Kate Chopin

Background

Kate Chopin, Katherine O’Flaherty (February 8, 1850 — August 22, 1904) was an American writer of short stories and novels. Most of her stories are set in Louisiana with prominent female characters in her writing.

She wrote for some very well-known magazines such as Vogue, Atlantic Monthly and The Century Magazine and the public enjoyed her short stories. Her two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899) were given different reactions by her audience; people barely commented on At Fault but The Awakening was...

Teacher’s Note

This guide has been tested successfully with students and gives them ways for them to develop a much deeper response to literature, with a particular, but not exclusive, focus on poetry. It also shows how to analyse at the levels of form, structure and language – the first two of which seem to cause near universal difficulties.

Background

H.G. (Herbert George) Wells was born on September 21st 1866 and died in 1946, a year after WW2 ended. He came from a working class background but thanks to a small inheritance, his parents ran a hardware shop in Kent but this became financially insolvent and a burden on the family.  His own background is what inspired him to write in the genres he did – entertaining stories that, through their absorbing often futuristic plots allowed him to comment, convincingly, on issues he felt needed addressing in his own society. He was a...

1. Introduction
2. The Withered Arm
3. The Son’s Veto
4. Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver
5. Absent-mindedness in a Parish Choir
6. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion
7. The Distracted Preacher

This guide has been written with a focus on AQA Unit 4, Section B (‘Approaching Shakespeare and the English Literary Heritage’); however, Hardy’s stories are popular and the guide will be useful for any exam board specification.

In the AQA unit specifically, candidates will need to read texts from the so-called...

It is because we cannot see the reader that writing needs to be different from speech. A reader is distant and so we cannot notice any misunderstandings or loss of interest that occur as they read. This creates a need for clarity in writing that isn’t so important in speech. The style and structure we adopt for example needs to be more formal; and the need to create and maintain interest means that writing should be lively. In the case of school essays, the reader is the teacher or examiner who awards marks and a grade, something that can...

Source: RSC / Peter Cook

Below are some general notes aimed at students, intended to help them analyse any stage play.

Plot and Theme

When a writer creates a story, whether for page or stage, there are two linked aspects that you can analyse and discuss in your school essays: plot and theme.

Plot

When we read or watch anything, we give time over to it. For us to feel this time will be well spent and worthwhile, the writer needs, from the outset, to find ways to interest and absorb us into the world of the fictional story or play, the...

Source: Royal Court Theatre, London | VAM

1. Studying a Play
2. A Guide to The Crucible

The Crucible

1. Background

Although Miller based his play on the seventeenth century US Salem witchcraft trials, the themes of the play are universal and probably timeless. There are parallels between the play and the lengths people will go to, for example, to separate themselves from anyone suddenly under the scrutiny of those in authority; and we all know how easy it is to leap to conclusions based on faulty judgments.

Witchcraft,...

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

1. Introduction
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

Introduction

This short popular novel is a ghost story with gothic elements. The Woman in Black was originally published in 1983 and a successful cinema adaptation was produced in 2012 starring Daniel Radcliffe (directed by James Watkins with screenplay by Jane Goldman).

In an interview, Susan Hill described ghost stories as follows:

AQA English Literature GCSE

3d Unit 4: Approaching Shakespeare and the English Literary Heritage

AQA English GCSE

3c Unit 3 Understanding and producing creative texts

AO1: respond to texts critically & imaginatively; select & evaluate textual details to illustrate & support interpretations
AO2: explain how language, structure & form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes & settings....[ read full article ] »

1. Introduction
2. The Withered Arm
3. The Son’s Veto
4. Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver
5. Absent-mindedness in a Parish Choir
6. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion
7. The Distracted Preacher

This story, first published in 1879 is set in the early 1830s; it is told in the ‘third person’ by an ‘omniscient narrator’ a narrative choice and device that allows Hardy to create a usefully biased narrator when useful to his plot and themes, sharing details with the reader about characters that other characters...

