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A-level English Literature Specification B

Getting Started

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BOOKLET 2
Published date: Summer 2013 version 1
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Contents Page

LITB1

January 2013 Question Paper 5

January 2013 Mark Scheme 13

Candidate A 54

Candidate B 56

Candidate C 58

Candidate D 62

Candidate E 74

Candidate F 91

Rossetti Poem: ‘Maude Clare’ 100

LITB2

Opening of Much Ado About Nothing 102

Essay on The Taming of the Shrew 105

Dramatic Comedy Tasks for Discussion 108

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4
 General Certificate of Education
Advanced Subsidiary Examination
January 2013

English Literature LITB1

(Specification B)
Unit 1 Aspects of Narrative

Friday 18 January 2013 9.00 am to 11.00 am

For this paper you must have:

l an AQA 12-page answer book.

Time allowed
l 2 hours

Instructions
l Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
l Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Examining Body for this
paper is AQA. The Paper Reference is LITB1.
l Answer on one text from Section A (both questions) and one question from Section B.
l In your response to this paper you must write about four different texts: two prose and two poetry
texts. At least one of the prose texts you write about must have been written after 1990.
l Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work that you do not want to be marked.

Information
l The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
l The maximum mark for this paper is 84.
l The texts prescribed for this paper may be taken into the examination room. Texts taken into the
examination must be clean: that is, free from annotation.
l Your copy of the Literature B Poetry Anthology may be taken into the examination room. Copies of
the Poetry Anthology taken into the examination room must be clean: that is, free from annotation.
l You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.

Advice
l You are advised to spend one hour on Section A and one hour on Section B.

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H/Jan13/LITB1 LITB1
 Section A

Choose one text from this section. Answer both parts of the question.

You are advised to spend one hour on this section.

EITHER
Selected Poems – W.H. Auden

0 1 How does Auden tell the story in ‘O What Is That Sound’? (21 marks)

AND

0 2 “We never step twice into the same Auden.” (Randall Jarrell)

How far do you agree that Auden’s narratives are always very different from each other?
(21 marks)

OR
Selected Poems – Robert Browning

0 3 Write about the ways Browning tells the story in lines 1 – 145 of ‘The Pied Piper of
Hamelin’. (21 marks)

AND

0 4 How far would you agree with the view that, although its subtitle is ‘A Child’s Story’,
the poem is more of a political work? (21 marks)

OR
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

0 5 Write about the ways Coleridge tells the story in Part 7 of the poem. (21 marks)

AND

0 6 The Hermit asks the Mariner, “What manner of man art thou?”

Do you think that the poem as a whole offers an answer to this question? (21 marks)

6
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OR
Selected Poems – Robert Frost

0 7 Write about the ways Frost tells the story in ‘The Wood-Pile’. (21 marks)

AND

0 8 How far do you agree with the view that Frost’s poems are about personal events only
and have no universal significance? (21 marks)

OR
Lamia, The Eve of St Agnes, La Belle Dame Sans Merci – John Keats

0 9 How does Keats tell the story in stanzas 28 – 35 of ‘The Eve of St Agnes’? (21 marks)

AND

1 0 How far would you agree that in Keats’s poetry the dream world is more attractive
than the real world? (21 marks)

OR
Selected Poems – Christina Rossetti

1 1 Write about the ways Rossetti tells the story in ‘Maude Clare’. (21 marks)

AND

1 2 “Far from being repressed, women in Rossetti’s poems are defiant.”

How far do you agree with this view? (21 marks)

OR
Selected Poems – Alfred Tennyson

1 3 How does Tennyson tell the story in ‘Ulysses’? (21 marks)

AND

1 4 How far do you agree with one reader’s view that “the men in Tennyson’s poems are
whining, selfish and arrogant, with little to recommend them”? (21 marks)

Turn over U
7
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OR
Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

1 5 Write about how Faulks tells the story in the section of Part 2 beginning with the words
“JACK FIREBRACE’S APPLICATION for leave …” and ending with the words “… he
would surely die.” (pages 167 – 178 Vintage Edition). (21 marks)

AND

1 6 How far do you agree with the view that in Birdsong Faulks challenges stereotypical
notions of masculinity? (21 marks)

OR
The Road – Cormac McCarthy

1 7 Write about McCarthy’s method of telling the story from page 1 to the bottom of page 16
ending with ‘just the silence’ (Picador 2009 edition). (21 marks)

AND

1 8 “It seems pointless to talk about the beginning, middle and end of this novel; there is no
beginning, middle and end.”

How do you respond to this view of The Road? (21 marks)

OR
Small Island – Andrea Levy

1 9 How does Levy tell the story in Chapter 35? (21 marks)

AND

2 0 “Those with fierce loyalties to their countries are not treated very sympathetically in
Small Island .”

How far do you agree with this view? (21 marks)

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OR
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

2 1 Write about the ways Hosseini tells the story in Chapter 20. (21 marks)

AND

2 2 “RUBBLE AND BEGGARS. Everywhere I looked, that was what I saw.” (Chapter 20)

How far is this bleak view of Afghanistan and its people borne out in the The Kite Runner
as a whole? (21 marks)

OR
Enduring Love – Ian McEwan

2 3 How does McEwan tell the story in Chapter 3? (21 marks)

AND

2 4 “In the novel as a whole, McEwan presents Joe Rose as a successful male figure.”

How do you respond to this view? (21 marks)

OR
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

2 5 How does Roy tell the story in Chapters 15 and 16? (21 marks)

AND

2 6 What is the significance of the Meenachal river in The God of Small Things? (21 marks)

OR
The Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry

2 7 Write about some of the ways Barry tells the story in Chapter 1. (21 marks)

AND

2 8 Roseanne refers to her father as “a true hero”. Is this how you see him? (21 marks)

Turn over U
9
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OR
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

2 9 Write about some of Fitzgerald’s narrative methods in Chapter 2. (21 marks)

AND

3 0 “In The Great Gatsby the lower social classes are presented as crude and vulgar.”

How do you respond to this view? (21 marks)

OR
Selected Stories – D.H. Lawrence

3 1 Write about the ways Lawrence tells the story in ‘Vin Ordinaire’. (21 marks)

AND

3 2 Lawrence took great care over the titles of his stories because he saw titles as being
significant.

What significance can you find in the titles of two or three of the stories in this selection?
(21 marks)

OR
Selected Poems – Thomas Hardy

3 3 Write about the ways Hardy tells the story in ‘At an Inn’. (21 marks)

AND

3 4 How far do you agree with one reader’s view that the regret displayed in Hardy’s poetry
is “obsessive and irritating”? (21 marks)

OR
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

3 5 How does Austen tell the story in Chapter 3? (21 marks)

AND

3 6 Do you think that in Pride and Prejudice first impressions are always wrong? (21 marks)

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OR
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

3 7 How does Dickens tell the story in Chapter 25? (21 marks)

AND

3 8 “Wemmick is simply a delightful character, and that is all there is to him.”

Write about Wemmick’s character and role in Great Expectations in the light of this
statement. (21 marks)

OR
Dubliners – James Joyce

3 9 Write about the ways Joyce tells the story in ‘After the Race’. (21 marks)

AND

4 0 To what extent do you agree with the view that ‘After the Race’ is nothing more than a
portrait of a foolish young man? (21 marks)

END OF SECTION A

TURN OVER FOR SECTION B

Turn over U
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 Section B

Answer one question from this section. You must not answer on the text used in Section A.

You are advised to spend one hour on this section.

EITHER

4 1 “In a narrative, there is usually a hero or heroine, a protagonist on whose fate the
readers’ interest in the story principally rests.”

Write about the significance of protagonists in the narratives of the three writers you
have studied. (42 marks)

OR

4 2 Write about the significance of the ways the three writers you have studied create and
use suspense in their narratives. (42 marks)

END OF QUESTIONS

Copyright © 2013 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved.

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H/Jan13/LITB1
Version 1.0

General Certificate of Education (A-level)

January 2013

English Literature B LITB1

(Specification 2745)
Unit 1: Aspects of Narrative

Pre-Standardisation

Mark Scheme

13
Mark schemes are prepared by the Principal Examiner and considered, together with the
relevant questions, by a panel of subject teachers. This mark scheme includes any
amendments made at the standardisation events which all examiners participate in and is the
scheme which was used by them in this examination. The standardisation process ensures
that the mark scheme covers the students‟ responses to questions and that every examiner
understands and applies it in the same correct way. As preparation for standardisation each
examiner analyses a number of students‟ scripts: alternative answers not already covered by
the mark scheme are discussed and legislated for. If, after the standardisation process,
examiners encounter unusual answers which have not been raised they are required to refer
these to the Principal Examiner.

It must be stressed that a mark scheme is a working document, in many cases further
developed and expanded on the basis of students‟ reactions to a particular paper.
Assumptions about future mark schemes on the basis of one year‟s document should be
avoided; whilst the guiding principles of assessment remain constant, details will change,
depending on the content of a particular examination paper.

Further copies of this Mark Scheme are available from: [Link]

Copyright © 2012 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved.

Copyright
AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material
from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to
schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.

Set and published by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance.

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (company number 3644723) and a registered
charity (registered charity number 1073334).
Registered address: AQA, Devas Street, Manchester M15 6EX.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Marking the scripts – basic principles

MARK BAND DESCRIPTORS

Band 6 evaluation

Band 5 analysis

Band 4 explanation

Band 3 some understanding

Band 2 some awareness

Band 1 very little grasp

1 Examiners first need to place answers in the appropriate Mark Band by referring to the
relevant grid in the mark scheme. Answers placed at the top of the band will hit all
descriptors; answers at the lower end of the band will hit only one; careful judgements
need to be made about marks in the middle of the range and which descriptors have
been met. There will be occasions when an answer hits descriptors in different bands; in
such cases, the „best-fit‟ model applies.

2 Examiners must remember that the mark bands are not equivalent to grades: grades are
decided by the awarding committee at the end of each session.

3 Questions are framed to test the AOs, so if candidates answer the question, then the
criteria can be followed.

4 Examiners should be prepared to use the full mark range and not „bunch‟ scripts in the
middle for safety. Top marks are attainable if candidates could not be expected to do
more in the time and under the conditions in which they are working.

5 Examiners should always be prepared to mark positively. Although the mark scheme
provides some indicators for what candidates are likely to write about, examiners should
be willing to reward what is actually there – provided of course, that it is relevant to
the question being asked.

6 Examiners should remember that there are no right answers. Candidates‟ views which
are relevant, well-argued and supported by appropriate textual evidence must receive
credit whether the examiner agrees with the views or not. It is important to try to remain
flexible if a candidate introduces unusual or unorthodox ideas.

7 Examiners should try to avoid making snap judgements too early before the whole
answer has been read. Some candidates begin tentatively but go on to make relevant
points.

8 Examiners should remember that length and quality are not synonymous. Some brief
answers may be relevant and concise. Equally, long answers may be diffuse and
repetitive.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

9 If answers are short or incomplete, examiners can only reward what is there and assess
accordingly. Some further credit may be given to answers finished in note form.

10 Examiners must remember that AO1 tests more than technical accuracy. Here is AO1
as it is printed in full in the specification.

Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to literary tests, using

appropriate terminology and concepts, and coherent, accurate written expression.

11 Examiners should remember that annotation is directed solely to senior examiners.

12 Examiners must remember that in this Unit, AO3 is addressed by connections between
texts. Direct comparison is not required in this unit; it is tested in Unit 4. Connections do
not need to be explicit but are implicit through the consideration of the relevant aspect of
narrative, and through answering the question.

