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Specifications and Assessment Objectives

AQA English Literature A A2 Unit 3 Reading for Meaning: Love through the Ages Examination

Content

Candidates should read at least three texts in order to prepare for a paper which will contain unprepared passages for close study, comparison and critical commentary.

The topic for this unit is Love Through the Ages. ‘Love’ will include romantic love but will not be restricted to that...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

Studying For The Exam

The title of this AQA A2 Unit is Reading for Meaning – Love through the Ages. It is worth taking a moment to consider the significance of the title. What are your thoughts? What ‘meaning’ exactly is the exam asking you to elicit? Is your interpretation of what a text means necessarily the same as someone else’s?

“Meaning” is created when language works to signify a response in...

This collection of lesson starters for A Level English Literature complement the collection of ‘ice breakers’ and general English starters for broad recapping ideas, word games, creative writing starters, essay skills, general terms activities and skill builders. See A Level English Starters.

General discussion prompts are useful as broad starters once in a while. Try one of these quotations to get the class thinking:

• “Literature adds to reality. It does not simply describe it.” C. S. Lewis
• “Poetry is the best words in the best...

This collection of suggestions includes ice-breaker or ‘getting to know you’ ideas which are especially suitable for a new class and some broadly ‘English’ lesson starters suitable for either English Language or Literature (or the combined English Language and Literature A Level) lessons, and some specific topic-related ideas. The focus here is on suitable starters for A Level classes, as starters for lower levels and younger ages are more readily available.

Ice Breakers

Human Bingo is an old favourite which can be quite easily given...

Teacher’s Note

Even a poor essay is the result of a substantial amount of time and effort; and the chances are that the student knew all along that their writing was ‘going wrong’ – but press on they must, on to what must at times seem like the bitter end. How frustrating and even belittling this process must be and how much it must reduce the student’s chances of enjoying this wonderful subject.

This guide results from many years of teaching essays in a way that seems to make writing them far more enjoyable and productive. The...

Associated Resources

• 1. Shelley - Frankenstein Walton’s Letters 1-4.pptx
• 2. Shelley - Frankenstein Allusions and Victor Ch 1-4.pptx
• 3. Shelley - Frankenstein The Birth of the Creature Ch 5-8.pptx
• 4. Shelley - Frankenstein Families Ch 15 Focus.pptx
• 5. Shelley - Frankenstein The Trial Ch 16-17.pptx
• 6. Shelley - Frankenstein Female Characters Ch18-20.pptx

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. Queen Victoria’s Reign
2. Prose
3. Poetry
4. Drama
5. Non-Fiction
6. Examination
7. Assessment Objectives, Exemplar & Contextual Linking

Queen Victoria’s Reign 1837-1901

‘It is impossible, in our condition of society, not to be sometimes a snob.’ William Makepeace Thackeray 1811-1863

‘Each class of society has its own requirements; but it may be said that every class teaches the one immediately below it; and if the highest class be ignorant, uneducated, loving display,...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

In this examination you are required to answer two questions. There is no choice and each question carries the same number of marks – 40 for each question, so obviously you need to give them equal time and attention.

You must familiarise yourself fully with what is required of you because if you do not follow the instructions correctly you will lose marks, no matter how brilliant your wrong answer is.

So,...

Austen is well known for her mastery of free indirect discourse, her omniscient third person narration and her heavy use of irony. Northanger Abbey demonstrates all of these things, but is evidently the work of a less experienced author, despite its posthumous publication date. This is partly seen in the more intrusive authorial voice, and the clear acknowledgment of the fictional nature of the ‘fable’. Northanger Abbey is also the most intentionally...

The novel takes place across three locations: Fullerton, Bath and Northanger Abbey itself. Fullerton, her childhood home, is the provincial setting which cannot provide an appropriate hero for Catherine to be a heroine – so she must leave.