1. Introduction
2. The Withered Arm
3. The Son’s Veto
4. Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver
5. Absent-mindedness in a Parish Choir
6. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion
7. The Distracted Preacher

First published in 1890. Hardy was always interested in the events of the Napoleonic Wars – his grandfather had been a volunteer in the local militia in 1804/5 when it was feared that if Napoleon invaded England he might come via the Dorset coast. Hardy wrote The Trumpet Major and several short stories about the...

1. Introduction
2. The Withered Arm
3. The Son’s Veto
4. Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver
5. Absent-mindedness in a Parish Choir
6. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion
7. The Distracted Preacher

This story is similar in style to Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver: a first person narrative, amusing story, very short.

The opening paragraph introduces the choir in detail. It seems very personal – all the musicians are introduced by name and instrument. This shows that the narrator knows the choir well. We are also told...

1. Introduction
2. The Withered Arm
3. The Son’s Veto
4. Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver
5. Absent-mindedness in a Parish Choir
6. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion
7. The Distracted Preacher

This short story was first published in 1891. It is told by a narrator as if they are recounting an incident from the past. It is told in an amusing way and there is no criticism of the characters or the events. Hardy uses the story to comment on the relationship between men and women. Hardy’s own relationships with...

1. Introduction
2. The Withered Arm
3. The Son’s Veto
4. Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver
5. Absent-mindedness in a Parish Choir
6. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion
7. The Distracted Preacher

This short story was first published in 1891, the same year as Tess of the D’Urbervilles. It is divided into 3 sections, each dealing with a specific section of the story of Sophy’s life.

Section 1

We are introduced to Sophy Twycott sitting in her wheelchair in a London park. Randolph corrects her speech and she...

1. Introduction
2. The Withered Arm
3. The Son’s Veto
4. Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver
5. Absent-mindedness in a Parish Choir
6. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion
7. The Distracted Preacher

This famous and popular story was first published in 1888. It is divided into 9 sections, each dealing with a separate part of the story. These are:

• A Lorn Milkmaid
• The Young Wife
• A Vision
• A Suggestion
• Conjuror Trendle
• A Second Attempt
• A Ride
• A Water-side Hermit
• A Rencounter

Each section tells a self-contained part of...

Act 5

Act 5 scene 1

Brutus and Cassius make a military mistake.
Cassius regrets letting Antony live.
Octavius and Antony compete for control.

The final Act concerns the final conflict between the two sides and is compressed into 5 fairly short scenes.  Again Shakespeare compresses time for dramatic purposes.  There were actually 2 battles at Philippi and they were about 3 weeks apart.  Shakespeare merges these into one continuous battle and brings Antony and Octavius face to face with...

Act 4

Act 4 scene 1

Antony and Octavius plan their revenge.

This scene contrasts with the previous one in that the result of Antony’s victory over Brutus at the funeral is shown as political – the deliberate, cold-bloodied drawing up of a list of conspirators who must die.  According to Plutarch the list ran to 300 names. 

Antony’s opening line is flat and unemotional in contrast to the grisly subject.  Octavius and Lepidus then try to bargain for the lives of various...

Act 3

Act 3 scene 1

Caesar reaches the senate but is surrounded by the conspirators.
Caesar is stabbed by all the conspirators, finally by Brutus.
Antony meets the murderers and is given permission to speak at the funeral of Caesar.

This is the pivotal scene of the play.  The scenes in both previous Acts have been building to this moment and it provides the motives for the actions in the rest of the play.

Caesar is surrounded by the conspirators – Artemidorus and the soothsayer...

Act 2

Act 2 scene 1

Brutus considers the murder of Caesar.
Brutus reads one of the false letters and is visited by Cassius.
The decision is taken not to harm Antony or any of Caesar’s other followers.

The storm from the previous scene is continuing and Brutus refers to the darkness in the opening speech.  Darkness is symbolic in this scene – it represents the darkness and confusion in Brutus’ mind.  The conspirators arrive in darkness later in the scene which adds to the feeling...