13 Examiners should remember that the terms form, structure and language relate to the
way AO2 has been officially sub-divided. These terms, however, have to be seen as
fluid and interactive, so please give careful consideration to how candidates have
applied them.

14 In Section B, answers should address three texts „substantially‟. „Substantial‟ is not

synonymous with length; any discussion which is insightful and exploratory will be
regarded as substantial.

Marking the scripts – annotation

15 The marks awarded for each question should be placed on the right hand side at the end
of the answer. This mark should then be transferred to the appropriate part(s) of the
front cover sheet of the script.

16 In addition to giving a mark, examiners should write a brief comment on how the mark
has been arrived at. These comments are likely to mirror the appropriate mark band
descriptors but comments must not be mechanical. Examiners need to describe
candidate performance. Examiners must write comments after each answer. Please
remember that scripts can now go back to candidates, so although your audience is a
senior examiner, you must express your views temperately.

17 The following symbols can be used when marking scripts:

 tick for a good point, idea, reference etc

 tick in brackets for a potentially good point, not fully made
 underlining for an error in fact or expression
 D when a candidate is describing content
 R for repetition
 I for irrelevance
 ? for when meaning is not clear.

Please do not use your own private systems, as these will mean nothing to senior
examiners. If in doubt about what to use, refer directly to the marking criteria.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Section A - odd numbered questions

Performance Typical answers might be characterised by the following

AO
Descriptors descriptions
 several points fully developed and evaluated; structure/voice
evaluation of how evaluated; excellent illustration integrated into the answer
Band 6
AO2 the author‟s narrative
(19-21)
methods work  integrated evaluation of the story and authorial method

 several points fully developed and analysed; likely to be good

analysis of how the analysis of structure/voice; well-illustrated in connection with
Band 5
AO2 author‟s narrative the answer
(15-18)
methods work
 very good sense of the writer constructing the story
 several points clearly developed and explained; likely to be
explanation of how some explanation of structure/voice; clear illustration in
Band 4
AO2 the author‟s narrative connection with the answer.
(11-14)
methods work
 clear explanation of how the writer constructs the story
 some points developed; points likely to be more than just
some
language; development is likely to be straight-forward with
understanding of
Band 3 some illustration with some connection with the answer
AO2 how the author‟s
(7-10)
narrative methods
 beginnings of a connection between authorial method and the
work
story
 some features identified; possibly some vague or simple
some awareness of illustration; or 1 or 2 points identified with some
Band 2 how the author‟s discussion/some simple illustration
AO2
(4-6) narrative methods
work  some awareness of the over-arching story with some
awareness of the writer‟s craft
very little grasp of  1 or 2 points mentioned; likely to be at word level; possibly
Band 1 how the author‟s some vague or simple illustration
AO2
(1-3) narrative methods
work  some bits of plot or character are mentioned

 nothing written or writing which has nothing to do with text or

task
0 marks

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Section A - even numbered questions

Typical answers might be characterised by the
AO Performance Descriptors
following descriptions
AO1 sophisticated expression; excellent  argument or debate is likely to be coherently
use of critical vocabulary; technically structured and sustained; the question is likely
fluent writing; sophisticated shaped to be fully integrated; argument is likely to be
argument relevant to the task noticeable for its depth and perception
Band 6 evaluation of an interpretation or  a view or views are explored in depth,
(19-21) AO3 interpretations with excellent textual argument driven through to its conclusion;
support textual support is likely to be excellently
evaluation of relevant contextual selected and integrated
AO4 factors  context is likely to be perceptively evaluated
as part of the argument
AO1 confident and assured expression;  argument or debate is likely to have a shape
appropriate use of critical vocabulary; and purpose; several points are likely to be
generally fluent and accurate assured well developed and explored
argument relevant to the task  a view or views are developed with some
Band 5
analysis of an interpretation or depth; textual support is likely to be very well
(15-18)
AO3 interpretations with well chosen chosen and wide ranging
textual support  context is likely to be analysed and integrated
analysis of relevant contextual factors into the argument
AO4
AO1 accurate expression; clear use of  a clear consistent line of argument is likely;
critical vocabulary; accurate writing; several points are likely to be developed with
clear argument relevant to the task some depth
Band 4 AO3 explanation of an interpretation or  a view or views are clearly developed and
(11-14) interpretations with clear textual explained; textual support is likely to be
support relevant and appropriately chosen
AO4 explanation of relevant contextual  context will be clear within the argument
factors
AO1 generally clear expression; some use  writing is likely to be focused with several
of critical vocabulary; generally points developed in a fairly straightforward
accurate writing; argument developing way; argument may not be consistent
relevant to the task  a view or views are developed in a simple
Band 3
AO3 some understanding of an way; textual support is likely to be integrated
(7-10)
interpretation or interpretations with and relevant but not always consistent
textual support  context as set up in the question is likely to be
AO4 some understanding of relevant in focus
contextual factors
AO1 simple writing; some awareness of  some words from the question are likely to be
critical vocabulary; may be technical discussed, but writing is unlikely to be
weakness; some sense of argument detailed/there may be some drifting
with some relevance to the task  a view or views are mentioned in relation to
Band 2 some awareness of an interpretation the argument; there is likely to be textual
(4-6) AO3 or interpretations with some reference support but it may not be integrated or
to the text carefully chosen
some awareness of relevant  context may be hazy but there will be the
AO4 contextual factors beginnings of relevance
AO1 quality of writing hinders meaning;  a word or two from the question is likely to be
little sense of argument with little included in the writing; argument unlikely to be
relevance to the text shaped
Band 1 AO3 very little grasp of an interpretation  some vague writing about the text with little
(1-3) or interpretations; little reference to connection to the task
the text  context as set up in the question is likely to be
AO4 very little grasp of contextual factors absent; there may be irrelevant contextual
material
 nothing written or writing which has nothing to
0 marks
do with text or task

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Section A

Selected Poems – W.H. Auden

0 1 How does Auden tell the story in „O What Is That Sound‟?

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in the poem.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/voices: no narrative frame, immediacy of the two voices, unnamed
characters defined by what they say, subtle changes of tone, etc.
 setting: England, seems like rural England, importance of military background, seems to
be set in a previous century, etc.
 ballad, regular quatrain pattern, regular pattern of longer lines at the start of the stanzas
and a final shorter fourth line, regular abab rhyme scheme, two speaking voices, etc.
 chronology – present time: determined by the movement of soldiers coming ever closer
to the two speakers/ balanced question and answer format of alternating speakers
(seems like a female voice followed by a male‟s), abandonment of one character at the
end, inconclusive ending, etc.
 use of urgent apostrophe of the female voice, archaic language, tender (sincere?) forms
of address, use of repetition, language of love and betrayal, use of the present participle,
use of detail, use of nouns, significance of the title, etc.

0 2 “We never step twice into the same Auden.” (Randall Jarrell)

How far do you agree that Auden‟s narratives are always very different from each
other?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on
 the different subject matter
 the different plots
 the voices/ tones
 the characters
 the different forms
 the different ideologies

Comment can be on any of the poems in the current selection or the changed selection etc.

Some will challenge the question and focus on the view

 that the poems have similar themes of despair, love, death, etc.
 that Auden often uses the ballad form
 that there is a self-consciousness in all the poems
 that the poems are all obscure in one way or another
 that the poems are intellectual and political and perhaps predictable, etc.

Expect some candidates to see variation and similarities at the same time.
Accept any valid argument.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Selected Poems – Robert Browning

0 3 Write about the ways Browning tells the story in lines 1 – 145 of „The Pied Piper of
Hamelin‟.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this section of the
poem.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/voices: third person omniscient narrator, confident, jovial tone,
dramatic voice of the self-conscious story teller, direct address of the reader, use of the
sole surviving rat to tell the story of the other rats‟ drowning, etc.
 setting: Hamelin town, town hall, Hamelin streets, river Weser, Rat-land home/ medieval
time period, focus on one day as the Piper strikes his bargain and removes the rats, etc.
 rhymed poem in numbered stanza sections – uneven pattern, jaunty rhythm, fast pace,
etc.
 linear chronology – story begins with a description of the location and time setting and
moves to the specific problem of the rats in Hamelin/ crisis of the people meeting in the
town hall and the Piper‟s arrival and proposition/ stanza VII is where he pipes the rats to
their deaths with the exception of Julius Caesar who takes over the narration, thus
ending this section on a note of anticipation as readers await the reaction of the Mayor,
etc
 colloquial speech, use of dialogue, use of co-ordinating sentences, use of contractions,
use of names, significance of the title, descriptive detail, use of humour, use of contrast,
use of lists, use of repetition, etc.

0 4 How far would you agree with the view that although its subtitle is „A CHILD‟s
STORY‟, the poem is more of a political work?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on:
 the public unrest resulting from the infestation of rats and the lack of answers from the
authorities
 the display of wealth from those in power
 the people‟s contempt for the Mayor and Corporation
 Browning‟s satirising of the Mayor
 the ease with which those in power make promises
 the deceit of the Corporation when the Piper asks for his one thousand guilders
 the sneering reaction to the Piper (the working man perhaps)
 the crude attempt to pay him less
 the final desperation of the Corporation after the children are taken away
 the final authorial comment: „If we‟ve promised them aught, let us keep our promise‟, etc
Some will disagree and focus on:
 the use of simple language
 the sub- title
 the humour
 the simple moral for children
 the pantomimic subject matter
 the use of speaking rats
 the jolly rhythm
 the frequent use of the co-ordinator „and‟
 the magical element, etc.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Some may argue that the two ideas are not mutually exclusive.
Accept any valid debate/ argument.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

0 5 Write about the ways Coleridge tells the story in Part 7 of the poem.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this section of the
poem.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: use of mariner‟s voice, the hermit, the Pilot and the Pilot‟s
boy, use of omniscient narrator to end poem and complete the frame, etc.
 setting: ship, sea, Pilot‟s boat, the dry land, the church/use of unspecified time period,
perhaps 17th century, use of day and night, reference to the next morning, etc
 ballad – reference might be made to how this section concludes the longer narrative
poem, the final stage of the story, seventh of seven parts, gothic/ supernatural/
moralistic/ religious/ adventure story genre, use of quatrains and the longer six-line
stanzas and their significance, etc.
 structurally this begins with a description of the hermit, leads to the climactic destruction
of the ship, ends with the account of the mariner‟s lonely existence, his need to tell his
story and his moralising, final stanza is the effect of the story on the Wedding Guest, use
of rhyme and repetition to structure the narrative, use of patterns, circularity of the whole
poem, etc.
 simple language, use of voices, gothic imagery, religious references, dream language,
descriptive detail, figurative language, repetition, use of contrasts, use of dialogue, etc.

0 6 The Hermit asks the Mariner, “What manner of man art thou?”

Do you think that the poem as a whole offers an answer to this question?

Possible content:

Some will argue that the poem does offer an answer and focus on
 the mariner‟s ordinariness, how he might represent everyman
 the mariner‟s strangeness and his possible supernatural qualities
 his connections to Cain and the Wandering Jew
 his being an allegorical figure
 his being a sailor, an adventurer
 his being a mean-spirited figure who prevents an ordinary man from attending a wedding
and enjoying a feast
 his being a violator of nature
 the mariner as personified arrogance
 the mariner as a „fallen‟ man, connected to Adam, etc.