As the eponymous location, the Abbey looms large in the reader’s mind, but is in fact the setting for less than half of the novel. It is significant in that it represents the major Gothic element of the novel,...

Growing Up

Northanger Abbey is not a ‘Bildungsroman’ as such, although the first chapter describing Catherine’s early years does begin to approach one. It does, however, deal with the theme of growing up and reaching adulthood far more than other Austen novels, featuring a much younger heroine with far less worldly experience. The Catherine who goes to Bath, despite her amiability, is essentially a naive and unworldly girl. It is noticeable that early...

Catherine Morland

Catherine is not a typical Gothic heroine – as Austen makes clear from the start. ‘No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine.’ She isn’t an orphan, she’s plain rather than pretty, she’s a tomboy, she isn’t clever, she isn’t musical and she isn’t artistic.  The first three make her an untypical Gothic heroine, and the last three make her an untypical romantic...

Satire is a genre, which mocks vices and follies with the intent of making a social point, and improving its target by shaming people into changing. A parody is an imitation of a specific work or type of work, with satirical or ironic intent, but aimed at the art form or text type which it imitates. Northanger Abbey is both a parody (of Gothic texts in general and The Mysteries of Udolpho in particular) and a satire...

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

An influential and immensely popular Gothic novel published in 1794, The Mysteries of Udolpho is specifically and repeatedly referenced in Northanger Abbey as one of the main influences on Catherine Morland’s impressionable imagination. The Mysteries of Udolpho features an orphan who is imprisoned by her guardian aunt’s husband, an Italian pirate, in an attempt to force her to marry his friend, rather than the...

• Aspens.ppt

1984 Film Artwork by Shepard Fairey

Areas to focus on in Part 3:

• Chapter 1 | Winston’s imprisonment in the Ministry of Love; its description at the opening of the chapter and its contrast with conventional images of love; the lack of emotion Winston shows in relation to his mother now; Winston’s love for Julia stated as fact and then it disappears.
• Chapter 2 | Winston clings to O’Brien; Winston’s love for O’Brien; the death of love in Winston; the betrayal by Julia.
• Chapter 3 | Love...

1984 Film Artwork by Shepard Fairey

Areas on which to focus in Part 2:

• Chapter 1 | Julia’s first message to Winston and his response; their meeting in the crowd at Victory Square.
• Chapter 2 | Winston and Julia meet and consummate their relationship.
• Chapter 3 | Winston and Julia meet several times; the discussion of Winston’s temptation to murder to ideologically orthodox wife, Katharine.
• Chapter 4 | Winston’s plans to use Mr Charrington’s shop as a place for him and Julia to meet; the...

1984 Film Artwork by Shepard Fairey

Love and Relationships in 1984

1984 is commonly studied at A Level and is often cited as a fine modern example of dystopian fiction. At the heart of the narrative lies a relationship between two characters: the protagonist, Winston Smith and his girlfriend and accomplice, known simply as Julia: this has both thematic and symbolic significance. In addition, Winston’s relationship with his mother, his colleagues, and O’Brien, and the relationship between the present and the past, are important, as well as...

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...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. London Labour and the London Poor
3. The Life of Charlotte Bronte
4. Mrs Beeton
5. Victorian Working Women

Advice

• How does the writer express his thoughts and feelings in this extract? Look closely and comment upon language, form and structure.
• Think of your wider reading. What could you use from your wider reading in connection with this passage?

Arthur Munby 1828-1910

Extract from Victorian Working Women

In the fork of the two railways, in a road just...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. London Labour and the London Poor
3. The Life of Charlotte Bronte
4. Mrs Beeton
5. Victorian Working Women

Advice

• How does the writer express her thoughts and feelings in this extract? Look closely and comment upon language, form and structure.
• Think of your wider reading. What could you use from your wider reading in connection with this passage?

