AQA A Literature | Unit LITA4: ‘Literary Connections’

This novel can be chosen as a coursework text for this A2 unit.

Below is a summary of the AQA Assessment Objectives. The guide focuses on the techniques Fowles used when writing his novel, including what are called his ‘postmodern’ techniques. There are also two worked essay examples to show how you might achieve high marks in this unit.

The Assessment Objectives

It’s important thing to be aware of the assessment objectives for your piece of work or exam paper. If you know...

Edward Thomas and His Poetry

Edward Thomas is one of our most highly regarded war poets and yet in the popular imagination is perhaps less well-known; his work has attracted the highest critical acclaim.

Here are some comments:

Because all of his poetry was written after the outbreak of war, it is all, in an important sense, war poetry. Behind every line, whether mentioned or not, lies imminent danger and disruption. Andrew Motion

And from the foreword to the Collected Poems of Edward Thomas (1920)

His face was fair, long and rather...

Jane Eyre & AO2

Form, structure and language - is often considered to be the hardest Assessment Objective to cover in A level essays. In fact, all three of these in Jane Eyre contribute to the development of themes, characters and plot, so they should be form an integral part of any discussion of these. Integrating points about form, structure and language into other discussions is a better way of including them than constructing a paragraph specifically to address AO2. Here are some ideas about ways it can be tied in:

A paragraph about Jane...

Brontë uses extended passages of direct speech to tell Jane’s story. In some ways this acts as protection against Jane’s later knowledge intruding on her younger self. As a device it enables characters to speak for themselves; it enables the reader to see, for example, Rochester’s feelings about Jane when she herself cannot. Apart from her initial introduction of the Reeds, we do not usually rely on Jane’s assessment of anyone, instead being given the opportunity to judge for ourselves from their actions.

Many passages in the book...

Jane Eyre is set firmly in northern England, in five separate locations. The Reed house at Gateshead, Lowood School, Thornfield Hall, Moor House (the Rivers’ house) and Ferndean Manor, which is Rochester’s smaller, more rural home. Mary, Rochester’s housekeeper at Ferndean, gives Brontë the chance to demonstrate that her control of the Yorkshire dialect is as strong as Emily’s, who used it in so extensively in Wuthering Heights: ‘she’s noan faâl, and varry good-natured.’ The dialect emphasises the more rural and remote...

The plot has been constructed by Brontë in order to allow her to create not only an absorbing and suspenseful narrative, but also, of course, to allow her to explore several themes in interesting and often persuasive ways.

Love

Love is a strong theme throughout the novel, which is essentially a romance; it is also the aspect of the novel which is quintessentially Romantic, with a capital ‘R’, in that the love which Rochester and Jane share is an extreme emotion. Both of them confess to overpowering feelings which cloud their judgement,...

Jane Eyre

Brontë constructs the character of Jane as having been left as an orphan after her parents’ death through typhoid; Jane is initially brought up by her mother’s (dead) brother’s wife, along with their children. Her paternal family are apparently ‘poor’, and she does not know anything of them, until her aunt – on her deathbed – reveals a letter from her father’s elder brother, who has made his fortune, but who has no children to whom to leave it. Later she discovers the Rivers family – the children of her father’s...

Brontë’s choice of creating a novel narrated by a ‘first person autobiography’ narrator of Jane Eyre and ostensibly edited by ‘Currer Bell’ is a conceit that serves to heighten the identification between author and protagonist – and which adds effectively to the authenticity and authority of the narrator.

The character of Jane narrates her life with the knowledge that she herself would possess at the time, if she were a real woman, rather than foreshadowing the dramatic narrative or giving any hint of future events. The form is...

Jane Eyre was published in 1847 and was the first of Charlotte Brontë’s novels; it was written in the same year as her sister, Emily Brontë’s, only novel, Wuthering Heights.

Charlotte (born 1816), together with Emily and Anne, lived at Haworth Parsonage, in North Yorkshire, where between them, they created complicated make-believe worlds as children before growing up to write.

Their mother died when Charlotte was just five, and when she was only 9, she found herself the eldest child, looking after the family, including her brother and...

Jane Eyre Overview of Specifications & Assessment Objectives.pdf

1. ­Overview of Specifications & Assessment Objectives

2. Context

3. Form

4. Characters

5. Themes

6. Setting

7. Language

8. Writing about Jane Eyre

• March.ppt
• Old Man.ppt
• Tears.ppt
• The Glory.ppt
• Words.ppt
• As The Teams Head Brass.ppt
• But These Things Also.ppt
• Gone, Gone Again.ppt
• Lights Out.ppt
• Melancholy.ppt
• The Sun Used To Shine.ppt

A problematic section of the play in some ways where the themes are much closer to tragedy than comedy.

