Edexcel A2 English Literature Unit 3 20/06/2012

I am doing Gatsby and Rapture... can you tell me anyways you write on the texts that made it easier... any tips... what do you do for A04 especially for rapture... and how do you insert critics comments in the essay... is there a way to ensure so concentrate more on A03 and A04...

Hi guys, I'm taking the exam in June. I'm doing Tess, Captain Corelli and Metaphysical poetry. I know that these topics are always grouped together in the question. Would it be sufficient to just talk about the novels or is it recommended to discuss the novels and the poetry when doing a comparison? Thanks!

We were told always to refer to all three, even if you only refer to one of them in a small amount...

Hi guys, I'm taking the exam in June. I'm doing Tess, Captain Corelli and Metaphysical poetry. I know that these topics are always grouped together in the question. Would it be sufficient to just talk about the novels or is it recommended to discuss the novels and the poetry when doing a comparison? Thanks!

Hmm, what I found helped MASSIVELY was to go through possible themes that might come up. So for example, for the past question on 'emotionally intense relationships', I decided to address the themes of: idealisation, lust, obsession and dependence. To come up with these themes I just figured out all the ways the texts can be compared.

So for example: with the theme of dependence, Gatsby is dependent on Daisy, FSF was dependent on Zelda (Ao4), while in 'Wintering' by Duffy she uses death imagery to show her dependence.

All in all I came up with around 35 themes/areas that my texts could be compared, and I just went through them and compared the texts with those themes in mind, and once you've done that, the questions don't seem so hard!

For the AO3 & AO4, I suggest you just learn facts that you can throw in anywhere:


And then just learn some key quotes from critics that can be used in any situation! I tended to use the same ones in all my essays - for example 'Rapture owes something to fairytales' from the Telegraph can be used when talking about language, 'Maps the trajectory of a love affair' from the Times can be used in an introduction. For Gatsby, Jerry Stratton said 'we only see their actions and Carraway's interpretation' - excellent for talking about the unreliable narrator.

I hope this helps, you've still got time so don't worry!