and staging – but with limited understanding [suggestion of methods] • occasionally comments on identified methods • communicates broad or generalised understanding of the texts
• writes with very little sense of order and relevance and with limited accuracy

• shows very little understanding of the texts or ability to write about them

Band 2
20−24
SUGGESTION

Band 1 (b)
12−19
GENERAL

Band 1 (a)
0−11
VERY LITTLE

AO1
Communication

Internal Assessment Matrix for A2 1: Section B

• offers a few comments on similarities and differences between texts [emergence of comparison/contrast] • reaches a simplistic personal conclusion • takes a limited account of key terms
• shows a basic attempt at reasoning in support of her/his opinion
[emergence of relevant argument]

• offers simple comments on basic similarities and differences between texts [suggestion of comparison/contrast] • takes a little account of key terms
• shows a very basic attempt at reasoning in support of her/his opinion [suggestion of relevant argument] AO3
Comparison/Argument

• identifies a little relevant external contextual information
[emergence of relevant external context] • may mention little external contextual information
[suggestion of context]

AO4
Context

81

Band 6 (b)
46−50
EXCELLENT

• excellent in all aspects

• communicates a good understanding of the texts
• conveys mostly sound, wellsupported ideas in a logical, orderly and relevant manner
• writes accurately and clearly, using an appropriate literary register

• communicates competent understanding of the texts
• conveys ideas with a competent sense of order and relevance, using competent evidence
• writes with competent accuracy, using literary terms

Band 5
35−39
COMPETENT

Band 6 (a)
40−45
GOOD

• communicates some understanding of the texts
• conveys some ideas with some sense of order and relevance, using some appropriate examples
• writes with some accuracy using some literary terms

Band 4
30−34
SOME

AO1
Communication

• identifies a good range of aspects of methods − ie character interactions, language (including imagery), tone, structure and staging
• explores in good detail how these methods create meaning

• identifies a competent selection of methods − ie character interactions and language (including imagery), tone, structure, staging
• explains in a competent way how these methods create meaning

• identifies some aspects of character interactions and language (including imagery) • identifies some aspects of tone
• may show some awareness of structure and staging
• makes some comments on identified methods AO2
Methods

• comments well on similarities and differences between texts
• reaches a good personal conclusion
• addresses key terms well
• offers a good reasoning in support of her/his opinion

• offers competent comments on similarities and differences between texts • reaches a competent personal conclusion • addresses key terms in a competent manner • offers competent reasoning in support of her/his opinion

• offers some comments on similarities and differences between texts • reaches a personal conclusion to some extent
• takes some account of key terms
• makes some attempt at reasoning in support of her/his opinion

AO3
Comparison/Argument

• makes good use of relevant external contextual information in answering the question

• makes a competent use of relevant external contextual information in answering the question

• offers some relevant external contextual information in answering the question

AO4
Context

Section B
1

Satire
Jonson: Volpone
Sheridan: The School for Scandal
While we may admire the skill with which Jonson in Volpone and Sheridan in The School for Scandal satirise the vices and follies of their societies, we are aware of a nastiness in
Jonson’s approach that Sheridan’s more good-natured play avoids.
By comparing and contrasting appropriately selected parts of the two plays, show how far you would agree with the view expressed above.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 1 Section B
Mark Band grid and the table below.
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the texts in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology.

82

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of character interactions, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in relation to the nature of satire and the societies reflected in the plays:
• character interactions:
Volpone
- most interactions marked by avarice, deceit, anger, abuse and insult amongst characters; - Bonario and Celia the only characters with humanity – not developed;
- perversion of family relationships – Corbaccio and his son; Corvino and his wife;
- grotesque nature of Volpone’s household.
The School for Scandal
- entangled relationships to show Joseph’s hypocrisy: with Lady Teazle, Maria, Sir
Peter, Lady Sneerwell;
- the strained relationship between Sir Peter and Lady Teazle at little more than the level of bickering – convention of elderly bachelor and young country wife;
- cases of mistaken identity involving Sir Oliver amusing – not sinister;
- Charles’ good-humoured relationships with all.
• structure:
Volpone
-

intricately plotted to convey the competition amongst the would-be inheritors;
Mosca’s unscrupulous machinations to save and then outdo Volpone; no winners at the end; flimsy sub-plots (Sir Politic and Peregrine) incorporated into main plot to emphasise
Sir P’s absurdity.

The School for Scandal
- events directed to the exposure of Joseph and the vindication of Charles;
- benign ending – lovers united; Teazles possibly reconciled;
- but no final defeat of scandal and hypocrisy (Joseph is ‘moral to the end’).

83

• language – including imagery – and tone:
Volpone
- language of abuse eg Corvino to Celia;
- unflattering descriptions of eg Corbaccio;
- lyrical passages but eg addressed to gold; expressing Volpone’s intention to rape
Celia;
- language to gull or deceive eg Volpone’s mountebank speech.
The School for Scandal
- outrageously self-travestying gossip of the School for Scandal – see conflicting versions of the outing of Joseph;
- Joseph’s nauseating but exaggerated and transparent ‘sentiments’;
- the bickering of Sir Peter and Lady Teazle;
- language deriving from mistaken identity eg Sir Oliver at the sale of the portraits.
• staging:
Volpone
- disposition of characters to allow Mosca to play them off against each other;
- use of concealment eg Bonario, Celia and Corvino and Volpone all on stage at same time unknown to each other;
- use of disguise to further deceit eg Volpone’s pretended illness; Volpone as mountebank. The School for Scandal
- exploitation of the humour of mistaken identity – eg Sir Oliver as Premium and as
Stanley;
- the farcical situation of characters in the ‘screen’ scene.
AO3
Candidates should:
• sustain a comparison/contrast of the plays in relation to the terms of the question;
• offer opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
• take account of and examines the relationship between the key terms eg ‘admire the skill’, ‘satirises’, ‘vices and follies’ ‘societies’, ‘nastiness’, ‘more good-natured’,
‘avoids’;
• make an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
• provide textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
• show awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement eg that the plays are equally nasty.

