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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...

• Throughout this guide, a past exam-style question based on the play Macbeth has been used to illustrate ideas, but these have been written in a way that will allow you easily to transfer the idea to any other exam text, whether another ‘Gothic’ text or Pastoral.

• To achieve a high grade in your exam answer, one major precondition exists:
  • That you know your text well.

If that condition has been met, through classroom and personal study along with research via the Internet or other study guides, then this guide should help you achieve the...

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...

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein subtitled ‘The Modern Prometheus’ is one of the most famous novels of the Gothic genre.  Frankenstein was an offshoot of a ghost-story writing project proposed by Byron in 1816. Mary Shelley’s explanation of how she came to write this novel is used in the introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein: ‘I busied myself to think of a story… One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror.’

Shelley’s decision to ‘awaken thrilling horror’ can be seen,...

The Duke, who left Vienna in secret and who has always shied away from the limelight, returns very much in public and in the open to bring judgement and justice – hence the trumpets, symbolic perhaps of the Last Judgement? This act is one very long scene and must obviously be studied in some depth by A level students. In contrast to the revelation of the Duke’s fallibility in Act 4, here he does take on something of the role of divine ruler.

He appears at first to disbelieve totally Isabella’s charge against Angelo, sharing with...

In a Shakespearian comedy, the audience would probably now expect the rest of the play to be the outworkings of the Duke’s plan followed by a happy ending usually involving at least one wedding (AO4). The events of Act 4 show this is not going to be the case in Measure for Measure.

The first part of the Duke’s idea goes to plan. Mariana agrees to co-operate and Isabella successfully pretends to Angelo that she will meet him (and sleep with him). However, time is running out for Claudio who is supposed to be executed by eight the...

Scene 1

Escalus’ view – he appeals to Angelo to consider the possibility of his own weaknesses, a possibility Angelo will not recognise, lines 29-31

‘When I that censure him do so offend
Let mine own judgement pattern out my death
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.’

In the following section, Escalus encounters Elbow, Froth and Pompey in his role as magistrate. Note how the two parts of scene 2 are parallel; Angelo’s attitude to Claudio in his judgement and condemnation of him and Escalus’ treatment of and...

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....

Gothic is an option on two of the Literature A level syllabuses: AQA English Literature B, Unit 3 (LITB3) and the OCR A2 coursework unit (F664)

What makes Gothic?

The presence of psychological and physical terror is one key characteristic, as is a concern with morality, often...