Scene 1

Contrast between Isabella’s expectations about her brother’s attitudes and the reality of prison and the fear of death!

Duke as Friar presents Claudio with the traditional Christian ‘consolation’ about death (a literature genre of the Renaissance AO4) which Claudio initially accepts with fortitude. However, Isabella’s hint that there could be a way of escape prompts Claudio’s vivid and emotional expression of his...

Why teach ‘Measure for Measure’?

Measure for Measure is certainly not the easiest of Shakespeare’s dramas nor is it probably one of the most popular choices when teachers are thinking about AS and A2 level specifications; however, the degree of challenge involved in teaching it is easily matched by the degree of satisfaction in teaching it when you have got to grips with this intriguing play. Students really do enjoy reading this play!

Currently, the play is a choice for teaching on several AS specifications and as a choice for...

Hamlet: tragic hero?

Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical approaches.

The aim of this teaching guide is to trace Shakespeare’s development of his eponymous hero through the play looking at aspects of language, form and structure as well as genre,...

Hamlet: tragic hero?

Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical approaches.

The aim of this teaching guide is to trace Shakespeare’s development of his eponymous hero through the play looking at aspects of language, form and structure as well as genre,...

Hamlet: tragic hero?

Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical approaches.

The aim of this teaching guide is to trace Shakespeare’s development of his eponymous hero through the play looking at aspects of language, form and structure as well as genre,...

Hamlet: tragic hero?

Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical approaches.

The aim of this teaching guide is to trace Shakespeare’s development of his eponymous hero through the play looking at aspects of language, form and structure as well as genre,...

Hamlet: tragic hero?

Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical approaches.

The aim of this teaching guide is to trace Shakespeare’s development of his eponymous hero through the play looking at aspects of language, form and structure as well as genre,...

Associated Resources

• A Student’s Guide to ’Much Ado About Nothing’ by Mandy Lloyd
• Much Ado Guide.doc

‘Much Ado about Nothing’ in context: ‘Comedy’ vs. ‘Tragedy’

Much Ado About Nothing is technically considered to be a Shakespearean ‘comedy’ of the classical kind; indeed, it’s even frequently taught at KS3 owing to its frequent comic tone. The witty and entertaining exchanges between the main protagonists Beatrice and Benedick have been the subject of much literary criticism and are often considered to be the most...

Associated Resources

• Part 1 - AWONI Teaching Guide.doc
• Part 2 - AWONI Annotated Guide.doc
• Part 3 - AWONI Teaching Guide.doc

Why you might like to teach this text!

A Woman of No Importance is a wonderful text to teach and your students will enjoy studying it.

It is short, it has an absorbing and convincing plot and its themes are easily recognised, interestingly explored and persuasively presented.

On top of this, Wilde is a fine and witty dramatist who uses his chosen form in fascinating ways not only, at the level of plot, to entertain but...

Associated Resources

• A Guide to Much Ado About Nothing by Steph Jackson
• Much Ado About Nothing - Student’s Guide.doc

This brief study guide focuses on the themes, language and issues of the play relevant to the current A-Level Literature specification AO2 requirement of form, structure and language: ‘demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which structure, form and language shape meanings in literary texts’.

The guide also explores some areas of the historical context of the play which will assist you with...

Although analysing a text at the level of narrative is a direct requirement of some English Literature courses, such as AQA’s LITB1, it is an analytical technique that can be quite generally applied across many texts – even non-fictional and media texts.

Associated Resources

A Guide to Teaching Othello

Click on the link below to download this resource.

Othello Guide Part 2 EnglishEdu.doc

Othello Guide Part 2 EnglishEdu.docx

Associated Resources

How to improve grades when writing for Othello

This EnglishEdu guide on Shakespeare’s popular A Level play, Othello, aims to supplement rather than replace other readily available Internet and printed material for the teaching of the play.

The guide explores the issues, themes and characters in the play that are particularly relevant to the current (2010) A Level Literature specifications. To add to the usefulness, and with an eye to the central AO requirement of close textual analysis of form, structure and...

Introduction

The tenth in the EnglishEdu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature.

This guide explores how to analyse narrative viewpoint in novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Narrative viewpoint: Atonement by Ian McEwan

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to analyse a text closely in terms of narrative viewpoint is to exemplify it. The extract below is followed by a series of bullet points which demonstrate how to analyse closely using carefully...