84

AO4: Context
Candidates should use appropriate external contextual information in relation to the nature of satire and the societies reflected in the plays.
•
•
•
•
•
•

Jonson’s views of satire: see Dedication and Prologue; the device of captatio;
Jonson’s theory of ‘humours’;
The School for Scandal; views of society’s attitude to scandal in Garrick’s prologue; contemporary sources for scandal: 18th century newspapers, lampooning, tradition of broadsheets; • coffee houses;
• dissatisfaction with sentimental comedy.

85

2

Historical Drama
Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral
Bolt: A Man for All Seasons
The effectiveness of the principal characters, Becket in Murder in the Cathedral and More in A Man for All Seasons, does not depend on the audience’s knowledge of the historical periods in which the plays are set.
By comparing and contrasting appropriately selected parts of the two plays, show how far you would agree with the view expressed above.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 1 Section B
Mark Band grid and the table below.
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the texts in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of character interactions, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in relation to the need for historical knowledge:
• character interactions:
Murder in the Cathedral
- references to past events by Chorus and Tempters – often oblique
- Becket’s interactions with the Tempters to convey his state of mind

86

A Man for All Seasons
- More’s arguments with Alice, Margaret, the King, Norfolk;
- More’s principled attitude contrasted in dealings with Rich and Cromwell.
• Structure:
- movement to a known catastrophe in both plays – inevitable in historical drama (cf
Greek drama);
- consequent opportunities for dramatic irony in both plays.
Murder in the Cathedral
- pivotal significance of the ‘Interlude’ – Becket’s sermon;
- retrospective narrative at various points – eg during the temptation - rather than en bloc. A Man for All Seasons
- dialogue focused on one main issue;
- progress of More’s argument.
• language – including imagery – and tone:
Murder in the Cathedral
- Becket’s status emphasised by use of liturgical devices, quotations from the Bible and the Mass;
- complexity of Becket’s character and situation conveyed through symbolism and paradox; - language of Tempters;
- persuasive language of the Tempters.
A Man for All Seasons
- contrasting realistic twentieth century dialogue in A Man for all Seasons;
- legalistic nature of More’s arguments – reaching such heights as the law as the ultimate protection even against the devil the imagery of holding one’s soul like water in the hand.
• staging:
Murder in the Cathedral
- devices of the classical theatre – eg Chorus as commentary and answerer;
- recreation of Cathedral atmosphere eg through singing ‘Dies Irae’, ‘Te Deum’;
- Knights’ interaction with the audience in defending their motives.

87

A Man for All Seasons
- the Choric role of the Common Man co-existing with his role as Matthew;
- the symbolic presence of the river;
- the horrors of More’s cell.
AO3
Candidates should:
• sustain a comparison/contrast of the plays in relation to the terms of the question;
• offer opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
• take account of and examine the relationship between the key terms eg: ‘effectiveness’ does not depend’, ‘the audience’s knowledge’, ‘historical period of the plays’;
• make an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
• provide textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
• show awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement – eg that the audience must have knowledge of the historical periods.
AO4: Context
Candidates should use appropriate external contextual information - in relation to:
• the nature of historical drama eg subordination of history to drama;
• context of events referred to in the text eg ‘the issue of the Young Henry’s coronation’
(Murder in the Cathedral); the rise of the meritocracy (Wolsey, More, Cromwell) in
Tudor England (A Man for All Seasons);
• the historical Becket and More sixteenth century religious developments in England and
Europe (A Man for All Seasons).

88

3

Social Realism
Ibsen: A Doll’s House
Osborne: Look Back in Anger
In his presentation of the character of Nora Helmer, Ibsen offers a more convincing condemnation of a society than Osborne does in his characterisation of Jimmy Porter.
By comparing and contrasting appropriately selected parts of the two plays, show how far you would agree with the view expressed above.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 1 Section B
Mark Band grid and the table below.
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the texts in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of character interactions, structure, language (including imagery) and tone in relation to the presentations of Nora and Jimmy:
• character interactions:
A Doll’s House
- Nora’s disclosures of her problems to Mrs Linde indicating middle class fear of debt;
- Nora’s exchanges with Torvald before and after the discovery that Krogstad has withdrawn his bond – exposes both Torvald and the commercial world he represents.