Some will argue that the poem offers no single clear-cut answer. Several points above might
be used in the argument. Other comments might include

 how the poem defies analysis on every level, even to the nature of the Mariner
 how the interest of the poem is in the lack of clear-cut definition
 how critics often want to pin down meaning when the poem frustrates or simply delights
readers at every reading, etc

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Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Selected Poems – Robert Frost

0 7 Write about the ways Frost tells the story in „The Wood-Pile‟.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in the poem.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: first person narrator who may be Frost, use of speech,
reflective tone, a recollection, etc
 setting: place – a frozen swamp, undefined isolated winter landscape far from the
speaker‟s home, time – mid winter, daytime, etc.
 meditation, one single verse paragraph to give intensity to the single experience, use of
iambic pentameter to imitate the speaker‟s speech rhythms, rhyme of the first and last
line, etc.
 begins with a description of the circumstance of the reflection and the location, sense of
the speaker seeking an experience, simple introduction of the small bird which excites
reflection, moves on to a discussion of the abandoned wood-pile and thoughts about the
man who laboured with his axe and built the woodpile but then turned to fresh tasks, etc
 significance of the title, use of pronouns, precise details, use of speech, references to
time, use of verbs of reflection, use of irony, death imagery, natural imagery
mathematical imagery, language of imprecision, conversational tone, etc.

0 8 How far do you agree with the view that Frost‟s poems are about personal events
only and have no universal significance?

Some will agree and focus on

 the early 20th century settings which distance readers
 the geographical setting of the north-eastern states of America
 the focus on farm life
 Frost‟s stories that centre on single remote incidents which have a resonance only to
the speakers
 poems dealing with personal choices and dilemmas – „The Road Not Taken‟,
„Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening‟, etc

Some will disagree and focus on

 universal messages about decisions
 universal thoughts and feelings about the passing of time or the significance of
moments in time
 human uncertainty
 reflections on death
 the way the stories invoke sympathy for the characters, eg „Out,out –„, etc

Some will see that the poems can be both personal and universal. Examiners should accept
any valid argument.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Lamia, The Eve of St Agnes, La Belle Dame Sans Merci – John Keats

0 9 How does Keats tell the story in stanzas 28 - 35 of „The Eve of St Agnes‟?

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this section of the
poem.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: omniscient sympathetic narrator, romantic, reflective tone,
some attachment of the narrator, voices of Porphyro and Madeline, etc.
 setting: place - Madeline‟s home, her bed chamber, medieval world, sense of fantasy,
time – medieval England, part of one night in the lives of Madeline and Porphyro, sense
of protracted time to describe Madeline‟s dream world, etc
 central section of a longer narrative poem, use of regular 9-line Spenserian stanzas with
regular rhyme scheme, romantic story, etc.
 linear chronology, this section begins with a focus on Porphyro as he looks on the
sleeping Madeline, moves on to describe Porphryo‟s exotic preparations, his moving
towards her bed, his thought process as he wonders what to do, his playing of her lute
and singing a Provence ditty, the opening of Madeline‟s eyes yet her remaining in her
dream state, her weeping and sadness that the Porphyro that she sees is not the same
as the Porphyro of her dream, etc.
 elevated poetic language, descriptive detail, emotive language, use of dream language,
religious language, measured pace, references to time, references to death, use of
contrast, exotic language, use of the legend of St Agnes, listing of the food Porphyro
prepares, musical imagery, use of speech, use of triplets, etc.

1 0 How far would you agree that in Keats‟s poetry the dream world is more attractive
than the real world?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on
 Madeline‟s joy as she dreams of her lover on St Agnes‟s Eve
 Madeline‟s peace and contentment as she sleeps – the dream is pure and deep
 her anxiety when she sees the real Porphyro, the sense of anticlimax as she wakes
 her fear that Porphyro is mortal and therefore subject to change and death
 her fear that in the real world he will leave her
 the reality of the danger in the real world, a world from which they must escape
 the beauty and imaginative power of Lamia‟s dreams before she is turned into a human
shape
 the bliss of Lycius‟s dream world before he is awoken by cold philosophy
 the sweetness of the knight‟s dream before he wakes on the cold hill side of „La Belle
Dame...‟
 the way the narrators or Keats or readers might value the dream world

Some will argue that the dream world is not more attractive and focus on
 the deceit of Lamia that underpins the dream
 the possibility that the belle dame‟s „language strange‟ is not the language of love and
beauty but of pain and despair
 the fact that in the real world Porphyro rescues Madeline from her prison state, etc.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

 for Hermes the dream of seeing his beloved nymph is realised and there is no
disappointment: It was no dream; or say a dream it was, real are the dreams of Gods...‟
etc.

Candidates could argue that both worlds could be attractive. Comment could focus on
the characters, the narrators, Keats and/or readers, but focus must be on the poems.
Accept any valid argument.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Selected Poems – Christina Rossetti

1 1 Write about the ways Rossetti tells the story in „Maude Clare‟.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this poem.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: judgemental omniscient narrator, use of variety of voices
which are not introduced, etc.
 setting: place, a wedding, natural landscape/ time – a seeming rural past, a specific
moment in time, the wedding, but with flashbacks to an earlier time and Nell‟s projection
into the future, etc.
 some connections with a ballad, poem in 12 quatrains, strong dramatic quality, etc.
 general linear chronology, direct opening with focus on marriage and confrontation,
leads through flash back to the story of love and betrayal of Maude Clare and Thomas,
ends with unexpected confrontation between Nell and Maude Clare, etc.
 formal poetic diction, colloquial speech, use of repetition, use of specific names,
language of conflict and confrontation, use of detail, natural imagery, contrast, use of the
imperative, use of contrast, abstract nouns, time references, etc.

1 2 “Far from being repressed, women in Rossetti‟s poems are defiant”.

How far do you agree with this view?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on
 the defiance of both Maude Clare and Nell in different ways – in comparison to the
silence of Thomas
 the refusal of Jessie Cameron to marry her neighbour
 the determined defiance of „The Royal Princess‟
 the speaker of „Cousin Kate‟
 the strength and action of Lizzie in „Goblin Market‟, defiant against the goblin men
 the choice the speaker makes in „The Convent Threshold‟ to mount „the golden sky-ward
stair‟
 the playful defiance of the speaker in „Winter: My Secret‟
 the angry defiance of the speaker in „Sister Maude‟, etc

Some will disagree and focus on

 the back story of Maude Clare and her being abandoned and in a sense repressed;
ultimately her lack of power
 the way the speaker of „Sister Maude‟ is repressed by society and her sister in the back
story of the poem
 the repression of the princess
 the repression of Laura
 the plaintive tone of Skene‟s wife in „In the Round Tower...‟, her repression by the
swarming howling wretches, her submissiveness and dependency on her husband
 the resignation of the speaker in „An Apple Gathering‟
 the possible and ultimate repression of Jessie Cameron if she is murdered, etc.

Candidates could argue that some women in the poems are repressed and some are
not. Accept any valid argument.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Selected Poems – Alfred Tennyson

1 3 How does Tennyson tell the story in „Ulysses‟?

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this poem.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: first person narrator/ self dramatising, voice of Ulysses the
heroic character of classical legend, sense of Ulysses speaking a monologue and then
an increasing sense of addressees – Ulysses‟ fellow mariners, assured masculine tone,
etc.
 setting: place – Ithaca, Ulysses‟ home and then the port, various seascapes created
from his memory/ time – classical setting, Ulysses‟ present with a sense of his past and
his future, movement from day to night, etc.
 dramatic monologue, sense of legend, single verse paragraph, use of iambic
pentameter, speaking rhythm, clear sense of audience, etc.
 begins in a reflective way, sense of Ulysses‟ frustration, a revisiting and nostalgia for the
past, focus on Telemachus and his suitability as a king, movement to the port and call to
Ulysses‟ friends to seek new journeys and adventures, use of narrative gap at the end,
etc
 formal elevated diction, use of repetition, use of figurative language, use of verbs, motif
of the journey, patterns, use of specific references to the elements, nautical imagery,
domestic references, use of contrast, abstract nouns, use of personal pronouns, use of
irony, references to death, use of accumulation, etc.

1 4 How far do you agree with one reader‟s view that „the men in Tennyson‟s poems
are whining, selfish and arrogant, with little to recommend them‟?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on
 the possible self pitying of Tithonus
 the selfishness of Ulysses in relation to his wife, his son and Ithaca
 the selfish irresponsibility of the mariners in „The Lotos Eaters‟
 the arrogance of the „grim earl‟ in „Godiva‟ and Lancelot in „The Lady of Shalott‟
 the unnamed male in „Mariana‟ perhaps
 the peeping Tom in „Godiva‟, etc

Some will disagree and focus on

 the ambition and determination of Ulysses and the way he can be admired
 the self awareness and realisation of Tithonus and the way he evokes sympathy
 the attractiveness of Lancelot
 the human desire for peace which evokes sympathy with the mariners in „The Lotos
Eaters‟, etc

Some will agree with part of the statement and challenge part. Examiners can expect a
variety of responses and credit should be given for any relevant interpretation.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

1 5 Write about how Faulks tells the story in the section of Part 2 beginning with the
words “JACK FIREBRACE‟S APPLICATION for leave ...” and ending with the words
“he would surely die.” (pages 167 - 178 Vintage Edition).

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this part of the novel.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: third person narration but in places Jack and then Stephen
are the centres of consciousness, variety of voices with their own stories and agendas,
screaming and moaning of Hunt, etc.
 setting: place - France, first in the tunnels underground, then in a trench /time – one day
in the tunnel but time is expanded for the action, time then condensed for Stephen‟s
unconsciousness and fever, some flashbacks in Stephen‟s consciousness to pre-war
times, etc.
 war story set in 1916 (in this section) but reference might be made to the wider context
of the novel, in some ways „formless‟ – no chapter headings or numbering of chapters,
love story, etc.
 generally a linear chronology, begins with focus on Jack‟s going underground, meeting
between Gray and Weir to say Stephen is going to be in charge, Stephen „s meeting with
Jack underground, the fear of Hunt, dramatic action of the conflict inside the tunnel,
Stephen‟s being wounded, his near death experience and shame of it, concludes with
the crisis of Stephen‟s possible death being over, etc.
 register of war and particular focus on words relating to trench life and tunnelling in
particular, use of verbs and emotive language, use of adjectives, use of dialogue, use of
intimate terms in the conversations, references to blood, use of contrast, use of
descriptive detail, use of dream language, imagery of death, etc.

1 6 How far do you agree with the view that in Birdsong Faulks challenges stereotypical
notions of masculinity?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on
 the way war undermines masculinity through its horror and degradation
 Hunt‟s crying and moaning, his fear
 the way soldiers are emasculated by war, deprived of their sense of being heroes
 the way men being confined and trapped in the trenches and tunnels is similar to how
Victorian women were trapped
 the complexity of Faulks‟ creation of the soldier hero – their weaknesses, their feminine
sides, their vulnerability, etc
 Weir‟s breaking down while under fire, etc.

Some will disagree and focus on

 the way that many of the soldiers are portrayed as heroic, the soldier being the
quintessential image of masculinity
 Stephen, Gray, Weir and Jack representing stereotypical masculinity to an`extent,
performing hero soldier actions
 the sexual dominance of Stephen in the pre-war sections
 the way male bonds are sharpened and deepened by the war in a legitimised way
 Stephen‟s repression of emotion
 Stephen‟s drawing his knife on the prostitute

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

 the behaviour of Robert having a wife and mistress, etc.

Candidates could argue that notions of masculinity are challenged with the portrayal of
some men and not others.