This guide has been written to help teachers in their reading, preparation and teaching of the play. Julius Caesar can be taught as a part of several exam board English Literature units:

• AQA GCSE English Literature 4710 | Unit 4: Approaching Shakespeare & the English Literary Heritage
• AQA GCSE English 4700 | Unit 3 Understanding and producing creative texts
• OCR GCSE English Literature | 2.1 Unit A661: Literary Heritage Linked Texts
• OCR GCSE English | Unit A641 Reading literary texts
• Edexcel GCSE English Literature | Unit 3: Shakespeare and...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

The Woman in Black & The Exam

You will be studying The Woman in Black in relation to your examining board – either AQA or OCR.

AQA English Literature

This novel is an optional text for Unit 1: Section A - Modern Prose or Drama. It is one of 9 texts prescribed for examination. You will be assessed in relation to A01 and A02.

AQA...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

The ‘PEE’ Technique

When you write about The Woman in Black you must remember to use POINT, EVIDENCE and ELABORATE (the ‘PEE’ technique):

1. POINT – MAKE A POINT (i.e. a sentence that helps develop an answer to the essay or exam question).

2. EVIDENCE – FIND A SUITABLE QUOTATION TO SUPPORT THE POINT YOU HAVE JUST MADE –...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

How to raise your grade?

Examiners’ advice about how to improve your grade when writing about The Woman in Black:

• Be relevant – this isn’t a test on everything you know about the text, only write about things that that relate to the question.
• Be sufficiently detailed – it’s better to give a lot of detail about a small part of the...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

‘I had never been an imaginative or fanciful man and certainly not one given to visions of the future’ (p13).

Arthur is the main character and the narrator and the reader should be sympathetic to him and share his feelings. The effect and unwillingness of the discussion of ghost stories shows the reader he has been badly affected in...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

Through Susan Hill’s choices of language she creates a fictional narrator, characters, settings and action and in this way explores her themes.

Her skill is to draw the reader into the fictional ‘story-world’ in such an absorbing way that we forget we are reading fiction and start to empathise, even sympathise, with the main...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

This story is set in Victorian England. Knowledge of the social, historical and cultural context will help you understand the novel more fully.

Victorian society placed much more importance on motherhood than our contemporary society does. Motherhood was praised and celebrated as the highest honour that could be imparted on a woman....

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

The story has a conventional structure and is arranged by the use of chapters. The main storyline involving Kipps in the town of Crythin Gifford is set between 1900 and 1914 ( Chapter 2 - Chapter 11). Although the chapters are not numbered in the text you may find it helpful to remember them as follows.

Chapter 1: Christmas Eve...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

The narrator (and main character) of the novel is Arthur Kipps. Hill creates a believable fiction of a man telling us the story of a period of his life – his own ghost story.  Her technique is known as first person narrative. The use of the ‘first person’ tells us that the story will be told from Arthur’s perspective. This...

Click on one of the links below to download Steve Campsall’s PowerPoint on An Inspector Calls.

• An Inspector Calls.ppt
• An Inspector Calls.pptx

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

• 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...

Associated Resources

• Discourse Markers Toolkit.doc
• Discourse Markers PowerPoint.pptx
• DISPLAY Discourse Markers.doc

A ‘discourse marker’ is a word or phrase that helps to link written ideas. These words are generally more formal lexical items that find little use in speech – which is perhaps why they do not always come naturally to students.

Discourse markers can be used, for example, to link ideas that are similar (e.g. the adverbs, also and similarly); and they can be used to link ideas that are dissimilar (e.g. however, alternately)....[ read full article ] »

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Assessment Objectives

AO1

Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations.

AO2

Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings.

AO4

Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential and significant to self and other readers in different contexts and at different times.

To fulfil these assessment objectives...

Teacher’s Note

This first part of this EnglishEdu guide is aimed at students who are studying any Shakespeare play – but they can easily and profitably be adapted to suit any play.

The second part of the guide is an analysis and commentary of Act 3 Sc. 1 of Shakespeare’s play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, with accompanying notes that are based upon ideas discussed in the guide’s first section.

• The notes accompanying Act 3 Scene 1 of the play are designed to work towards helping students who are planning their Controlled Assessment essay,...

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Assessment Objectives

AO1

Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations.

AO2

Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings.

AO4

Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential and significant to self and other readers in different contexts and at different times.

To fulfil these assessment objectives...