89

Look Back in Anger
- Jimmy’s battles with Alison and Helena and (in absentia) Alison’s mother as representatives of a threatening class;
- Jimmy’s friendship with Mrs Tanner whom he sees as a victim.
• structure: in both plays the confinement of the action to one room.
A Doll’s House
- the development of Nora from apparent dependence to self-assertion;
- the parallel loss of credibility by Torvald.
Look Back in Anger
- sense of futile, cyclic existence in Look Back… eg Helena replaces Alison at the ironing-board; Jimmy and Alison return to their world of bears and squirrels at the end. • language – including imagery – and tone:
A Doll’s House
- Nora’s playing along with Torvald’s nursery language;
- Torvald’s apparently affectionate but condescending language to Nora.
Look Back in Anger
- Jimmy’s incessant harangues – suggesting paranoia;
- the language of conflict in Look Back…;
- Jimmy’s tendencies to exaggeration and abuse – eg of Alison’s brother and mother – affect credibility?
- staging.
A Doll’s House
- the significance of Torvald’s self-confinement to his study – allows Nora to continue her deception;
- Nora’s home as a doll’s house ie apparent refuge from the outside world of commerce, illness and death;
- key moment of the discovery of Krogstad’s withholding of his bond.
Look Back in Anger
- claustrophobic confinement in the Porters’ attic;
- symbolism of the ironing-board;
- sense of a society off-stage: the sweet stall; the world of Alison’s mother.

90

AO3
Candidates should:
• sustain a comparison/contrast of the plays in relation to the terms of the question;
• offer opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
• take account of and examines the relationship between the key terms – eg:
‘presentation’, ‘more convincing’, ‘condemnation of society’, ‘characterisation’;
• make an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
• provide textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
• show awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement – eg that the characterisation of Jimmy Porter offers a more convincing condemnation of society.
AO4: Context
Candidates should use appropriate external contextual information – in relation to the presentation of Nora and Jimmy.
A Doll’s House
• attitudes to women in the later nineteenth century;
• values of the commercial world in the later nineteenth century.
Look Back in Anger
•
•
•
•

the age of the ‘angry young man’ reflected; the disillusionment with post-war England and continuing inequality; the uncertainties of both Jimmy’s world and that of the Colonel; the possibilities of ‘kitchen sink’ drama.

91

4

Tragedy
Shakespeare: King Lear
Heaney: Burial at Thebes (Sophocles’ Antigone translated by Seamus Heaney)
The tragic outcome of both plays results from a failure of leadership.
By comparing and contrasting appropriately selected parts of the two plays, show how far you would agree with the view expressed above.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 1 Section B
Mark Band grid and the table below:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

VERY LITTLE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the texts in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology.

AO2: Methods
Candidates should identify and explore aspects of character interaction, structure, language
(including imagery) and tone in relation to the tragic effect of a failure of leadership:
• character interactions:
King Lear
-

assessment of Lear as leader by Goneril and Regan;
Lear’s refusal to be advised by Kent;
Daughters’ reaction to Lear’s attempt to relinquish and yet retain power;
Lear’s retention of loyalty: the Fool, Kent, Gloucester;
Lear’s belated empathy with his subjects at the hovel with the Fool;
Burial at Thebes;

92

-

Creon’s rejection of the advice of the Chorus, Teresias, Haemon;
Creon’s refusal to take account of traditional laws and of human loyalties; contrast between Antigone’s nobility and Creon’s abusiveness;
Creon’s indecisiveness – eg whether or not to punish Ismene; the type of punishment to be given to Antigone; the reversal of his edict.

• structure:
King Lear
- outcomes of Lear’s initial rashness worked out over time and in different locations;
- movement to the regeneration of Lear – a leader at the end?
The Burial at Thebes
- the taut condensed outcome of Creon’s initial decree (‘unities’ observed);
- inevitable movement to catastrophe – no possibility of retraction – Creon’s change of heart too late;
- Creon’s flaws lead to deaths of Antigone, Haemon and Euridice.
• language – including imagery – and tone:
King Lear
- peremptory, uncompromising language of Lear to Cordelia, Kent, Goneril’s household; - uncontrolled language – abusive imagery; imprecations; language of hallucination;
- failure of this language to impress – eg Goneril and Regan, Oswald;
- contrasting with Lear’s language in Act I: Kent’s language of genuine leadership when he confronts Lear; dignified rational utterances of Cordelia.
The Burial at Thebes
- not a translation (despite sub-title) – the language is basically Heaney’s – see idioms and rhythms of the North of Ireland in both serious (Creon’s) and less formal (the
Guard) utterances;
- Creon’s inadequacies highlighted by – eg - Antigone’s noble and courageous exchanges with the Chorus after her sentencing;
- Continuing commentary on Creon’s leadership by the Chorus;
- gravitas and assurance of Teresias’s language as he confronts the leader, Creon;
- Creon’s attempts to speak like a leader – eg establishing of his credentials – giving way to less controlled speech when challenged – and on to his broken delivery at the end. 93

• staging:
King Lear
- Lear’s loss of dignity in his passionate outbursts – eg his humiliation by Oswald;
- episodes depicting Lear’s regenerative madness – eg mock trial.
The Burial at Thebes
- the interchanges between Chorus and character – typical of Greek tragedy;
- tragic events – deaths of Antigone, Haemon and Eurydice played out off-stage – reliance on reportage of the Messenger.
AO3: Argument and Comparison
Candidates should:
• sustain a comparison/contrast of the plays in relation to the terms of the question eg:
-

peremptory attitudes of both Lear and Creon;
Lear an established leader; Creon a new leader; attitudes of Lear and Creon to the gods; greater audience sympathy with Lear than with Creon?;
Lear’s leadership failures derided by the Fool; Creon’s by Teresias (and the Guard?); both Lear and Creon shown up by the dignity and integrity of the heroines;

• offer opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
• take account of and examines the relationship between the key terms eg: ‘tragic outcome’, ‘results from’, ‘failure of leadership’;
• make an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
• provide textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
• show awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement eg that there were other causes for the tragic outcome in one or both plays; that Creon genuinely aimed to restore the State.
AO4: Context
Candidates should use appropriate external contextual information in relation to the tragic effect of the failure of leadership.
•
•
•
•

the nature of Shakespearean tragedy eg the flawed hero; the movement towards the hero’s destruction;
Jacobean notions of kingship; the effects of hubris and hamartia in Greek tragedy;
Heaney’s universalising of the Antigone theme eg Creon’s insistence on obedience suggestive of president Bush on Iraq.