Mrs. Beeton 1836-1865

Extract

I must frankly own, that if I had known beforehand, that this book would have...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. London Labour and the London Poor
3. The Life of Charlotte Bronte
4. Mrs Beeton
5. Victorian Working Women

Advice

• How does the writer express her thoughts and feelings in this extract? Look closely and comment upon language, form and structure.
• Think of your wider reading. What could you use from your wider reading in connection with this passage?

The Life of Charlotte Bronte

Elizabeth Gaskell

Extract from Chapter 8

On the 29th July, 1835, Charlotte,...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. London Labour and the London Poor
3. The Life of Charlotte Bronte
4. Mrs Beeton
5. Victorian Working Women

Advice

• How does the writer express his thoughts and feelings in this extract? Look closely and comment upon language, form and structure.
• Think of your wider reading. What could you use from your wider reading in connection with this passage?

London Labour and the London Poor

Henry Mayhew, 1852

Extract from Scavengers and Cleaners - Of The...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. A Doll’s House
3. The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde, 1895 (1854-1900)

Extract from Act 1

‘It is exquisitely trivial; a delicate bubble of fancy and it has its philosophy… that we should treat all the delicate things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.’

Wilde’s own comment on his masterpiece The Importance of being Earnest.

...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. A Doll’s House
3. The Importance of Being Earnest

A Doll’s House

Henrik Ibsen, 1879 (1828-1906)

Extract

Nora.  Sit down here Torvald. You and I have much to say to one another.

Hel. Nora- what is this? – this cold, set face?

Nora. Sit down. It will take some time; I have a lot to talk over with you.

Hel. You alarm me Nora! And I don’t understand you.

Nora. No, that is just it. You don’t understand me and I have never understood you either –...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. Christina Rossetti
3. Thomas Hardy
4. Alfred Lord Tennyson
5. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Cry of the Children

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
Ere the sorrow comes with years?
They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,-
And that cannot stop their tears.
The young lambs are bleating in the meadows;
The young birds are chirping in the nest;
The young fawns are playing with the shadows;
The young...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. Christina Rossetti
3. Thomas Hardy
4. Alfred Lord Tennyson
5. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Extract from Songs

‘Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:
The fire-fly wakens: waken thou with me.

Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost,
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the earth all Danae to the stars,
And all thy heart...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. Christina Rossetti
3. Thomas Hardy
4. Alfred Lord Tennyson
5. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Thomas Hardy 1840-1928

The Darkling Thrush 31 December, 1990

I leant upon a coppice gate
When frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires

The land’s sharp features seemed to be
The...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. Christina Rossetti
3. Thomas Hardy
4. Alfred Lord Tennyson
5. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Christina Rossetti 1830-1894

A Christmas Carol

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. The Diary of a Nobody
3. Mary Barton
4. Wuthering Heights
5. David Copperfield
6. Great Expectations
7. Jane Eyre
8. Nicholas Nickleby

Nicholas Nickleby

Charles Dickens, 1838 (1812-1870)

Extract from Chapter 8

But the pupils – the young noblemen! How the last faint traces of hope, the remotest glimmering of any good to be derived from his efforts in this den, faded from the mind of Nicholas as he looked in dismay around! Pale and haggard faces,...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. The Diary of a Nobody
3. Mary Barton
4. Wuthering Heights
5. David Copperfield
6. Great Expectations
7. Jane Eyre
8. Nicholas Nickleby

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte, 1847 (1816-1855)

Extract from Chapter 12

Anybody may blame me who likes, when I add further that, now and then, when I took a walk by myself in the grounds; when I went down to the gates and looked through them along the road; or when, while Adele played with her nurse, and Mrs. Fairfax...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. The Diary of a Nobody
3. Mary Barton
4. Wuthering Heights
5. David Copperfield
6. Great Expectations
7. Jane Eyre
8. Nicholas Nickleby

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens, 1860/61 (1812-1870)

Extract from Chapter 8

‘You‘re to wait here, you boy,’ said Estella; and disappeared and closed the door.