Accept any valid argument.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

The Road – Cormac McCarthy

1 7 Write about McCarthy‟s method of telling the story from page 1 to the bottom of
page 16 ending with „just the silence‟.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this section.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective: third person detached narrator, shifts in consciousness, haunting
tone, biblical tone, etc.
 setting: place unspecified but seems to be post nuclear America, futuristic, a known
location to the father/ time – early 21st century, futuristic, undisclosed date and time
possibly October, night time and then day, condensed passing of time, etc.
 science fiction, survival story, adventure story, warning tale, apocalyptic vision, human
drama, horror story, etc.
 linear chronology of overall but with flashbacks, the pattern of a journey to „the south‟,
direct opening, waking up and finding the gasoline station, the onset of night, the
passing of days, unexplained, fragments of story, snatches of dialogue, key incident
perhaps the first snow flake and the finding of a barn and some meat, etc.
 use of simple sentences, poetic prose, simple vocabulary, absence of verbs, use of
minor sentences, absence of speech markers, minimalistic punctuation, use of concrete
nouns, colloquial language, sense that there is too much language available to describe
the scene, descriptive detail, unnamed characters, use of imagery, apostrophes to God,
etc.

1 8 “It seems pointless to talk about the beginning, middle and end of this novel; there
is no beginning, middle and end.”

How do you respond to this view of The Road?

Possible content:
Some will agree and write about:
 the novel‟s beginning in medias res
 the lack of conclusion
 the difficulty in talking about crises or climaxes given that the events are all crises
 the idea that very little changes
 the apocalyptic horror
 McCarthy‟s decision to use minimalist punctuation, lack of chapters, names, etc.
 the use of repetition, etc.

Some will challenge the view and focus on:

 the journey of the two characters
 the death of the father
 the possible hope at the novel‟s end
 the interest in the story in terms of the different encounters of the father
 the use of dreams and flashbacks to give a sense of a past
 the opening pages for the reader which are an actual opening
 the concluding pages which do give a physical end to the novel
 the threats of violence, etc.
Accept any valid argument. Give credit where comment is relevant. Reward comments
on content or authorial method when it is part of the argument.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Small Island – Andrea Levy

1 9 How does Levy tell the story in Chapter 35?

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this chapter.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: first person narrator of Bernard, the first time he is given a
voice, contemptuous tone, use of other voices, etc.
 setting: place – India, first Bombay, the train, England in the recollection, the Feathers,
the British base in India, the airfield, time – unspecified time during the war in India,
flashback to the time before conscription when Bernard signed up, Bernard‟s first
experience of action, etc.
 historical novel and a war story, post-colonial, a fictive autobiography, etc.
 broken chronology in this chapter though it begins and ends in the war time frame, flash
back to scenes before the war, journey from Bombay to the airfield and the capturing of
the Japanese fighter pilot, link with the following chapter, contrast and link with the
previous story of Queenie, etc.
 colloquial speech, racist terms, vulgarisms, fragmented sentences, lexical field of war,
RAF, verbs of action, use of pace, rhetorical devices, repetition, use of comedy, use of
descriptive detail, use of similes, comic turns of phrase, etc.

2 0 „Those with fierce loyalties to their countries are not treated very sympathetically in
Small Island‟. How far do you agree with this view?

Possible content:
Comment might be on the attitudes of the writer and/or other characters in the world of the
novel.

Some will agree with the view above and focus on:
 the fate of the Japanese prisoner and attitudes towards him
 Bernard‟s feelings of superiority which do not make him likeable
 Queenie‟s neighbours and their bigoted views
 the presentation of the Americans
 the general attitudes of the English represented in the novel
 the way that the readiness to embrace another country is lauded (Hortense, Gilbert, etc)

Some will argue that the novel is much more complex and focus on:
 the overarching war context and the sense that the British/ American fighters who
defeated the Nazis and Japanese are seen as heroes
 perhaps the lack of sympathy given to Gilbert and Hortense for wanting to leave their
Caribbean home
 the way that characters are presented sympathetically when they are displaying loyalty
to their counties, e.g. Michael, Queenie, Bernard, perhaps, etc.

Accept any valid argument. Comment might be on loyalty to an adopted country, the „mother
country‟.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

2 1 Write about the ways Hosseini tells the story in Chapter 20.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this chapter.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: first person retrospective narrator, use of introspection,
serious tone, sad reflective tone, use of other voices: Farid, voice of the beggar, recalled
voice of Amir‟s mother, voice of Zaman, etc.
 setting: place - Afghanistan, the road between Jalalbad and Kabul, Kabul, the
orphanage, director‟s office / time – 2001 with flashbacks to the 1970s and 1980s, etc.
 here a bildungsroman, a confessional, an adventure story, a fictive autobiography, a
psychological exploration, etc.
 begins on the road to Kabul, brief flashback to twenty years earlier and the Russian
invasion, Farid‟s account of the murder of a family by the Taliban, journey through Kabul,
arrival at the orphanage and Amir‟s being told that Sohrab has been sold to a member of
the Taliban, Farid‟s attack of Zaman, cliff hanger of sorts: the Talib official who took
Sohrab to be found at the stadium the following day „in black sunglasses‟, etc.
 descriptive detail, use of dialogue, use of precise dates, use of Afghan works, language
of aggression, use of emotive language, variety of sentence length, time references,
adverbs, use of dates, specific cultural and religious references (Pashtuns, Hazaras,
Sunnis, Shi‟as), use of speech, dialogue, use of vulgarisms, etc.

2 2 “RUBBLE AND BEGGARS. Everywhere I looked, that was what I saw.” (Chapter
20)

How far is this bleak view of Afghanistan and its people borne out in The Kite
Runner as a whole?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on
 the Afghanistan of 2001 and comment on violence
 racism
 the rise of the Taliban
 the Soviet invasion of the late 1970s
 the attitude of men towards women
 the unfairness of society even in the early days
 the lack of hope
 the destruction of decency, respectability, etc
 the treatment of the orphans
 the behaviour of Assef, etc

Some will disagree and focus on

 the beauty of Afghanistan in the early chapters
 the integrity of the true Afghan citizens – Rahim Khan, Farid, Baba, Ali, Amir, Hassan,
etc
 the culture which is viewed positively
 the kite running tournament, etc.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Accept any valid argument. Expect comment to cross different time periods. Candidates
might say it is bleak in some parts of the novel but not in others.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Enduring Love – Ian McEwan

2 3 How does McEwan tell the story in Chapter 3?

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this chapter.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/voices: first person retrospective and self-conscious narrator,
focused on his own art of story-telling, reflective tone, use of Clarissa‟s voice, voice of
Jed at the end, etc.
 setting: place – Joe‟s home / time – the day of the accident when Joe and Clarissa arrive
home, that night, precise time settings, etc.
 psychological thriller, love story, etc.
 linear chronology – the return home and the discussion between Joe and Clarissa about
the fall of Logan, flashbacks to Clarissa‟s version of events and how they both felt at the
time, further flashbacks to Clarissa‟s not being able to have children, Joe‟s agonising
about his letting go of the rope, his telling of the fact that Logan died for nothing since
Gadd turned out to be unharmed, their going to bed and their lovemaking, their later
invitation to their friends to join them for a Thai take-away, the return to bed at 1am,
climactic moment of Jed‟s phone call at 2am: „I love you‟, use of the dramatic surprise,
etc
 measured educated language, use of dialogue, use of lists, intertextual reference to
Milton, sexual language, references to death, use of detail, use of irony, use of time
references, religious language, references to stories, etc.

2 4 „In the novel as a whole, McEwan presents Joe Rose as a successful male figure.‟
How do you respond to this view?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on
 the outcome of the novel with Joe‟s being proven right
 Joe‟s control of the narrative
 Joe‟s power over Jed
 Joe‟s power over Clarissa
 Joe as being a representation of knowledge/ science
 Joe‟s being a stereotypical male
 Joe‟s seeking out Johnny B for a gun to give him physical power
 Joe‟s „defeat‟ of Jed
 Joe‟s financial security
 Joe‟s need to invoke the law
 Joe‟s sexual confidence at the beginning of the novel, his comforting of Clarissa, his
taking control, (chapter 3), etc.

Some will disagree and focus on

 Joe‟s insecurity
 his failure as a scientist – he thinks of himself as a parasite
 his deep feelings of being threatened by Jed
 his discomfort in having to talk to Jed about sex
 his failure in the face of the law – Detective Constable Wallace‟s attitude towards him
 Joe‟s misreading of the situation
 the breakdown of his relationship with Clarissa

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

 his dishonesty with Clarissa etc.

Accept any valid argument and any relevant discussion of „successful‟. Candidates
might discuss Joe‟s attitudes to homosexuality in a variety of ways.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

2 5 How does Roy tell the story in Chapters 15 and 16?

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in these chapters.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: third person omniscient narrator, lyrical perspective of
author for Chapter 16, detached commentator; consciousness of the twins in chapter 17,
use of voices of Rahel and Estha, echo of Ammu‟s words to the children, etc.
 setting: place - the Meenachal river at night time/ time – midnight, 1969 time frame, etc
 tragic genre, etc.
 non-chronological in terms of the novel, but in these chapters have a linear progression
– two stories (Velutha‟s and the children‟s) working concurrently, Velutha‟s journey
across the river to the History House, the children‟s escape and adventure to their
planned retreat, dramatic centre is the overturning of the boat and the loss of Sophie
Mol, flashbacks to the Orangedrink Lemondrink man and to Ammu‟s angry words to the
children – in italics, Chapter 17 ends with the merging of the two stories, Estha and
Rahel to arrive at the History House where Velutha has found his temporary sanctuary,
etc.
 use of natural imagery, ethereal language to describe Velutha, use of pronouns and
abstract nouns, descriptive detail, echoes of language patterns from earlier in the novel
– poetic prose, reference to the God of Loss, The God of Small Things, use of motif of
Pappachi‟s moth, use of Estha‟s signature, intertextual references to Hansel and Gretel,
Popeye, use of child language, etc

2 6

What is the significance of the Meenachal river in The God of Small Things?

Possible content:
Some might focus on
 its being the cause of Sophie Mol‟s death
 its being central to the tragedy
 its being used by Roy to frame the novel
 its being central to the romance between Ammu and Velutha
 its being linked to the natural beauty of Velutha
 the significance of crossing the river and crossing boundaries, transgressing
 its baptismal qualities, giving Velutha Christ-like significance
 its charting the changes of time: its beauty in the 1969 time frame and its being polluted
in the 1992 time frame, etc.

Accept any valid argument.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

The Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry

2 7 Write about some of the ways Barry tells the story in Chapter 1.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this chapter.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices –Roseanne‟s first person narrative, one hundred years old
and writing a secret testimony – possibly unreliable / use of Roseanne‟s father‟s voice,
cheerful upbeat tone, sense of addressee, etc
 setting: place – the asylum in Roscommon but then in Sligo for the back story and then
in Southampton for one of father‟s stories/time – early 20th century Ireland
 social documentary, autobiography, testimony, social realism, mystery, potted biography
of Roseanne‟s father, etc
 begins in Roseanne‟s present and then jumps to her story of her birth and further back to
her father‟s meeting with her mother, time jump forward to include various stories that
her father told her as a child, snatches of incident with her mother and a leap forward to
a story about her husband, not linear in structure, etc.
 use of names, reflective language, poetic prose, precise place names, use of imagery,
use of dates, snatches of song and embedded stories, use of irony, religious language,
pastoral imagery, musical lexis, positive elevated language to describe her father, etc.

2 8 Roseanne refers to her father as “a true hero”. Is this how you see him?