In King Lear, Lear fails to achieve the tragic status of Cordelia and, in The Burial at
Thebes, Creon that of Antigone.

94

ADVANCED
General Certificate of Education
2010

English Literature
Assessment Unit A2 2
The Study of Prose – theme based
SPECIMEN PAPER

MARK
SCHEME

95

96

• communicates basic understanding of the text
• conveys ideas with a little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples [emergence of relevance]
• writes fairly accurately, using a few common literary terms

Band 3
25−29
EMERGENCE

Band 5
35−39
COMPETENT

• communicates competent understanding of the text
• conveys ideas with a competent sense of order and relevance, using competent evidence • writes with competent accuracy, using literary terms

• communicates some understanding of the text
• conveys some ideas with some sense of order and relevance, using some appropriate examples
• writes with some accuracy, using some literary terms

• communicates basic understanding of the text
• conveys simple ideas but with little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples [suggestion of relevance]
• writes with basic accuracy using a few common literary terms

Band 2
20−24
SUGGESTION

Band 4
30−34
SOME

• communicates broad or generalised understanding of the text
• writes with very little sense of order and relevance and with limited accuracy

• shows very little understanding of the text or ability to write about it

Band 1 (b)
12−19
GENERAL

Band 1 (a)
0−11
VERY LITTLE

AO1
Communication

Internal Assessment Matrix for A2 2: Section A

identifies some aspects of language (including imagery) identifies some aspects of tone may show some awareness of form and structure makes some comments on identified methods
• identifies a competent selection of methods − ie language (including imagery), tone, form and structure
• explains in a competent way how these methods create meaning

•
•
•
•

• identifies a few basic aspects of language (including imagery)
• identifies tone
• may mention basic aspects of form and structure – but with limited understanding • offers a few comments on identified methods [emergence of methods]

• identifies a few basic aspects of language (including imagery)
• may refer to tone
• may mention basic aspects of form and structure – but with limited understanding [suggestion of methods]
• occasionally comments on identified methods

AO2
Methods

97

Band 6 (b)
46−50
EXCELLENT

Band 6 (a)
40−45
GOOD

• excellent in all aspects

• communicates a good understanding of the text
• conveys mostly sound, well-supported ideas in a logical, orderly and relevant manner • writes accurately and clearly, using an appropriate literary register

AO1
Communication
• identifies a good range of aspects of methods − ie language (including imagery), tone, form and structure
• explores in good detail how these methods create meaning

AO2
Methods

Section A
1

War: The Things They Carried
By close analysis of the way themes, characters and situation are introduced, and taking account of the narrative point of view, language (including imagery) and tone, show how effective you think the excerpt below is in forming the opening section of the book.

The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 2 Section A
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

ONLY VERY LITTLE/ONLY VERY FEW/NONE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
• understanding of the extract informed by a study of prose and by ‘skimming’ the text from which the extract is taken;
• order and relevance in conveying ideas;
• appropriate and accurate expression;
• appropriate use of literary terminology.
AO2: Methods
Shows understanding of:
• Themes developed:
- realities of soldier’s day-to-day existence in Vietnam;
- horror and pathos of war;
- lost innocence.
• Narrative point of view:
- third-person objective point of view;
- repeated allusion to Ted Lavender’s death.
98

• Situation:
-

generalised – no defined locale; intercutting Vietnam scenario with memories of back home; concentration on mundane practicalities of soldier’s life; fragmented story-line; episodic.

• Characterisation:
- introduces large range of characters;
- introduces characters through detailing the things each soldier carried.
•

Language and tone:
-

detailed, precise, factual language; lean, vigorous style; use of lists (of things they carried); absence of authorial comment, judgment; matter-of-fact reference to Ted Lavender’s death; concern to establish soldier’s idiom eg ‘They were called legs or grunts. To carry something was to hump it …’;
- use of technical military language eg ‘M-14 and CAR-15s and Swedish Ks and grease guns and captured AK-47s and Chi-Coms and RPGs …’.

99

2

Women in Society: The Illusionist
By close analysis of the given extract, taking account of the themes developed, narrative point of view, situation, characterisation, language and tones, show how effective you think
Johnston has been in presenting the relationship between the wife (‘Star’) and her husband
(Martyn) in the excerpt given below.

The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 2 Section A
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

ONLY VERY LITTLE/ONLY VERY FEW/NONE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
• understanding of the extract informed by a study of prose and by ‘skimming’ the novel from which the extract is taken;
• order and relevance in conveying ideas;
• appropriate and accurate expression;
• appropriate use of literary terminology.
AO2: Methods
Shows understanding of:
• Themes developed:
- battle of the sexes;
- woman’s struggle for selfhood.
•

Narrative point of view:
- narrative focalised through the point of view of the wife, ‘Star’.

