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English Literature Course Booklet

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English Literature Course Booklet A Level Course Booklet Student Name: ___________________ PAPER 1 Approaching the Drama Exam (PartA): Othello The Question You will have a choice of two questions which will ask you to analyse a theme within the play and relate it to your knowledge of critical interpretations and context. The question will expect you to explore the use of literary and dramatic devices and the shaping of meanings within Othello. The question will usually begin with ‘Explore how. .” For example: Explore how Shakespeare presents the disturbing aspects of human nature in Othello. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors and ideas from your critical reading. In your answer, you should consider the following: • Different interpretations of the text • The writer’s use of language and technique • How the context is significant to your reading of the play Recommended Reading List: Hamlet – William Shakespeare Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe The Jew of Malta – Christopher Marlowe The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain Key Quotations Othello Critics: • "His love and his jealousy are no part of a soldiers character unless for comedy" Rymer • "Othello is... by far the most romantic figure among Shakespeare's heroes" -A.C. Bradley • "The character of Othello is unbelievable, and therefore the play is unbelievable"- Rymer • "Othello... is egotistical" - F.R. Leavis Othello Quotations: • "I follow him to serve my turn upon him" • "Valiant Moor" • "My noble Moor is true of mind" • "I had rather be a toad and lie upon the vapour of a dungeon" • "An honourable murderer" • "And smote him-thus" • "An old black ram is tupping your white ewe" Desdemona Critics: • "The silly woman his wife"- Rymer • "A woman without sense because she married a blackamoor"- Rymer • “The soft simplicity of Desdemona, confident of merit and conscious of innocence"- Johnson Desdemona Quotations: • "My sweet Desdemona" • "A most exquisite lady" • “I am Obedient" • "Your wife my lord, your true and loyal wife" • "let nobody blame him, his scorn i approve" • "Kill me tomorrow- let me live tonight!" • "A guiltless death I die!" Iago Critics: • "The cool malignity of Iago, silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his interest and venegance" Johnson • "Iago is an aesthete of evil" Hazlitt • "The joker in the pack, a practical joker of a particularly appauling kind"- W.H. Auden • "the motive hunting of motiveless malignity" -Coleridge • "Iago was inconsistent" - Rymer • "he [Iago] was despised with burning hatred and burning tears"- A.C. Bradley Iago Quotations: • “Honest Iago" • "a man he is of honesty and trust" • "Fie upon thee- slanderer!" • "O damned Iago! O inhuman dog!" • "not everyone can be a master, nor can all masters be truly followed" • "I am not what i am“ • ‘You rise to play and go to bed to work’. • "I shall be wise, for honesty's a fool" • "I follow him to serve my turn upon him" • "nothing can or shall content my soul until i am evened with him, wife for wife" • "And what's he then that says i play the villain When this advice is free I give and honest." • "Heaven is my judge" Emilia Critics: • ‘less complicated than her husband’ – Honigmann • “Emilia is the only character in the play which Iago underestimates” - Bloom Emilia Quotations: "I nothing but to please his fantasy," "Who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for 't" But I do think it is their husbands' faults If wives do fall. Say that they slack their duties, And pour our treasures into foreign laps; Or else break out in peevish jealousies, Throwing restraint upon us. Or say they strike us, Or scant our former having in despite. Approaching the Drama Exam (Part B): A Streetcar Named Desire Within the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the audience is introduced to the troubled Blanche who has travelled from (the now lost) Belle Reve, to stay with her younger sister, Stella. While there Stanley (Stella’s husband) impregnates his wife and seeks to remove Blanche from his home, culminating in her rape and loss of mental stability. The Question You will have a choice of two questions which will ask you to analyse a theme/ character within the play and relate it to your knowledge of the context. The question will expect you to explore the use of literary and dramatic devices and the shaping of meanings within ASND. The question will usually begin with ‘Explore how. .” For example: Explore the presentation of desire in A Streetcar Named Desire. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors. In your answer, you should consider the following: o Different interpretations of the text o The writer’s use of language and technique o How the context is significant to your reading of the play Recommended Reading List Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – Tenessee Williams The Glass Menagerie – Tenessee Williams Whose afraid of Virginia Woolf – Edward Albee Betrayal – Harold Pinter A View from the Bridge – Arthur Miller Key Quotations Blanche Her appearance is incongruous to the setting. She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district. …Now don’t get worried, your sister hasn’t turned into a drunkard, she’s just all shaken up and hot and tired and dirty! …I let the place go? Where were you! In bed with your – Polack! …After all, a woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion… And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare! Blanche waltzes to the music with romantic gestures. Mitch is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear. Well you do, honey lamb! Come here. I want to kiss you, just once, softly and sweetly on your mouth! She springs up and crosses to it, and removes a whiskey bottle. She pours a half tumbler of whiskey and tosses it down. Stanley Stanley carries his bowling jacket and a red-stained package from a butcher’s. [bellowing] Hey there! Stella, Baby! No. Stanley’s the only one of his crowd that’s likely to get anywhere. Stanley doesn’t give me a regular allowance, he likes to pay bills himself. You see, under the Napoleonic code – a man has to take an interest in his wife’s affairs – especially now that she’s going to have a baby. [He seizes her arm.] Don’t ever talk that way to me! "Pig – Polack – disgusting – vulgar – greasy!" – them kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister’s too much around here! What do you think you two are? A pair of queens? Remember what Huey Long said – "Every Man is a King!" And I am the King around here, so don’t forget it! Stella Oh, you can’t describe someone you’re in love with! When he’s away for a week I nearly go wild! You lay your hands on me and I’ll - [She backs out of sight. He advances and disappears. There is the sound of a blow. Stella cries out.] He was as good as a lamb when I came back and he’s really very, very ashamed of himself. Why on our wedding night – soon as we came in here – he snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing the light-bulbs with it. Mitch I gotta sick mother. She don’t go to sleep until I come in at night. You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be—you and me, Blanche? Prose (Paper 2): The Supernatural – Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters The Question You will have a choice of two questions which will ask you to compare how the writers create a supernatural aspect in their novels and relate it to your knowledge of context. The question will expect you to explore the use of literary devices and the shaping of meanings within both texts and compare. The question will usually begin with ‘Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts.” For example: Texts Pre-1900: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde; Dracula, Bram Stoker Post-1900: The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters; Beloved, Toni Morrison 9 Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts create a sense of fear in their works. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors. (Total for Question 9 = 40 marks) OR 10 Compare the ways in which settings are created and used by the writers of your two chosen texts. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors. (Total for Question 10 = 40 marks) Recommended Reading List: Dracula by Bram Stoker Dracula: York Notes Advanced The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters Frankenstein by Mary Shelley The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde Fingersmith by Sarah Waters Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters Historical Context of Dracula Dracula can be framed against the social and political currents of the Victorian period in English society, which existed during the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. During this time, England experienced a great deal of economic, social, and political change. Under Victoria, England expanded its colonial holdings to form an empire "on which the sun never set"—this empire extended from India to ports in China, to islands in the Caribbean, to portions of Africa in which England had trading and other financial interests.
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