Possible content:
Some will see him as a hero and focus on
 his happiness
 his warmth and generosity
 his heroic acts
 his love for his family and for her especially
 his tragic fate
 his tragic death
 his engaging stories
 his integrity
 his not being part of the civil war, etc

Some will question his hero status and focus on

 her father‟s being a victim of chance and Irish politics and religion
 Roseanne‟s biased story
 possibly her unreliable story
 the hints of incest
 his lack of professionalism when the orphanage burns down, etc

Accept any valid argument. Candidates may deal with „hero‟ in a variety of ways.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

2 9 Write about some of Fitzgerald‟s narrative methods in Chapter 2.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this chapter.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: first person narrator, self-conscious story-teller and
author, significance of Nick‟s reconstruction of drunkenness, uses of voices of Tom,
Myrtle, Wilson, the McKees, Catherine, naive reflections of the participant narrator, etc.
 setting: Valley of the Ashes, New York, Tom‟s apartment, Pennsylvania Station/ early
20th century, one afternoon and evening, etc.
 20th century tragedy, a novel about writing a novel, a domestic drama, a love story, etc.
 linear chronology in this chapter but with a sense that the story is being told
retrospectively, begins with the description of the Valley of the Ashes, moves to the train
journey to New York and the party at Tom‟s apartment, ends with Nick at the station, etc.
 educated prose, poetic prose, descriptive detail, sensual description, use of dramatic
dialogue, surreal description of drunkenness, references to newspapers and other texts,
colloquial language, time references, use of names, language of altercation, use of
ellipsis, etc.

3 0 “In The Great Gatsby the lower social classes are presented as crude and vulgar.”
How do you respond to this view?

Possible content:

As with any discussion of this novel, candidates might tease out the complication of who is
doing the presenting – Fitzgerald/Nick Carraway and focus on the implications of those
narratorial decisions.

Some candidates will agree with the view expressed and focus on:
 Myrtle Wilson‟s flaunting of her affair with Tom
 the drunken party in New York
 the vacuous conversations of the McKees, Myrtle and her sister
 Myrtle‟s vulgar aping of the behaviour of rich
 Myrtle‟s treatment of her husband
 Myrtle‟s telephoning Tom at home
 Myrtle‟s speech patterns
 Wilson‟s lack of education, his non-standard grammar
 his crude murder of Gatsby, etc.

Some will disagree and focus on

 Wilson‟s dignity
 Myrtle‟s vitality
 the more contemptuous behaviour of the rich
 the brutality and vulgarity of Tom
 the possible crudeness of Daisy‟s treatment of Gatsby
 the criminality of Gatsby and Wolfshiem
 the respectful behaviour of Gatsby‟s servants and chauffeur
 the desire for self improvement of the young and poor Gatsby

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

 the simple pride and dignity of Gatsby‟s father

etc.

Accept any valid comment or argument. Gatsby might be discussed in terms of either
higher or lower social class.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Selected Stories – D. H. Lawrence

3 1 Write about the ways Lawrence tells the story in „Vin Ordinaire‟.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in ‘Vin Ordinaire’.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: third person narrator, variety of voices in the story, moves
into the consciousness of Bachmann and Emilie, etc.
 setting: place – Metz, the barracks, the yard, the outdoor training area near the walls of
the barracks, Scy, the Baron‟s house /time - early twentieth century, strong sense of
military build up before the First World War, the day of the exercise, Bachmann‟s
disgrace and escape, the night of his retreat to Emilie, different times the next morning,
etc.
 short story form divided into 5 sections, 5 episodes, etc.
 linear chronology, opening sequence when Bachmann writes his postcard to his mother,
moves to the manoeuvres of the army and Bachmann‟s failure and revenge, his escape
to his maidservant lover, their lovemaking, finally his capture and being led away,
reference at the end to the postcard/ comment might well be on the disconnected nature
of the story, the gap of when Emilie posted the postcard, etc.
 use of repetition, use of German words, use of military lexis, natural imagery, references
to heat and cold, choice of names, use of questions, sentences beginning with „And‟, use
of adverbs, adjectives, use of sensuous language, precise time references, descriptive
detail, colloquialisms, etc.

3 2 Lawrence took great care over the titles of his stories because he saw titles as
being significant.

What significance can you find in the titles of two or three of the stories in this selection.

Possible content:
Focus might be on
 „Vin Ordinaire‟ and perhaps how later the title was changed when the story was revised
 whether „Vin Ordinaire is in fact ordinary as Lawrence himself thought
 the symbolism of the chrysanthemums in „Odour of Chrysanthemums‟
 the slightly bizarre titles of „The Rocking-horse Winner‟ and „The Man who Loved
Islands‟
 the German angle in „The Prussian Officer‟
 „Adolf‟ and the choice of name for the rabbit, etc

Accept any valid argument or ideas about significance. Comment might well focus on the
alternative titles of some of the stories.

Comments need to be about the titles in relation to the stories themselves.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Selected Poems – Thomas Hardy

3 3 Write about the ways Hardy tells the story in „At an Inn‟.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in the poem.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: first person narrator who may be Hardy, imagined voices
of others at the inn, seems to have a distinct though unnamed addressee (possibly
Florence Henniker) etc.
 setting: place – an inn – the use of „an‟ makes it somewhat anonymous, location of the
speaker in the current time frame is unknown, time – speaker‟s present which frames a
distinct moment of time in the speaker‟s past etc.
 lament, five eight line stanzas, regular abab rhyme scheme though some of the rhymes
slightly jar, personal reflective tone, etc.
 begins with a reminder to his listener of a time in the past when they were at an inn,
moves to consider the reactions of others who thought the speaker and his companion
were lovers, and then the regret that the onlookers were mistaken – „Love lingered
numb‟, final moment is the speaker‟s regret that the opportunity passed and cannot be
recalled and the feelings cannot be re-felt, use of narrative gaps, etc.
 significance of the title, use of pronouns, precise details, use of the subjunctive, use of
modal verbs, use of speech, references to time, use of questions, language of regret
figurative language, use of irony, death imagery, use of the apostrophe, religious
language, etc.

3 4 How far do you agree with one reader‟s view that the regret displayed in Hardy‟s
poetry is “obsessive and irritating”?

Possible content:
Candidates might agree and comment on:
 the self-consciousness displayed in „At an Inn‟, „The Going‟, „The Haunter‟, „Your Last
Drive‟, etc
 the way the poems hark back to the past
 the lack of positivity about the future
 the maudlin tone
 the self centredness
 the lack of real self awareness or knowledge
 the tendency to blame fate or another party and wish things were otherwise without
taking personal responsibility, etc.

Some might challenge the notion of the regret being obsessive and/ or irritating and
comment on:
 the range of feelings and subjects in Hardy‟s poetry
 „The Darkling Thrush‟ and how there is a note of optimism
 the fact that readers might feel pity, sympathy, admiration perhaps for the speakers‟
honesty
 the lack of personal feeling in „The Convergence of the Twain‟
 the idea that the regret is not obsessive or irritating but moving, etc

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Candidates need to deal with „irritating‟ and „obsessive‟ and comment on how they respond
to the poems and the task.

Accept any valid argument.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

3 5 How does Austen tell the story in Chapter 3?

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this chapter.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: omniscient narrator, use of authorial commentary, use of
voices, comic tone, use of drama for this section, etc.
 setting: place - the Bennets‟ house to frame the chapter, the Meryton assembly in the
central portion/ time – the day of Mr Bennet‟s visit to Mr Bingley, condensed time of a
few days to include Bingley‟s return to Mr Bennet, the invitation to dinner which has to be
cancelled and then the Meryton assembly and discussion of it afterwards which
dominates the chapter, etc.
 social comedy, romance, comedy of manners, etc.
 linear chronology, direct link with previous chapter about Mr Bennet‟s views of Mr
Bingley, moves quickly through a sequence of reported events or non events to the
Meryton assembly, the dramatic centre – Elizabeth‟s meeting of sorts with Mr Darcy,
finally the discussion of characters and events by the Bennets, the irony of Mrs Bennet‟s
concluding statement, etc.
 formal, Latinate diction, use of irony, use of dialogue, use of contrast, use of comedy,
verbs of saying, descriptive detail, use of names, references to time and number, etc.

3 6 Do you think that in Pride and Prejudice first impressions are always wrong?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on
 Elizabeth‟s view that Darcy is a proud disagreeable man
 Darcy‟s view that Elizabeth is only „tolerable‟
 Elizabeth‟s belief that Wickham is charming and wronged
 Jane‟s views that the Bingley sisters are friendly and sincere
 Elizabeth‟s misreading of Colonel Fitzwilliam‟s intentions
 possible view that readers‟ first impressions are encouraged to be wrong by the narrator
and her using Elizabeth as the centre of consciousness, etc.

Some will challenge the view and focus on

 the word „always‟
 Elizabeth and Mr Bennet‟s being right about Collins from the start
 Jane‟s first impressions being right about Bingley
 Elizabeth‟s first impressions of the Bingley sisters being right
 Elizabeth‟s first impressions of Lady Catherine to be right
 readers being able to judge accurately through being alert to Austen‟s irony, etc.

Accept any valid argument about characters or readers. Some candidates may suggest that
first impressions of readers in the 21st century might differ from first impressions when the
novel was published.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

3 7 How does Dickens tell the story in Chapter 25?

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this chapter.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: first person narrator, dual narration – the younger and the
older Pip, who commentates; use of various voices, Pip, Wemmick, the Aged P, relaxed
upbeat tone but with a slightly dark undertone, etc.
 setting: Wemmick‟s Castle, the road back to Little Britain / time – early 19th century, one
day in the early days of Pip‟s education in London, etc.
 bildungsroman, novel about social realism, comedy, etc.
 linear chronology but told retrospectively, begins with Pip describing his new
acquaintances, invitation by Wemmick to visit his home, ends with the return journey to
Little Britain, etc.
 use of contrast, descriptive detail, use of humour, use of dialogue, use of educated
speech in the narration, use of names, use of metaphor, etc.

3 8 “Wemmick is simply a delightful character, and that is all there is to him”.

Write about Wemmick‟s character and role in Great Expectations in the light of this
statement.

Possible content:
Some will agree with the proposition set up in the question and focus on
 the word delightful and the kindness of Wemmick
 his generosity and caring attitude towards his father
 his being delightful because of his split personality
 his friendship to Pip
 his love for Miss Skiffins
 Dickens‟s joy in creating him
 the readers‟ joy in reading about him
 his role being insubstantial perhaps

Some will challenge the statement and focus on

 his role in terms of the divided self
 his role in advancing the plot and being involved in Magwitch‟s escape
 his role in helping to reveal the character of Jaggers
 his role in terms of the darkness of Newgate – and his wearing of much mourning
jewellery,
 his comic function
 his epitomising the problem of keeping some humanity intact while living and working in
the harsh, cruel world of Little Britain, etc.
 his character‟s not being delightful, but perhaps disturbing or even dull

Accept any valid argument in respect of Wemmick‟s character and role. Discussion might
focus on „simply‟ and „delightful‟ in very specific ways.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Dubliners – James Joyce

3 9 Write about the ways Joyce tells the story in „After the Race‟.

Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in ‘After the Race’.

Possible content:
 narrative perspective/ voices: third person detached narrator, variety of voices in the
story, ironic tone, etc.
 setting: place – Ireland, Dublin, Naas Road, the car, Dame Street, Jimmy‟s family home,
the American‟s yacht /time - early twentieth century, the day and night after the race, etc.
 short story form which works as an independent entity, but also has a function in the
wider context of the collection, perhaps here an allegory, etc.
 linear chronology, direct opening with focus on the excitement of the race, sequence of
events of the escapades of the young men, dinner at Jimmy‟s family home, climax - the
losing of money at cards and the unstoppable nature of Jimmy‟s folly, ending – the
possibility of an epiphany in the morning, relentless pace, etc.
 use of condensed, economical prose, colour symbolism, detailed description, references
to other nationalities, use of dialogue and snatches of song, use of French, humour,
musical references, etc.