100

• Situation:
- tense confrontation between husband and wife;
- battle of wills.
• Characterisation:
- use of dialogue;
- contrast between secret, inward-turned, private world of the woman and the public, performance-oriented behaviour of the man.
• Language and tone:
- contrast between woman’s fearful, brittle speech and man’s taunting, controlling manner, insensitive to wife’s needs and fears;
- contrast between symbolic meanings of the ‘fox’ and ‘doves’.

101

3

The Outsider: The Butcher Boy
By close analysis of the given extract, taking account of the themes developed, narrative point of view, situation, characterisation, language and tone, show how effective you think the excerpt below is in presenting a picture of young Francie Brady as an outsider.
.
The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 2 Section A
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

ONLY VERY LITTLE/ONLY VERY FEW/NONE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
• understanding of the extract informed by a study of prose and by ‘skimming’ the novel from which the extract is taken;
• order and relevance in conveying ideas;
• appropriate and accurate expression;
• appropriate use of literary terminology.
AO2: Methods
Shows understanding of:
• Themes developed:
-

class difference; deranged subjectivity; insecurity, envy, etc experienced by the outsider; contrasting views of family life.

102

• Narrative point of view:
- narrative focalised through the point of view of the deranged Francie Brady.
• Situation:
- Francie’s situation as outsider signalled by his position of observer looking in on the
Nugents’s house from outside; then by Philip’s trying to avoid him in the street;
- Francie’s imaginative, tense recreation of the exchange with middle-class Philip
Nugent.
• Characterisation:
- Francie’s derangement embodied in stream of consciousness;
- contrast between Francie’s manic forcing himself on Philip, and Philip’s polite evasiveness. • Language and tone:
- abrupt changes in tone;
- incessant questions.

103

4

Childhood: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
By close analysis of the given extract, taking account of the themes developed, narrative point of view, situation, characterisation, language and tone, show how effective you think the author has been in representing the thoughts and feelings of a 10-year-old Dublin boy.

The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 2 Section A
Mark Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

ONLY VERY LITTLE/ONLY VERY FEW/NONE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
• understanding of the extract informed by a study of prose and by ‘skimming’ the novel from which the extract is taken;
• order and relevance in conveying ideas;
• appropriate and accurate expression;
• appropriate use of literary terminology.
AO2: Methods
Shows understanding of:
• Themes developed:
- Dublin school in 1968;
- childhood anxieties, innocence.
• Narrative point of view:
- narrative focalised through the point of view of the 10-year-old Paddy Clarke.

104

• Situation:
- schoolboys’ gossip as they wait to see school nurse.
• Characterisation:
- use of dialogue;
- character interactions;
- Paddy’s stream of consciousness.
• Language and tone:
- short sentences to convey simple, child’s perceptions, anxiety, etc.

105

106

AO2
Methods

• communicates basic understanding of the texts
• conveys simple ideas but with little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[suggestion of relevance]
• writes with basic accuracy using a few common literary terms

• communicates basic understanding of the texts
• conveys ideas with a little sense of order and relevance, using a few appropriate examples
[emergence of relevance]
• writes fairly accurately, using a few common literary terms

Band 3
25−29
EMERGENCE
• identifies a few basic aspects of language (including imagery)
• identifies tone
• may have some basic awareness of form and structure
• makes some comments on identified methods • identifies a few basic aspects of language (including imagery)
• may refer to tone
• may mention basic aspects of structure – but with limited understanding [suggestion of methods]
• occasionally comments on identified methods • communicates broad or generalised understanding of the texts
• writes with very little sense of order and relevance and with limited accuracy

• shows very little understanding of the texts or ability to write about them

Band 2
20−24
SUGGESTION

Band 1 (b)
12−19
GENERAL

Band 1 (a)
0−11
VERY LITTLE

AO1
Communication

Internal Assessment Matrix for A2 2: Section B

• offers a few comments on similarities and differences between texts [emergence of comparison/contrast] • offers a simple consideration of the question and reaches a simplistic personal conclusion
• takes a limited account of key terms
• shows a basic attempt at reasoning in support of her/his opinion
[emergence of relevant argument]

• makes simple comments on basic similarities and differences between texts [suggestion of comparison/contrast] • offers a simple consideration of the question without necessarily coming to a personal conclusion
• takes a little account of key terms
• shows a very basic attempt at reasoning in support of her/his opinion [suggestion of relevant argument] AO3
Comparison/Argument

• identifies a little relevant external contextual information
[emergence of relevant external context] • may mention a little external contextual information
[suggestion of context]

AO4
Context

107

Band 6 (b)
46−50
EXCELLENT

• excellent in all aspects

• communicates a good understanding of the texts
• conveys mostly sound, wellsupported ideas in a logical, orderly and relevant manner
• writes accurately and clearly, using an appropriate literary register

• communicates competent understanding of the texts
• conveys ideas with a competent sense of order and relevance, using competent evidence
• writes with competent accuracy, using literary terms

Band 5
35−39
COMPETENT

Band 6 (a)
40−45
GOOD

• communicates understanding of the texts • conveys some ideas with some sense of order and relevance, using some appropriate examples
• writes with some accuracy using some literary terms

Band 4
30−34
SOME

AO1
Communication

• identifies a good range of aspects of methods − ie language (including imagery), tone, form and structure
• explores in good detail how these methods create meaning

• identifies a competent selection of methods − ie language (including imagery), tone, form and structure
• explains in a competent way how these methods create meaning

• identifies some aspects of language
(including imagery)
• identifies some aspects of tone
• may show some awareness of form and structure
• makes some comments on identified methods AO2
Methods