Introduction

The fifteenth in the EnglishEdu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature.

This guide explores how to analyse the genre of novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Genre: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (gothic); Hamlet by William Shakespeare (tragedy); As You Like It by William Shakespeare (pastoral)

NB Whilst the EnglishEdu Literature Frameworks generally analyse novels, short stories or prose extracts, the specific nature of the tragic and pastoral genres...

Introduction

The fourteenth in the EnglishEdu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature.

This guide explores how to help students analyse the context of novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow them access to the highest grades.

Context: On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to analyse a text closely in terms of context is to exemplify it. The extract below is followed by a series of bullet points which demonstrate how to analyse closely using carefully chosen...

Introduction

The thirteenth in the EnglishEdu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature.

This guide explores how to analyse the symbolism in novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Symbolism: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to closely analyse a text in terms of the theme above is to exemplify it. The extract below is followed by a series of bullet points which demonstrate how to analyse closely using carefully chosen...

Introduction

This is the twelfth in the EnglishEdu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature.

This guide explores how to analyse the narrative presentation of time in novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Time: The Time Machine by H G Wells

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to closely analyse a text in terms of the theme above is to exemplify it. The extract below is followed by a series of bullet points which demonstrate how to analyse closely using...

Introduction

The eleventh in the EnglishEdu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature.

This guide explores how to analyse how authors create a convincing sense of realism or ‘verisimilitude’ in novels, short stories or prose extracts.

An analysis at a level like this is capable of revealing the kind of subtle insights that allow students access to the highest grades.

Verisimilitude: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to analyse a text closely in terms of verisimilitude is...

Introduction to the Literary ‘Frameworks’ Guides

At EnglishEdu our wish is always to try to help you, the often stressed and overworked English teacher, with something that you will feel is both very useful and – where possible – very different from what might be found elsewhere, either on the Internet or in print.

All of the guides, schemes of work and classroom materials on EnglishEdu have been written and produced by experienced and well-respected English teachers.

The guides are based on their best experience of teaching...

Introduction

The ninth in the Englishedu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature, this guide explores and exemplifies an important requirement of many A-level English Literature teaching units, that students show how their own interpretation of a literary text is informed by their understanding that other possible interpretations exist, i.e. ‘alternative interpretations’.

‘Alternative Interpretations’: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to closely analyse a text in...

Introduction

The eighth in the Englishedu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature, this guide looks at ways of analysing an author’s use of irony in novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Irony: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to closely analyse a text in terms of the theme above is to exemplify it. The extract below is followed by a series of bullet points which demonstrate how to analyse closely using...

Introduction

The seventh in the Englishedu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature, this guide explores how to analyse an author’s use of description, imagery and figurative language in novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Description, imagery, figurative language: Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to closely analyse a text in terms of the theme above is to exemplify it. The extract below is followed...

Introduction

The sixth in the Englishedu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature, this guide explores how to analyse the dialogue in novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Dialogue: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to closely analyse a text in terms of the theme above is to exemplify it. The extract below is followed by a series of bullet points which demonstrate how to analyse closely using carefully chosen...

Introduction

The fifth in the Englishedu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature, this guide explores and exemplifies ways of analysing aspects and uses of atmosphere, mood, tone and foreshadowing in novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Atmosphere, mood, tone and foreshadowing: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to closely analyse a text in terms of the theme above is to exemplify it. The extract below is...

Introduction

The fourth in the Englishedu series on ‘frameworks’ for A Level English Literature, this guide explores how to analyse authors’ uses of setting in novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Setting, places and scenes: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to closely analyse a text in terms of the theme above is to exemplify it. The extract below is followed by a series of bullet points which demonstrate how to analyse...

Introduction

The third in the Englishedu ‘literary frameworks’ series for A Level English Literature, this guide explores and exemplifies ways of analysing an author’s creation and presentation of characters in novels, short stories or prose extracts in order to allow students access to the highest grades.

Characters and characterisation: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The most straightforward way of demonstrating how to closely analyse a text in terms of the theme above is to exemplify it. The extract below is followed by a...

Introduction

This is the second in the Englishedu series on ‘analytical frameworks’ aimed, primarily, at A Level English Literature teachers.

The guides are loosely based on the English Language A level idea of ‘analytical frameworks’ – a way that allows students a more methodical way of viewing texts at various analytical levels to help them create subtler and thus better commentaries and discussions on any text under study.