4 0 To what extent do you agree with the view that „After the Race‟ is nothing more than
a portrait of a foolish young man?

Possible content:
Some will agree and focus on
 Jimmy‟s excesses
 his lack of reflection
 his drunkenness and losing at gaming
 the detachment of the narrator and the lack of sympathy
 the focus on action and not reflection
 the abrupt ending with little sense that Jimmy will have learned
 the focus on jollity and hilarity
 Jimmy‟s desire to make money
 Jimmy‟s lack of judgement, etc

Some will disagree and focus on

 the excitement that comes to Dublin from the Continent
 the potential for fun that is absent from many stories in Dubliners
 the deeper significance that the story is a cautionary tale
 the contrast with other Dubliners in that Jimmy is privileged and has been educated in
Cambridge
 perhaps an attack on education that is not grounded in common sense
 the dangers of foreigners
 the story as an indictment of indulgent parents, etc.

Accept any valid argument.

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Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

47
 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

SECTION B

4 1

“In a narrative, there is usually a hero or heroine, a protagonist, on whose fate the readers‟
interest in the story principally rests.”

Write about the significance of protagonists in the narratives of the three writers you have
studied.

The protagonist in the narratives needs to be clearly identified in relation to the over
arching story.

Possible content:
Focus might be on
 the ways the protagonist engages the readers‟ sympathy through what happens to them
in the action of the story (eg Pip‟s encounters with Magwitch)
 the ways the narrator encourages identification with the protagonist (eg Austen‟s
focalising through Elizabeth in places?)
 the ways protagonists are shown to be reflective (eg Hardy, Amir )
 the way the protagonist speaks (eg Auden – „Miss Gee‟ – her prayer, Mariana – her sad
cry and longing for death‟)
 the form or genre of the text in relation to the protagonists (eg Hortense, Queenie „social
history, Rahel – tragedy, post-colonial text, Porphyro - romance)
 the ways texts are structured and where the protagonists appear, etc. (eg Joe Rose,
from the beginning but detached at the end)
 the way that there might be more than one protagonist (eg Birdsong and the shift from
Stephen to Elizabeth)

Accept any valid discussion about protagonists in texts but there needs to be specific
illustration.

Accept any valid discussion about different interpretations.

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Typical answers might be characterised

AO Performance Descriptors
by the descriptors below
AO1 sophisticated expression; excellent  likely to be perceptive in the evaluation of
use of critical vocabulary; technically protagonists; excellent understanding of how
fluent and accurate writing; protagonists are used
sophisticated shaped argument  textual support is likely to be excellently selected and
integrated
AO2 evaluation of the use of protagonists  integrated evaluation of where the protagonists
within narratives appear structurally and evaluation of the writers‟
evaluation of other narrative crafting in relation to the protagonists
Band 6 methods in relation to the  evaluative discussion of meanings that arise from the
(36-42) protagonists protagonists; evaluation of the potential meanings
with a confident and assured voice
AO3 evaluation of how the protagonists  argument likely to be very well structured and
are used to shape the stories in the sustained
three texts  excellent discussion of three texts in terms of depth
evaluation of the significance of the of evaluation
protagonists
evaluation of well chosen supportive
references
AO1 confident and assured expression;  likely to analyse the protagonists in a confident way;
appropriate use of critical vocabulary; very good understanding of how the protagonists are
accurate and generally fluent writing; used
assured argument  textual support is likely to be very well chosen and
wide ranging
AO2 analysis of the protagonists within  secure understanding of where the protagonists
narratives appear structurally and a secure analysis of the
analysis of other narrative methods writers‟ crafting in relation to the protagonists
Band 5
in relation to the protagonists  detailed discussion of meanings that arise from the
(29-35)
protagonists; explanation of potential meanings with
AO3 analysis of how the protagonists are a confident personal voice
used to shape the stories in the three  argument likely to have a shape and purpose
texts  secure discussion of three texts in terms of the
analysis of the significance of the depth of analysis
protagonists
analysis of well chosen supportive
references
AO1 clear expression; clear use of critical  likely to clearly identify the protagonists in three texts
vocabulary; accurate writing; clear and develop points in a clear way; clear
argument understanding of how the protagonists are used
 textual support is likely to be relevant and
AO2 explanation of the use of the appropriately chosen
protagonists within narratives  clear sense of where the protagonists appear
explanation of other narrative structurally and a clear understanding of the writers‟
Band 4 methods in relation to the crafting in relation to the protagonists
(22-28) protagonists  clear discussion of meanings that arise from the
protagonists; explanation of potential meanings with
AO3 explanation of how the protagonists a clear personal voice
are used in narratives work across  argument likely to be clear and consistent
the three texts  clear coverage of three texts in terms of explanation
explanation of the significance of the
protagonists
explanation of textual support

49
 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Typical answers might be characterised

AO Performance Descriptors
by the descriptors below
AO1 generally clear expression; some  likely to identify the protagonists in each of the three
understanding of critical vocabulary; texts and develop points in a fairly straight forward
generally accurate writing; relevant to way; some understanding of how the protagonists
task are used
 textual support is likely to be integrated and relevant
AO2 some understanding of the use of but not always consistent
protagonists within narratives  some understanding of where the protagonists
appear structurally and some understanding of the
some understanding of other writers‟ crafting in relation to the protagonists
Band 3
narrative methods in relation to the  some discussion of meanings that arise from the
(15-21)
protagonists protagonists; some development of ideas about
meanings; some evidence of a voice
AO3 some understanding of how the  argument likely to be developing but may not be
protagonists are used to shape the consistent
stories in the three texts  some discussion of two or three texts; thinner
some understanding of the coverage of the third perhaps
significance of the protagonists
some understanding of how to use
textual support
AO1 simple writing; some awareness of  likely to identify three or more protagonists or
critical vocabulary; may be technical produce some discussion of one or two; beginnings
weaknesses; some relevance to task; of an understanding of how the protagonists are
some sense of argument used
 textual support is likely but it may not be integrated
AO2 some awareness of the use of or carefully chosen
protagonists within narratives  some sense of where the protagonists appear
some awareness of other narrative structurally and some sense of the writers‟ crafting in
Band 2
methods in relation to the relation to the protagonists
(8-14)
protagonists  beginnings of some discussion about meanings that
some awareness of how the might arise from the protagonists; may be uneven
AO3 protagonists are used to shape the  beginnings of an argument but unlikely to be
stories in the three texts detailed; may be drifting
some awareness of the significance  some basic details included of two of the texts,
of the protagonists perhaps less on the third
some awareness of how to use
textual support
AO1 quality of writing hinders meaning;  likely to identify one or two protagonists in one or two
little relevance to task; little sense of authored works; very little understanding of how the
argument protagonists are used
 likely to produce some writing about the texts,
AO2 very little grasp of the use of any unlikely to be focused
protagonists in narratives  little sense of where the protagonists appear
very little grasp of narrative structurally and little sense of the writers‟ crafting in
Band 1 methods in relation to the relation to the protagonists
(1-7) protagonists  little sense of any meaning arising from the
protagonists
AO3 very little grasp of how the  argument unlikely to be shaped
protagonists are used to shape the  thin coverage of any text
stories in the three texts
very little grasp of the significance
of the protagonists
little textual support
 nothing written or writing which has nothing to do
0 marks
with texts or task

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 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

4 2

Write about the significance of the ways the three writers you have studied create and use
suspense in their narratives.

Moments of suspense needs to be clearly identified in relation to the over arching

story.

Possible content:
comments might be about
 how the use of suspense affects the plot line eg Porphyro‟s preparation of the erotic
encounter with Madeline
 where the suspense appears in the text eg the balloon incident in chapter 1 of Enduring
Love, the build-up to the birth of Queenie‟s baby at the end of Small Island
 how the writers use language to create suspense eg the description of Godiva‟s
undressing, the freezing of the moment of Hassan‟s rape
 how the use of suspense might excite, move or disturb readers, eg the slow build up to
the meeting between Rahel and Estha in the 1992 time frame might be anticipated or be
thought shocking
 how the use of suspense helps to reveal character, eg Darcy‟s apparent change of
character when he meets with Elizabeth at Pemberley
 how suspense might be frustrated or on-going, eg „Mariana‟, „Tithonus‟

Accept comment on any kind of suspense – in relation to action, epiphanies, internalisation

within characters, etc

Accept any valid discussion of suspense and its significance in relation to the stories being
told.

51
 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Typical answers might be characterised by the

AO Performance Descriptors
descriptors below
AO1 sophisticated expression; excellent use  likely to be perceptive in the evaluation of the
of critical vocabulary; technically fluent ways suspense is used; excellent understanding
and accurate writing; sophisticated of what the suspense might signify
shaped argument
 textual support is likely to be excellently
selected and integrated
AO2 evaluation of the ways suspense is
 integrated evaluation of the writers‟ crafting in
used in relation to the stories
relation to the ways suspense is used
Band 6 evaluation of other narrative methods in
 evaluative discussion of meanings that arise
(36-42) relation to the ways suspense is used
from the ways suspense is used; evaluation of
evaluation of the ways suspense is potential meanings with a confident and assured
voice
used across the three texts
AO3 evaluation of the significance of the  argument likely to be very well structured and
ways suspense is used sustained
evaluation of well chosen supportive  excellent discussion of three texts in terms of
references depth of evaluation
AO1 confident and assured expression;
appropriate use of critical vocabulary;  likely to analyse the ways suspense is used in a
accurate and generally fluent writing; confident way; very good understanding of what
assured argument the suspense might signify
 textual support is likely to be very well chosen
AO2 analysis of the ways suspense is used and wide ranging
in relation to stories  secure analysis of the writers‟ crafting in relation
Band 5 analysis of other narrative methods in to the ways suspense is used
(29-35) relation to the ways suspense is used  detailed discussion of meanings that arise from
the ways suspense is used; explanation of
analysis of the ways suspense is used potential meanings with a confident personal
across the three texts voice
AO3 analysis of the significance of the ways  argument likely to have a shape and purpose
suspense is used  secure discussion of three texts in terms of
analysis of well chosen supportive depth of analysis
references
AO1 clear expression; clear use of critical  likely to clearly identify examples of the ways
vocabulary; accurate writing; clear suspense is used in three texts and develop
argument points in a clear way; clear understanding of
what the suspense might signify
AO2 explanation of the ways suspense is  textual support is likely to be relevant and
used in relation to the stories appropriately chosen
Band 4 explanation of other narrative methods  clear understanding of the writers‟ crafting in
(22-28) in relation the ways suspense is used relation to the ways suspense is used
 clear discussion of meanings that arise from the
explanation of the ways suspense is ways suspense is used; explanation of potential
used across the three texts meanings with a clear personal voice
AO3 explanation of the significance of the  argument likely to be clear and consistent
ways suspense is used  clear coverage of three texts in terms of
explanation of textual support
explanation

52
 Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Literature B – LITB1 – January
2013