• comments well on similarities and differences between texts
• offers balanced treatment of the two texts • offers consideration of the question and reaches a good personal conclusion • addresses key terms well
• offers good reasoning in support of her/his opinion

• offers competent comments on similarities and differences between texts • offers a competent consideration of the question and reaches a competent personal conclusion
• addresses key terms in a competent manner • offers competent reasoning in support of her/his opinion

• offers some comments on similarities and differences between texts
• offers some consideration of the question and reaches a personal conclusion • takes some account of key terms
• makes some attempt at reasoning in support of her/his opinion

AO3
Comparison/Argument

• makes good use of relevant external contextual information in answering the question

• makes a competent use of relevant external contextual information in answering the question

• offers some relevant external contextual information in answering the question

AO4
Context

Section B
1

War
War novels force us to revise our ideas of what makes a hero.
Compare and contrast the two novels you have studied in this group in light of the above opinion. The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 2 Section B Mark
Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

ONLY VERY LITTLE/ONLY VERY FEW/NONE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the texts in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology.

AO2: Methods
Shows understanding of:
Methods used to present the character of Henry Fleming in The Red Badge of Courage:
•

Characterisation:
- character development – Henry’s move from understanding his situation in terms of myth and fairytale to seeing things in terms of the meaning of heroism;
- interactions with other characters.

•

Form and structure:
- third-person narrative combining Henry Fleming’s and the narrator’s consciousness;
- ironic tone eg in relation to presentation of Henry.

108

• Imagery and symbolism – Darwinian view of indifferent nature against which Henry’s experiences are set.
Methods used to present the character of Frederic Henry in A Farewell to Arms.
• Characterisation:
- Interactions with other characters to show qualities of his character eg putting personal life before duty, stoicism, cynicism;
- Frederic Henry’s emphasis on concrete particulars and avoidance of abstraction;
- ironic understatement.
• Form and structure:
- first person narration creating sense of immediacy and readerly identification with the character; - interplay of war story and love story – pun on ‘arms’ – to present comprehensive image of defeat and death;
- pivotal action – Henry’s desertion.
• Imagery and symbolism:
- determinist view of indifferent nature eg rain to connote inexorable processes of nature. Methods used to present the character of Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five.
• Characterisation:
- ‘There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations’;
- Billy’s retreat from the horrors of war into his science fiction fantasy of Tralfamadore;
- interactions with other characters.
• Form and structure to communicate absurdity of life and the attempt to represent it:
-

repeated breaking of narrative frame; random acts of violence and random climax; use of science fiction fantasy;
Vonnegut’s own appearance; use of quotations from factual war reports; restrained narrative voice implying inadequacy to deal with horror.

• Imagery and symbolism eg symbol of slaughterhouse; Dresden bombing.

109

AO3: Comparison and response to other readings
• offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
• takes account of and examines the relationship between the key terms eg: ‘war novels’,
‘revise’, ‘what makes a hero’;
• makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
• provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
• shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement eg that some war novels may not force us to change our views of what makes a hero;
• takes account of the key terms in the stimulus material by exploring connections and comparisons between the novels as appropriate.
AO4: Context
• literary and historical context of the war novels
- The Red Badge of Courage as an ‘impressionistic’ psychological novel of the
American Civil War, A Farewell to Arms as an American realistic, existential (strongly autobiographical) novel of the First World War, and Slaughterhouse Five as modern
American (strongly autobiographical) postmodernist novel.
• literary context on the hero
- conventional ideas of the hero eg Achilles, James Bond;
- influence of Darwinian determinism on Crane’s concept of the individual – effect of large, complex impersonal forces on the individual;
- the ‘Hemingway Hero’ (Frederic Henry); the ‘Hemingway Code’;
- the postmodern anti-hero (Billy Pilgrim).

110

2

Women in Society
Given women’s position in society, it is no wonder that female characters are nearly always presented as victims.
Compare and contrast the two novels you have studied in this group in light of the above opinion. The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 Section B Mark
Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

ONLY VERY LITTLE/ONLY VERY FEW/NONE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the texts in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology.

AO2: Methods
Shows understanding of:
Methods used to present female characters in Jane Eyre.
• Characterisation:
- Jane as symbol of a new, modern type of strong independent womanhood, a feminist icon; - Jane’s career as Christian quest for spiritual truth;
- Jane’s interactions with other characters;
- Jane’s redemptive role vis-a-vis Rochester;
- Bertha as eternal whore, dirty, evil, dangerous, contrasting with Jane’s whiteness, cleanness, goodness.