I took the opportunity of being alone in the court-yard, to look at my coarse hands and my common boots. My opinion of those accessories was not...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. The Diary of a Nobody
3. Mary Barton
4. Wuthering Heights
5. David Copperfield
6. Great Expectations
7. Jane Eyre
8. Nicholas Nickleby

David Copperfield

Charles Dickens. 1850 (1812-1870)

Extract from Chapter 4

One morning when I went into the parlour with my books, I found my mother looking anxious, Miss Murdstone looking firm and Mr. Murdstone binding something round the bottom of a cane – a lithe and limber cane, which he left off binding when I...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. The Diary of a Nobody
3. Mary Barton
4. Wuthering Heights
5. David Copperfield
6. Great Expectations
7. Jane Eyre
8. Nicholas Nickleby

Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte, 1847 (1818-1948)

Extract from Chapter 3

‘See here, wife; I was never so beaten with anything in my life; but you must e’en take it as a gift of God; though it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil.’

We crowded round, and, over Miss Cathy’s head I had a peep at a...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. The Diary of a Nobody
3. Mary Barton
4. Wuthering Heights
5. David Copperfield
6. Great Expectations
7. Jane Eyre
8. Nicholas Nickleby

Mary Barton

Elizabeth Gaskell, 1848

Extract

The two men, rough tender nurses as they were, lighted the fire, which puffed into the room as if it did not know the way up the damp, unused chimney. The very smoke seemed purifying and healthy in the thick, clammy air. The children clamoured again for bread; but this time...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. A Guide to Victorian Literature
2. The Diary of a Nobody
3. Mary Barton
4. Wuthering Heights
5. David Copperfield
6. Great Expectations
7. Jane Eyre
8. Nicholas Nickleby

The Diary of a Nobody

George and Weedon Grossmith, 1892

Extract from Chapter 12

A serious discussion concerning the use and value of my diary. Lupin’s opinion of ’Xmas. Lupin’s unfortunate engagement is on again.

December 17. As I open my scribbling diary I find the words ‘Oxford Michaelmas term ends’. Why...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. Queen Victoria’s Reign
2. Prose
3. Poetry
4. Drama
5. Non-Fiction
6. Examination
7. Assessment Objectives, Exemplar & Contextual Linking

Assessment Objectives for Question One - Victorian Literature AS English Literature

It is essential that you bear these assessment objectives in mind when planning and writing your answer.

AO1 6%

Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to literary texts using appropriate terminology and concepts, and coherent, accurate written...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. Queen Victoria’s Reign
2. Prose
3. Poetry
4. Drama
5. Non-Fiction
6. Examination
7. Assessment Objectives, Exemplar & Contextual Linking

What To Expect In The Contextual Linking Question

On opening up your examination paper you will see a short extract related to Victorian Literature which will be NON-FICTION.

It could be any one of the following;

• A letter
• A work of criticism
• A diary extract
• A biographical extract
• An autobiographical extract
• A piece of cultural commentary
• A history...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. Queen Victoria’s Reign
2. Prose
3. Poetry
4. Drama
5. Non-Fiction
6. Examination
7. Assessment Objectives, Exemplar & Contextual Linking

The following passages are non-fiction and though longer than the exam extract will be, they are similar to the type of extract you will meet in the exam.

• How do the writers express their thoughts and feelings in these extracts? Look closely and comment upon language, form and structure.
• Think of your wider reading. What could you use from your...

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. Queen Victoria’s Reign
2. Prose
3. Poetry
4. Drama
5. Non-Fiction
6. Examination
7. Assessment Objectives, Exemplar & Contextual Linking

Extracts from Victorian Literature

Each extract in the list below is accompanied by a commentary.

• A Doll’s House [1879], Henrik Ibsen 1828-1906
• The Importance of Being Earnest [1895], Oscar Wilde 1854-1900

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. Queen Victoria’s Reign
2. Prose
3. Poetry
4. Drama
5. Non-Fiction
6. Examination
7. Assessment Objectives, Exemplar & Contextual Linking

Examples from Victorian Literature

Each example in the list below is accompanied by a commentary.