Typical answers might be characterised by the

AO Performance Descriptors
descriptors below
AO1 generally clear expression; some  likely to identify examples of the ways suspense
understanding of critical vocabulary; is used in each of the three texts and develop
generally accurate writing; relevant to points in a fairly straight forward way; some
task understanding of what the choice of suspense
might signify
AO2 some understanding of the ways  textual support is likely to be integrated and
suspense is used in relation to stories relevant but not always consistent
some understanding of other narrative  some understanding of the writers‟ crafting in
Band 3 methods in relation to the ways relation to the ways suspense is used
(15-21) suspense is used  some discussion of meanings that arise from
the ways suspense is used; some development
some understanding of the ways of ideas about meanings; some evidence of a
AO3 suspense is used across the three texts voice
some understanding of the significance  argument likely to be developing but may not be
of the ways suspense is used consistent
some understanding of how to use  some discussion of two or three texts; thinner
textual support coverage of the third perhaps
AO1 simple writing; some awareness of  likely to identify three or more examples of the
critical vocabulary; may be technical ways suspense is used or produce some
weaknesses; some relevance to task; discussion of one or two uses; beginnings of an
some sense of argument understanding of what the type of suspense
might signify
AO2 some awareness of the ways suspense  textual support is likely but it may not be
is used in the stories integrated or carefully chosen
some awareness of other narrative  some sense of where suspense appears
Band 2 methods in relation to the ways structurally and some sense of the writers‟
(8-14) suspense is used crafting in relation to the ways suspense is used
some awareness of the ways suspense  beginnings of some discussion about meanings
AO3 is used across the three texts that might arise from the ways suspense is
some awareness of the significance of used; may be uneven
the ways suspense is used  beginnings of an argument but unlikely to be
some awareness of how to use textual detailed; may be drifting
support  some basic details included of two of the texts,
perhaps less on the third
AO1 quality of writing hinders meaning; little
relevance to task; little sense of  likely to identify one or two examples of the
argument ways suspense is used in one or two authored
works; very little understanding of what
AO2 very little grasp of the ways suspense examples of suspense might signify
is used in the stories  likely to produce some writing about the texts,
Band 1 very little grasp of narrative methods in unlikely to be focused
(1-7) relation to the ways suspense is used  little sense of the writers‟ crafting in relation to
very little grasp of the ways suspense
the ways suspense is used
AO3 is used across the three texts
 little sense of any meaning arising from the
very little grasp of the significance of
ways suspense is used
the ways suspense is used
 argument unlikely to be shaped
little textual support
 thin coverage of any text

 nothing written or writing which has nothing to

0 marks
do with texts or task

53
Candidate A

Question 1: How does Auden tell the story in ‘O What is That Sound’?

This poem tells a rather unusual and incomplete story about two people, perhaps a husband
and wife, who are engaged in a conversation about the approach of soldiers. At first the
soldiers are in the valley at some distance, but as the story progresses they get closer and
finally break the lock of the couple’s door, with heavy boots upon the floor and their eyes
burning. The progression of the soldiers is told to the reader by the two voices: one voice
naively asks questions which the second voice answers in a seemingly comforting way (‘O why
have they left the road down there...Perhaps a change in their orders, dear’). At the
conclusion of the story, the unity of the two speakers is splintered, like the door, as one
speaker clearly betrays the other: ‘I promised to love you dear,/ But I must be leaving’.

The poem is a ballad, but unlike a traditional ballad of love and romance, this story deals with
fear and desertion. Auden incorporates the sound of ‘drumming’ into the poem’s rhythm,
building up suspense and tension as the story progresses to its dramatic terrifying climax – or
more properly anti climax. ‘Drumming, drumming’ and ‘coming’ establish the insistent rhythm
in the first stanza and there is a close but discordant echo in the final stanza with ‘turning,
turning’ and ‘burning’. That the story ends with the word ‘burning’ is significant: there is a
suggestion of hell fire.

Auden has written the poem with a quatrain rhyming pattern of ABAB which, coupled with
regimental repetition (‘their horses, their horses’ and ‘so cunning, so cunning’), reflects the
sound of drumming: ‘Why are they suddenly wheeling, wheeling?/ Perhaps a change in their
orders, dear,/ Why are you kneeling?’

Although the poem is a conversation, there are no speech marks. Thus one cannot tell when
one person has actually finished talking and when the second begins, leaving much to the
reader’s interpretation. The lack of identity of the speakers is also significant creating an
unnerving quality, especially in contrast to the more concrete scarlet coated soldiers.

The ambiguity that marks this story also extends to Auden’s choices of place and time settings.
The scarlet soldiers suggest an earlier time setting from Auden’s present. However, the use of
the present tense, suggests that conflict and the destruction of personal loyalties are timeless
54
themes. The place setting is clearly rural (the valley, with farmers and village parson), perhaps
making the soldiers with their metal weapons and military manoeuvring, more threatening.

The title ‘O What is That Sound’ is structurally important: it is repeated as a question by the
first speaker in the opening stanza and it is answered unequivocally in the final stanza, by the
splintering of the door and the thud of the heavy boots on the floor.

55
Candidate B

“In The Great Gatsby the lower social classes are presented as crude and vulgar.”

How do you respond to this view?

It is easy to say that the lower classes are vulgar due to their representation in Chapter 2. The
party illuminates their materialistic natures, desire for high social class, and through their
unrepenting attitude towards adultery. However, the rich can easily be argued as being
equally vulgar; their fickle love for each other overshadowed by their love for material
possessions, but blatant mistreatment of such things. They can be seen as wasteful and
hideous people as well. Furthermore, George Wilson’s love for Myrtle is apparently true, and
his honest living contrasts with that of Gatsby, hinting that in some cases the lower social
classes are more appealing than the high social classes.

In Chapter 2, Tom’s relationship with his mistress is explored. Her appearance is described
negatively, as having a ‘thickish figure’. Her attitude towards her adulterous relationship with
Tom shows no remorse, her screaming in jealousy “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” showing this, a lack of
respect for the person whose husband she is cheating with. Her appearance and personality
add towards an incredibly vulgar character, enhanced by her apartment in New York described
as having “tapestried furniture too big for it” giving a pretentious representation of what she
thinks is upper class.

On the other hand, there are two people in adulterous relationships. Tom, who is high class, is
just as vulgar and disrespectful as Myrtle. His power lust leads him to start a relationship with
low-class Myrtle, and his treatment of her husband – “‘No he doesn’t,’ said Tom coldly” is as
equally disrespectful as Myrtle’s behaviour towards Daisy. His treatment of women also adds
to his vulgar image, as he “broke her nose with his open hand”. He feels that because he has
more money than Myrtle, he can treat her how he likes. This illustrates how the high class are
just as vulgar as the low class.

George Wilson’s job owning a garage is an honest living. He is low class, but his image is not
vulgar in any way. Although it is not a positive image (Wilson is described as a “blond,
spiritless man”), there is nothing crude about him. His living contrasts with Gatsby, who
associates with Wolfsheim who “Fixed the 1919 World Series”. Gatsby’s high class and money

56
originate from violence and illegal behaviour as a bootlegger, whereas George Wilson works
hard as a mechanic.

Wilson is also one of the few characters in the story who shows true love towards his spouse,
although it isn’t returned. When Myrtle dies, Wilson seeks out her apparent killer for revenge.
Once he has killed Gatsby, he kills himself, because he can’t live without Myrtle. In this way we
see how Wilson is an example of a low-class man who is not vulgar unlike the high social class
characters in the story.

To finish, I would say that using Wilson as an example illustrates how not all the lower social
class characters are vulgar, and that in comparison, Gatsby and Tom can be seen to have
hideous personality traits. However, Myrtle and the rest of the party goers act in a way that
disgusts Nick showing that there are equal amounts of vulgarity throughout the social classes.

57
Candidate C

Write about the significance of the ways the three writers you have studied create and use
suspense in their narratives.

Each of the writers I have chosen use suspense, often as a tool to keep a reader reading into
the next chapter or stanza but sometimes to put specific focus on one event. In The Kite
Runner, suspense is created by cliff-hangers which occur at the ends of chapters and are often
used to foreshadow important events. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald can be seen to slow
down the pace around important moments in the novel to increase suspense and focus the
reader on what is about to happen. It could be argued that Keats uses suspense as a tool to be
manipulated in a slightly more free and interesting way than the other two writers, often
subverting what is expected at the payoff of the suspense.

In The Kite Runner, Hosseini uses a number of suspense builders at the ends of his chapters as
a way of heightening the tension before the start of a new chapter. Take, for instance, the end
of Chapter Four, which ends with the line ‘But I never got to finish that sentence. Because
suddenly Afghanistan changed forever’. This shows the reader that the next chapter will not
be concerned as much with what has characterised the earlier chapters – that is, Amir’s
relationship with Hassan and his struggles for his father’s approval. This use of suspense has
the effect of raising the tension for the reader as we wonder what exactly happened to the
country.

The Kite Runner also creates suspense to foreshadow important events that are to come in the
narrative. For instance, Hosseini’s retrospective narrator, Amir, refers obscurely to the rape of
Hassan (one of the most important events in the novel) many times before it happens. It is
never made clear that the dark event to which he alludes is actually a rape. On the very first
page of the novel, Amir describes that he ‘became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a
frigid overcast day’. This shows us from the very start of the novel that what is to be described
later is of great importance to the novel as a whole. Another example of Hosseini’s
foreshadowing Hassan’s rape comes at the end of Chapter Five, the last line of which is ‘that
was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling’. This gives us more information about what is to
come but still does not tell us what happens, and this withholding creates suspense which
makes the reader want to know what happens. However, when the rape occurs (in Chapter 7

58
at the end of the kite flying competition) despite our anticipation, it is more horrible and
shocking than we might have anticipated.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses suspense in a slightly different way – to slow down events
so that the reader is focused on what is about to happen. A good example of this can be found
in Fitzgerald’s treatment of the build up to the death of Gatsby. This section takes the tone of
a blow-by-blow police report, noting what happened, with specific times and places, as Wilson
makes his way to Gatsby’s house. The way that each specific time is listed slows down the
narrative and forces the reader to consider every word and every detail in the run up to the
next section. Fitzgerald uses accounts of ‘boys who had seen a man acting sort of crazy’ and
people who drove past to hint that people have been questioned about whether or not they
had seen Wilson on his way. The fact that the most emotive word in this particular section,
‘crazy’, is a quote from a passerby suggests a procedural, clinical approach. The police are then
mentioned, so it is obvious that they are involved and that what is being built up to involves a
crime being committed. This heightens the suspense very much as the reader is left guessing
as to what happened, knowing only that Wilson ‘asked someone the way to Gatsby’s house’.
When the narrative shifts to Gatsby Fitzgerald uses the same clinical tone, describing exactly
what Wilson did while he was on his way to Gatsby, including mundanities (‘He stopped at the
garage’). This inclusion of seemingly unimportant things (‘the chauffeur asked if he needed
help, but he shook his head’) almost teases the reader by slowing down the narrative to a
painful crawl. The narrative pace seems to hang in the air a little as Fitzgerald describes the
‘unfamiliar sky’ Gatsby must have seen, and then we are told the final important detail – that
Gatsby has been shot. This slow, drawn out approach to possibly the most important scene in
the novel is a powerful tool as it makes the final realisation ‘the chauffeur ... heard the shots’
even more surprising as the reader has slowed down with the book and this sudden
acceleration is jolting. Here Gatsby makes successful use of suspense through a slowed down
narrative to take the suspense to a powerful level and make a key scene in the novel have
even more weight.