111

• Form and structure:
- Jane’s first-person narration shifting between mature Jane and younger Jane;
- novel closely identifiable with its heroine;
- improbable and highly patterned plot.
• Imagery and symbolism:
- Gothic elements used in presentation of female characters eg fearful atmosphere of the red room, grotesque character of Grace Poole, Bertha’s madness.
Methods used to present female characters in Wide Sargasso Sea.
• Characterisation:
- Antoinette’s interaction with ‘the man’/‘husband’/Rochester, Christophene, Annette,
Mr Mason, etc. to show her vulnerability, brittleness, insecurity, dependency, gradual decline; - Rochester’s part in driving Antoinette mad.
• the importance of money to characters’ social position.
• Form and structure:
- 3-part structure moving from Coulibri estate in Jamaica in 1830s to honeymoon house in Granbois, Dominica to the cold, dark attic of the ‘Great House’ (Thornfield) in
England;
- parts 1 and 3 from Antoinette’s perspective showing her sensitivity, loneliness, longing for love and understanding of her husband, her cultural hybridity; most of part 2 from
Husband’s perspective;
- structural relationship to Jane Eyre;
- climax: the fire; Rhys’ ‘open’ alternative to Bronte’s ending.
• Imagery and symbolism:
- fire, dreams, madness, obeah.
Methods used to present female characters in The Color Purple.
• Characterisation:
- use of Celie as narrator and protagonist;
- Celie’s interaction with other characters eg Alphonso, Mr –, Nettie, Kate, Shug Avery, etc. to show Celie’s development as a character;
- presentation of strong women eg Sofia, Shug;
- presentation of abusive males eg Alphonso, Harpo, Mr –;
- disruption of traditional gender roles eg Harpo’s insecurity about his masculinity leading to his abusive behaviour to Sofia, Sofia’s strength and defiance, Shug’s assertiveness, sexual ambiguity in relationship between Celie and Shug;

112

- presentation of strong female relationships as refuge, source of courage, means of resisting oppression and victimisation eg Celie and Nettie, Sofia and her sisters, Shug’s redemptive influence on Celie.
• Form and structure:
- movement towards triumph and affirmation of women’s lives eg Celie and Mr – reconcile, Celie’s achievement of independence of both Mr – and Shug, reunion of
Celie and Nettie;
- use of letters eg Celie’s letters to God show importance of having a voice; Nettie’s feelings of lostness when Celie doesn’t reply to her letters;
- unspecific time and place to broaden novel’s scope and make it more universal.
• Imagery and symbolism:
- colour imagery eg ‘the color purple’;
- sewing and quilts symbolising diverse people coming together in unity; sewing no longer unimportant women’s pastime at the end, but an empowering source of economic independence for Celie.
AO3: Comparison and Response to other Readers
•
•
•
•
•
•

offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text; takes account of and examines the relationship between the key terms eg ‘women’s position in society’, ‘no wonder’, ‘nearly always’, ‘victims’; makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion; provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion; shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement eg that women characters are not always presented as victims; takes account of the key terms in the stimulus material by exploring connections and comparisons between the novels as appropriate.

AO4: Context
• Literary/generic contexts of the novels relating to presentation of women in society
- Jane Eyre as a nineteenth-century English Gothic Romance/Bildungsroman;
- Wide Sargasso Sea as an early twentieth-century postcolonial realist novel;
- The Color Purple as a late twentieth-century realist epistolary novel.
• Social and economic contexts relating to presentation of women in society
-

patriarchy in all three novels; class - social and economic conditions; racism eg position of the Creole in Wide Sargasso Sea, position of black women in white America in The Color Purple; colonialism eg effect of Emancipation Act of 1833 on Annette and Antoinette; sexism – influence of women’s movement on Rhys’s and Walker’s portrayal of women. 113

3

Childhood
Few writers on childhood have ever been able to take us convincingly into the mind of the child. Compare and contrast the two novels you have studied in this group in light of the above opinion. The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 Section B Mark
Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

ONLY VERY LITTLE/ONLY VERY FEW/NONE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the texts in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology.

AO2: Methods
Shows understanding of:
Methods used to present the character of Huck Finn in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
• Characterisation:
- Huck’s natural, spontaneous, unwitting speech; contrast with Tom’s artificiality,
Emeline Grangerford’s sentimentalism, Duke and King’s ‘flapdoodle’;
- Huck’s characteristic modes of action: disguise or flight;
- interaction with others.

114

• Form and structure:
- Huck’s first-person narrative point of view; American vernacular as ground of authenticity; - central irony: Huck as a product of his society – does the right thing but feels guilty for doing so;
- cyclical structure: at the end Huck ‘lights out for the territory’ again.
• Imagery and symbolism eg raft floating through the American heartland.
Methods used to present the character of Pecola Breedlove and Claudia MacTeer in A Bluest
Eye.
• Characterisation:
- presentation of Pecola as victimised adolescent black girl who is obsessed by white standards and longs to have blue eyes;
- interaction with other characters eg Soaphead Church, Cholly Breedlove, the
MacTeers, Yacobowski;
- development of Claudia who comes to recognise the need to demystify white ideology and constructions of black femininity;
- contrast between the Breedlove and the MacTeer families.
• Form and structure:
- use of untitled prelude to establish idealised white world which contrasts ironically with bleakness of Pecola’s family life: reduction of the white Dick and Jane story to nonsense parallels Pecola’s descent into madness;
- use of Claudia MacTeer as narrator – her adult perspective combines with innocent seeing of Claudia as 9-year-old child.
• Imagery and symbolism:
- white baby dolls and Shirley Temple films as models for young black American girls;
- ‘a bluest eye’ – Pecola’s obsession with white standards of beauty and worth.
Methods used to present the character of Jim Graham in The Empire of the Sun.
• Characterisation:
- Interactions with other characters eg Basie, Frank, parents, Dr Ransome;
- Development of Jim’s character – his loss of innocence and maturation from child to man during World War II; realisation of his capacity for ingenuity, courage and resilience in face of separation, imprisonment, violence;
- Representative nature of Jim’s presentation – Jim’s heroic struggle amid horrors of war and cruelty of concentration camps in China as representative of the resilience of the human spirit.

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•

Form and structure:
- use of third-person narration focalised through the eyes of the 11-year-old boy.