Each ‘framework’ is covered in detail and its use is exemplified using textual examples chosen...

Introduction

At EnglishEdu our aim is to help the overworked English teacher (including this writer!) with something that you will feel is both very useful and – where possible – very different from what might be found elsewhere, either on the Internet or in print.

All of the guides, schemes of work and classroom materials on Englishedu have been produced by experienced and well-respected English teachers. The guides are based on their best experience of teaching particular units of work.

This new guide is something a little unusual....

Click here to download this response as a PDF file.

This response was written for an exam paper I wrote myself (as there are only currently 2 available AQA papers for this module, the Specimen one and the January 2010 one).

The extracts are:

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Extract where Connie meets Mellors at the chicken coop. From:

‘Connie crouched in front of the last coop’ to ‘‘You lie there,’ he said softly, and he shut the door, so that it was dark, quite dark.’

Romeo & Juliet

Extract from Act 1 scene 5. From:

ROMEO [To JULIET] If I...

Click here to download this response as PDF file.

January 2010

Annie Besant makes her thoughts entirely clear from the first sentence she writes: a ‘Bitter memory’ about an issue extremely close to many Victorian women’s hearts, gender inequality. The ‘woman question’ was present in many literary pieces of the ‘golden age’. Hardy, a poet, was known for his idealisation of women, especially in the ‘Emma poems’, however few writers tackled head on the persecution women faced.  Besant also talks of gender discrimination in the...

Click here to download this response as PDF file.

June 2009

Cultural commentator John Ruskin comments on the ‘separate characters’ of men and women. Strict Victorian values dictated that the male’s role was in the outside world and the woman’s in domestic settings. There is no room for individuality, love or an upset order-like cogs in the machine men and women could function together if they kept their separate roles. In the article he describes this as an agreeable working relationship for men and women alike but Victorian...

Click here to download this response as a PDF file.

June 2009

During the Victorian Era, women were expected by society’s standards to be the carers for their home and their families. ‘The Gilded Age’ showed women how they were to be and how they were to act, highlighting the corruption of society with no free speech or lifetime ambitions fulfilled. John Ruskin makes it clear to the audience that men were ‘the creator, the discoverer, the defender’ whereas women were to stay at home and attend to the man’s needs, rather than their...

Click here to download this response as a PDF file.

June 2009

The ‘Golden Age’ of the Victorian Era was a time when women were looked upon in the toughest of lights. Society watched closely with a judging eye at any female breaking the conventions that other women such as Mrs Beeton had set. John Ruskin, being a cultural commentator, would have been all too aware of ‘the Angel of the house’. He sees the domestic expectation forced upon Victorian women while their husbands ‘create’, ‘discover’ and ‘defend’.

Ruskin seems...

Click here to download this response as a PDF file.

[This is a response to the January 2010 LITA3 paper.]

Both extracts C and D, Stoppard’s ‘The Invention of Love’ and Hall’s ‘The Well of Loneliness’, explore the idea of forbidden love and challenge the traditional view of what ‘love’ really is, and means.

Both of the extracts have a dominant character: Stoppard’s is the dead ‘AEH’ whilst Hall’s is Stephen. Their dominance can be seen in their overwhelmingly long speeches, compared to the other character’s...

Click here to download this response as a PDF file.

[This is a response to the Specimen Question Paper at:
http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA-LITA3-W-SQP-07.PDF]

Both ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare and ‘The Woodlanders’ by Thomas Hardy display similar views of the love after and beyond death, despite the large time gap between their publications.

Hardy’s portrayal of Marty South’s deep and everlasting love for Giles Winterborne in her weekly visits to his grave show this theme of love beyond death. Despite the...

Click here to download this response as a PDF file.

[This is a response to the Specimen Question Paper at:
http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA-LITA3-W-SQP-07.PDF]

Hardy and Shakespeare both write about the parting of those who love each other. However, the partings contrast greatly in that the love of Romeo and Juliet is reciprocated, whilst Marty and Giles were never a couple. This is emphasised by Romeo and Juliet being alive and together on stage and Giles being dead in ‘The Woodlanders’. However, the image of death does play an...

The work ‘Our Old Home’ from which the extract is taken is by an American novelist, and therefore will be a more realistic impression of the squalor and poverty.  A British person of that time might lessen the impression,  for the Victorian society was founded on ‘appearance and reality’.  So providing they could fool the majority of the public that poverty was not such a great issue they felt...