• Christina Rossetti 1830-1894
  • A Christmas Carol
  • Song
  • Remember

• Thomas Hardy 1840-1928
  • The Darkling Thrush 21 December 1890

• Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • Songs

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • The Cry of the Children

Source: Work, Ford Madox Brown

1. Queen Victoria’s Reign
2. Prose
3. Poetry
4. Drama
5. Non-Fiction
6. Examination
7. Assessment Objectives, Exemplar & Contextual Linking

Extracts from Victorian Literature

Each extract in the list below is accompanied by a commentary.

• The Diary of a Nobody [1892], George and Weedon Grossmith
• Mary Barton [1848], Elizabeth Gaskell
• Wuthering Heights [1847], Emily Bronte 1818-1948
• David Copperfield [1850], Charles Dickens 1812-1870
• Great Expectations [1860/61], Charles Dickens 1812-1870
• ...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

Symptoms of Love

Robert Graves 1895-1985

To end this wider reading resource, here is a poem by Robert Graves, more famously known for his First World War poetry, where love, romantic love in this case, is treated as an illness.

‘Love is a universal migraine,
A bright stain on the vision
Blotting out reason.

Symptoms of true love
Are leanness, jealousy,
Laggard dawns;

Are omens and nightmares -
Listening...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

On Chesil Beach

Ian McEwan 1948-

All she had needed was the certainty of his love, and his reassurance that there was no hurry when a lifetime lay ahead of them. Love and patience – if only he had had them both at once – would surely have seen them both through. And then what unborn children might have had their chances, what young girl with an Alice band might have become his loved familiar? This is how...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

The First Tooth

Mary Lamb 1764-1847

Sister:
Through the house what busy joy,
Just because the infant boy
Has a tiny tooth to show!
I have got a double row,
All as white and all as small;
Yet no one cares for mine at all.
He can say but half a word,
Yet that single sound’s preferred
To all the words that I can say
In the longest summer day.
He cannot walk, yet if he put
With mimic motion out his foot,
As if...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

The Deserter

Winifred M. Letts 1882-1972

There was a man, — don’t mind his name,
Whom Fear had dogged by night and day.
He could not face the German guns
And so he turned and ran away.
Just that - he turned and ran away,
But who can judge him, you or I ?
God makes a man of flesh and blood
Who yearns to live and not to die.
And this man when he feared to die
Was scared as any frightened child,
His knees were...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

The Soldier

Rupert Brooke 1887-1915

If I should die, think only this of me:
  That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
  In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
  Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
  Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home.
And...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

A Lady of Letters

Alan Bennett 1934-

Bennett is famous for his dramatic monologues – short sketches spoken by a single character that with wry humour reveal aspects of humanity and society. In A Lady of Letters we see through Bennett’s creation of the character of Irene Ruddock, a middle-aged and lonely woman, what can occur when seemingly harmless actions lead to things getting out of hand.

I ought to be...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

Sonnet 130

William Shakespeare 1564-1616

Shakespeare, in his numerous sonnets, has written about different types of love, and shows an original, somewhat subversive view of romantic love, devoid of the usual romantic comparisons. In fact in Sonnet 130 he mocks the conventional language of love. How does the language used show that he is mocking conventional notions of beauty? Consider also aspects of...

1. Studying For The Exam
2. Examples From Literature
3. About The Exam
4. Further Reading
5. The Examination

Measure for Measure

William Shakespeare 1564-1616

The play Measure for Measure deals with the love between siblings. An old law has been reinstated which states that the penalty for pre-marital sex is death. Claudio has made his girlfriend pregnant and has been arrested and sentenced to death. He has a sister, Isabella, who is about to become a nun, whom he asks to plead for his life to the new ruler, Angelo....