• Imagery and symbolism:
- novel’s cinematic, visual, hallucinatory, unreal quality;
- vivid images of tortured landscape – debris, abandoned cars, rusting hulks of aircraft, empty swimming pools, curious alien figures;
- newsreels watched by people in Shanghai as symbols of the way reality of war is distanced and distorted;
- significance of concluding image of child’s coffin garlanded with flowers floating toward the ‘terrible city’ of Shanghai as symbol of futility and waste of war.
AO3: Comparison and response to other readers
• offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
• takes account of and examines the relationship between the key terms eg: ‘few writers’,
‘convincingly’, ‘take us … into the mind of a child’;
• makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
• provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
• shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement eg that these novels do convincingly take us inside the minds of children;
• takes account of the key terms in the stimulus material by exploring connections and comparisons between the novels as appropriate.
AO4: Context
• Generic contexts of the novels in relation to convincing presentation of the mind of a child - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a nineteenth-century American realist novel;
- A Bluest Eye as a twentieth-century American realist novel;
- The Empire of the Sun as a twentieth-century semi-autobiographical English realist novel. • Literary and cultural context in relation to convincing presentation of the mind of a child - difference between presentation of mind of a child in selected novels and that in earlier novels eg the idealised/sentimental view in Romantic and Victorian novels, the dark pessimistic view in Lord of the Flies.

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4

The Outsider
The outsider’s perspective usually tends to be too extreme to be able to offer any valuable new ways of seeing the world.
Compare and contrast the two novels you have studied in this group in light of the above opinion. The following mark scheme should be applied in conjunction with the A2 Section B Mark
Band grid and the following table:
0 – 11
12 – 19
20 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40 – 45
46 – 50

ONLY VERY LITTLE/ONLY VERY FEW/NONE
GENERAL
SUGGESTION
EMERGENCE
SOME
COMPETENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT

The information below is intended to exemplify the type of content you may see in responses. Reference should be made to some of the following points, and all other valid comments will be rewarded.
AO1: Communication
Answers should contain:
•
•
•
•

knowledge and understanding of the texts in appropriate reference and quotation; order and relevance in conveying ideas; appropriate and accurate expression; appropriate use of literary terminology.

AO2: Methods
Shows understanding of:
Methods used to present the character of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter:
• Characterisation:
-

ways in which Puritan society makes an outsider of Hester; ways in which Hester reacts to her treatment by society;
Hawthorne’s mostly sympathetic tone in regard to Hester; changes in Hester’s character and role; interactions with other characters to show her mixture of defiance and submission; contrast with other Puritan women characters.

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• Form and structure:
- instability of the narrative voice, ambiguity;
- Hawthorne’s symbolic method which emphasises indeterminacy of meaning and identity. • Imagery and symbolism eg shifting signifier of the scarlet letter, the shaft of sunshine;
Hester’s situation between forest and town.
Methods used to present the character of Meursault:
• Characterisation:
- anti-hero narrator (Meursault);
- psychological complexity of Meursault’s characterisation evoking wide range of responses from sympathy to horror;
- interaction with other characters eg ‘the Arab’, Meursault’s accusers, witnesses, jury;
- situation of the human in an absurd universe.
• Form and structure:
- terse, flat first-person narration from point of view of Meursault.
• Language and Imagery:
- detached, neutral, laconic, precise style – ‘writing degree zero’ (Roland Barthes);
- plain syntax, simple vocabulary, biting aphorism combined with extended musings and lavish description suggesting that reason and feeling should operate together.
Methods used to present the character of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye.
• Characterisation:
- use of American vernacular to increase reader’s identification with characters and situations; - Holden as representative of youth everywhere pressured to conform to bland social norms; - Holden as symbol of countercultural revolt in America in 1950s and 60s;
- Holden’s interactions with other characters to show his way of seeing the world around him; - methods of making Holden a credible narrator.
•

Form and structure:
- Holden as narrator – discontented, critical of society and himself, troubled, sensitive, intelligent. • Imagery and symbolism:
- ‘catcher in the rye’, Holden’s red hunting hat, Museum of Natural History, Ducks in
Central Park.
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AO3: Comparison and response to other readers
• offers opinion or judgment in response to the given reading of the text;
• takes account of and examines the relationship between the key terms eg ‘the outsider’s perspective’, ‘usually’, ‘too extreme,’ ‘valuable new ways of seeing the world’;
• makes an attempt at reasoning in support of his/her opinion;
• provides textual referencing to illustrate his/her opinion;
• shows awareness of other readings from that expressed in the stimulus statement eg that these novels do offer valuable new ways of seeing the world;
• takes account of the key terms in the stimulus material by exploring connections and comparisons between the novels as appropriate.
AO4: Context
• literary/generic context of the novels in relation to presentation of both outsider’s perspective and the world he/she inhabits.
- The Scarlet Letter as a nineteenth-century American Romance;
- The Outsider as twentieth-century Absurdist/Existential fiction;
- Catcher in the Rye as a twentieth-century American realist novel.
• Autobiographical, social, historical, literary and cultural context in relation to the notion of the outsider and the world he/she inhabits.
Hawthorne’s relation to the patriarchal Puritanism of his ancestors:
- Meursault as projection of Camus’ experience of being an outsider – European in
Africa, an African in Europe, an infidel among Muslims, a lapsed catholic, a
Communist Party drop-out, an underground resister;
- American society in the twentieth century: rise of rebellious American youth culture
(James Dean, Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley).

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