Keats, in his narratives, sometimes makes use of suspense as a tool to lure the reader into an
assumption about what is going to happen, but then takes away the ‘payoff’ that is expected
at the end of this build up to focus the reader on a separate idea. A good example of this can
be found in ‘The Eve of St Agnes’, where the suspense is built up as to whether or not
Porphyro will rescue Madeline. One of the ways in which the narrator builds suspense is by
describing Porphyro as having a ‘heart on fire’ and by the descriptions of the villains keeping
59
Madeline from Porphyro; they are ‘dwarfish’ ‘barbarian hordes’ whose ‘one breast not affords
him any mercy’. Such descriptions put the reader on the side of Porphyro and we hope for his
success against his monstrous opponents. This clear narratorial bias is used to create suspense
in the reader and this suspense is then used to surprise the reader at the end of the poem,
where they are not given the conclusion they have been led to expect from the heroic tone of
the narrative. Towards the end of the poem Keats describes the two characters’ tense escape
from the castle, changing to a present tense (they glide) to make the action immediate and
heighten the suspense even further. However, when the reader’s expectations are at their
highest and the characters are literally turning the key to leave the castle, the narrative shifts
dramatically. Keats talks of the two as if they are unimportant, noting only that ‘they are gone’
and that they ‘fled away into the storm’. He then describes how all the characters he has
mentioned are now dead, that the events of the story happened long ago; thus the poem
ends. This is a dramatic shift in tone and could be said to in some ways subvert the suspense
that Keats creates in the poem. Instead of what is usually expected after a build up of
suspense, that is a significant event, Keats instead, makes a point about the dramatic events of
love and danger being largely inconsequential. This leads the reader to divert their attention
away from the story and into this new line of thought: that human life is transient and that
none of our lives have much significance in the grand scheme of time. In this way Keats uses
suspense to manipulate and divert the reader towards other issues after luring them in with
fast paced action and language.

Another way that Keats uses suspense is through showing the reader what will happen to a
character at the start of the story and then using a flashback to tell how they got there which
makes the story more affecting as we know that what the character expects will not happen. It
also gives the reader interest in the details of how the character got there. Take for instance
‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’, which starts with the ‘knight at arms, alone and palely loitering’.
Words such as ‘haggard’ and ‘woe-begone’ in the next stanza along with reference to
‘wither’d plants’ show that the knight is unhappy and isolated. This gives a strong sense of
foreboding when the knight begins to tell his story as when he describes meeting a ‘lady in the
meads’ and when she takes him to ‘her elfin grot’ the reader knows that it will not end well.
Despite this Keats uses ever kinder words to describe her including ‘sweet’, ‘wild’ and
describing that she told the knight ‘’in language strange...I love thee true’”. This creates
suspense for the reader as we see that the knight has surrendered to the faery completely and
while he feels safe to fall asleep, the reader knows that he will end up alone on the hill. This

60
suspense is then used to heighten the feelings of fear and foreboding when we see exactly
how he got there and the dream of ‘pale kings and princes, too’ is described. In this way Keats
shows us what is going to happen so that while it is happening we are not afraid for the knight
but have a stronger interest in the details of how he was left alone. This means that the reader
is more interested in reading about the dream because of the suspense created.

61
 Candidate D
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Much Ado About Nothing

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104
Taming of the Shrew
Various readers and audiences have commented that Katherina’s last speech in ‘The Taming
of the Shrew’does not provide a satisfactory comic resolution. How do you respond to the
speech within the context of the play?

The women of Elizabethan England were largely deprived of rights, careers, a voice and power. The
notorious ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women’ of 1558
epitomises the misogynistic and demeaning attitudes that existed against women at that time. In it,
the Scottish protestant leader, John Knox expresses his distain for female sovereigns whom he
believed were victims of ‘weakness’ and ‘foolishness’. Knox thought that a “woman in her greatest
perfection, was made to serve and obey man”. In Katherina’s last speech, she seems to advocate
this belief that women should submit to their husbands in her famous charge of women to “place your
hands below your husband’s foot.” This late speech is therefore greatly problematic for modern
readers and audiences as it conflicts intensely with our beliefs of equality between the sexes. For this
reason many audiences today find Katherina’s last speech simply unpalatable and a very
uncomfortable conclusion to the comedy.

If the actress playing Katherina delivers the speech completely sincerely when declaring “thy
husband is thy lord”, it would appear that she has been tamed by Petruchio. At the start of the play,
other male characters refer to Katherina as a ‘”fiend of hell”, describing her as “stark mad” “wonderful
froward”, “curst and shrewd”, suggesting she is bad tempered, foul mouthed and frightens male
characters. Indeed, Katherina does appear aggressive and violent when she “strikes” her sister
Bianca, which she justifies by claiming that “her silence flouts me and I’ll be revenged.” Here
Katherina is depicted as a bitter bully with a volatile temper that flares uncontrollably even over
someone’s silence. At this point in the play, Bianca plays a more conventional comic role, as a
silenced woman who is seeking a husband, and Katherina may be seen as representing one of the
hostile forces that has to be overcome.

Consequently, when Katherina then lectures Bianca and the widow during her speech as “froward
and unable worms” and expresses that she is

“asham’d that women are so simple

To offer war where they should kneel for peace,”

it would appear she has a completely different persona as she is reprimanding others for the
“shrewish” behaviour which she was notorious for in Padua. The new Katherina rebukes her old
behaviour “To bandy word for word and frown for frown” with men and resolves to fulfil her “duty”
towards her husband with her “true obedience”. She seems to have a newfound masculine view of
the world and to have turned against her own sex. Has Katherina been mocked into conformity with
society or has she been diminished by her husband and left broken spirited and powerless?
Katherina emphasised to Petruchio during the taming process:

“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,

Or else my heart concealing it will break,”

105
therefore expressing her right as a human being to speak her true feelings. Some audiences may
believe therefore that Katherina’s heart and spirit must have been broken by the end of the play, for
her to make a speech contrasting so starkly with her former beliefs.

The problem of this interpretation is that when performed it is deeply uncomfortable to watch as it is
offensive to both men and women. In a 1978 review of the play Michael Billington called ‘The Taming
of the Shrew’ “barbaric and disgusting” as it is “totally offensive to our age and our society”. George
Bernard Shaw wrote that it was impossible to watch the play “without being deeply ashamed” “of the
speech put into the woman’s mouth”. This would seem to suggest an unusually uncomfortable
dramatic comic experience.

This interpretation implies that Kate is completely beneath her “sovereign” of a husband with no
power whatsoever. However, the sheer length of Kate’s last speech would seem to suggest
otherwise. The forty four line speech is the longest in the play, longer than any speeches of male
characters and for once she gains the full attention of the party and is uninterrupted. It is possible
therefore, that Kate’s last speech may suggest that she has actually gained far more power than she
ever had before, suggesting that she is not beneath her husband.

Alternatively, some readers interpret that speech as if Katherina is being ironic. Even the character
Lucentio seems sceptical of Katherina’s sincerity, when he exclaims after her speech that “Tis a
wonder, by your leave, she will be tam’d so.” Some readers interpret that Katherina has learnt from
Hortensio’s earlier advice to “say as he says or we shall never go” in order to achieve what she
desires. A recent critic Coppelia Kahn, claims that not only is Katherina’s last speech ironic, but that
“the whole play is a satire on the male urge to control women”. When Petruchio forces on Kate the
belief that old Vincentio is in fact a young “gentlewoman”, Kahn states that because Kate pretends
“so wholeheartedly to accept it, we know she cannot be in earnest” which would therefore suggest
that in her final speech she is playing along with “the fantasy of male supremacy, but at the same
time she mocks it as a mere fantasy”.

The problem with this interpretation is that it leaves Petruchio looking foolish with false victory and
confines Katherina to a bitter marriage where unless she is constantly false, she still has no power.
This may still offend women, because the very necessity to outwardly submit to men again implies
that women are beneath men. It appears that women cannot be their true selves amongst the
superior, “sovereign” “lord” like husbands.

Although this interpretation suggests Katharina’s last speech has no genuine sincerity behind it, the
measured tone of the speech is slow and serious. When Katherina preaches that

“Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,

Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee” the progressive quality of her descriptions seem to
demonstrate a graceful eloquent style which she perhaps uses to show the passion and belief she
holds in her words, indicating her solemnity and earnestness. Similarly, a sarcastic reading of the
speech would insinuate that Kate feels no emotion towards Petruchio and does not love and obey”
him as she expresses, yet there is evidence to suggest that she actually cares deeply for him. The
stage directions in act five scene one explain that Kate “(kisses)” Petruchio and affectionately calls
him “love” in “the midst of the street”. It is hard to believe that Kate would perform such an overt

106
display of affection in public if she had no feelings for Petruchio. These indications of Kate’s regard
for Petruchio make it difficult to accept the ironic interpretation of her speech.

Another interpretation of the speech is that it shows Katherina is an equal in a relationship and has
gained power of her own, not by manipulation, but by being herself. From act one it is evident that
Katherina is unhappy. However when she meets Petruchio for the first time, her voice is finally heard,
as they indulge in a series of quick exchanges, each time one making a pun out of something the
other said, which they maintain for a considerable amount of time. When Petruchio calls her a “wasp”
she cleverly warns him to “beware” her “sting”, which shows they are as intelligent and witty as each
other. Here Katherina seems to benefit from the comic exchanges; they allow her to find another
voice. In Franco Zeffirelli’s film version the play on words between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard
Burton turns into a more physical interaction, which seems to indicate a physical attraction. This
interpretation suggests that Katherina has finally found someone who understands her and listens to
her, causing her to fall in love. She stays silent when Petruchio announces that they “will be married
a Sunday” and does not protest or disagree, implying that deep down she desperately wants to get
married.

Therefore her last speech may be seen as a declaration of her “love” for Petruchio, and her new life
in which she has more power and status as a married woman, and is a developed human being who
does not need to resort to violence. Her final speech appears to express her happiness of her new
life. In this sense the play can be seen as having moved towards a more conventional comic ending.

Although Katherina’s last speech causes many problems for readers and audiences because of the
sexist, male supremacist views it seems to express, in my view it becomes evident that the very
reason Katherina feels comfortable saying it is because she is in a relationship where herself and her
husband are equals. A diminished and powerless Kate would not have the strength or confidence to
deliver such a robust, forceful speech in front of a large gathering. It is quite possible to interpret that
her final speech is an expression of her love for her husband and a very effective conclusion to the
comedy.

107
Dramatic Comedy tasks for discussion
1. Very often at the heart of a comedy is disorder’. Is it fair to say that disorder is only used to create
comedy in Twelfth Night?

2. ‘The strong-minded heroines of comedy work to get their men on their own terms’ (Leggatt, 1998,
p.5). How far do you think this view is applicable to Twelfth Night?

3. ‘Clever and comic servants are stock characters of the dramatic comedy genre’. To what extent
do you agree that the clever servants of Twelfth Night represent a threat to social order?

4. ‘In the dramatic comedy genre, disorder is personified in the jester figure’. How far do you think
that Feste is simply a ‘personification of disorder’ in Twelfth Night?

5. Although ‘comedy has a function to mock killjoy figures’ (Barber), such mockery is deeply
disturbing. To what extent do you agree with this view?

6. ‘One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons’. To what extent does the gender confusion in
Twelfth Night challenge the contemporary perceptions of women?

7.‘One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons’ What significance can you find in the use of
disguise in Twelfth Night?

8. ‘Alas, poor fool, how they have baffled thee!’ Is it fair to say that love in the dramatic comedy
genre only makes characters appear foolish?

9. Explore and debate the different forms of disguise and deception in Twelfth Night. To what extent
does disguise contribute to disorder?

10. What significance does disguise have to the dramatic comedy of Twelfth Night?

11. The History Boys is a “dramatic comedy which offers serious criticism of contemporary social and
sexual conventions.” How far do you agree with this statement?

12. “Women’s roles are often tokenistic in dramatic comedy.” How far is this true of The History
Boys?

13. “The basis of the comedy is that outsiders are successfully re-integrated by the end of The
History Boys”. To what extent do you agree with this evaluation.

14. “Hector’s character is completely out of place in a comedy.” To what extent do you agree with this
critical viewpoint?

108