WJEC Language 2016 official prediction thread

Sheila:

EVENT 1: Stage Directions and Dinner Party(p 1-7)
‘pleased with life’ - She is shallow and spoilt, materialistic and she fits in with the complacent attitudes of society.
‘(trying to be light and easy)’ - This shows underlying tensions between her and Gerald but they are keeping them hidden.
‘Look-Mummy-isn't it a beauty’ - Shows how the tensions between the couple can easily be brushed off by something trivial (a distraction) which is the ring Gerald gives to Sheila when their hidden tensions start to rise.

EVENT 2: Interrogation
‘oh-how horrible’ - Juxtaposition between Sheila and Mr Birling as Birling brushes of the death like it is no big deal but, Sheila is genuinely affected by it.
‘But these girls aren’t cheap labour-they're people’ - Sheila’s luxury life is built on the suffering of others below her in the class system, she has never realised this until now.
‘I was absolutely furious’ - Short temper, petulant, tantrum, childish.
Inspector: ‘you might be said to have been jealous of her’ - Sheila is insecure as she is jealous of a woman who has so much less than her. Priestly has put Sheila and Eva as mirror opposites of each other almost as though they are parallel, the only thing different is their class.
‘I'll never, never do it again’ - Sheila is changed, she has a conscience - doesn’t revert to her old ways in the rest of the play.

EVENT 3: Sheila and Gerald’s relationship revealed
Gerald:’Now listen, darling-’ Sheila: ‘No, that’s no use’ - Gerald’s old manipulative, charming methods no longer work on Sheila. She is more mature now and it would’ve been hard for a woman in that era to stand up to someone like Gerald.
‘Yes of course you were’ - Deep down Sheila knew it was true all along, it was social pressures keeping them together, but she ignores the pressure now as she has changed.
‘Why-you fool-he knows’ - Sheila is on the Inspector’s side, she feels trying to cover things up is not only impossible with the Inspector, but laughable and wrong.
‘(bitterly) so that’s what you think I’m really like. I’m glad I realised in time, Gerald’ - Even though they are getting married, they don’t know each other at all. The cracks in their relationship that they have hidden are being exposed.
‘You and I aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner here’ - The ring is a symbol of not only the love in the relationship but the deception, when she accepts the ring she is willing to ignore the lies and their problems but now she has changed and wants a truthful relationship.

EVENT 4: After the Inspector
‘it’s you two who are being childish-trying not to face the facts’ - She is finally fighting back against her mother’s patronising infantilization of her. Priestley is making a point of the older generation’s skewed priorities.
‘it frightens me the way you talk’ - The older generation’s reversal upsets her; she is at this point the mouthpiece for Priestly and the audience. Her priorities are on the girl and changing her behaviour; the consequence don’t matter, it still could of happened and she is still in the wrong.
‘it's too soon. I must think’ - It isn’t an outright refusal; perhaps she sees potential in Gerald for a change. He represents the group of society who might change but might not. The ring represents how some of the family have done a full circle and changed but then gone back to their old ways. He also represents those who didn’t learn their lesson after WW1.

EVENT 5: The ending
The phone rings ‘sharply’ - It is an echo of the doorbell, symbolic of the repeating structure of the play. Represent WW1 and WW2 ‘fire and blood and anguish’. The upper/middle classes need to learn their lesson or be doomed to repeat it. Sheila is part of “the famous younger generation” - mocked by Birling, but the ones Priestley was trying to appeal to: when the Inspector is told he seems “to have made quite the impression” on Sheila, he says “we often do on the younger ones; they’re more impressionable”.‘guilty and dumbfounded’ - As Sheila has been changed by the Inspector you get the impression she will now act differently.

Nicole:

1:First impressions (10-11)
“Flash of recognition” - there is an instant connection (almost like the fairytale love at first sight) in which Francis develops an overly romanticised, unrealistic and naive view of.
“Knelt there like a knight at her feet” - knights are meant to protect. Ironic that the one time Nicole needs protection Francis doesn’t help her when she is assaulted.
“Pale purity...St Therese” - this shows the innocence of young Nicole, Francis is immature and doesn’t really know Nicole but is deluded by her looks. There is a sense of perfection about Nicole as Francis describes her as a statue. He imbues her with unrealistic and saintly qualities of purity and perfection that she could never live up to.

2:Nicole dates Francis (59-61)
“Saturday afternoons at the Plymouth downtown became our weekly date” - relationship takes the normal, age-appropriate, slow-paced and natural.
“That’s my favourite novel” - they seem to have things in common;they get on well. Their relationship develops.
“Innocent kiss” - This is a stereotypical first crush - so sweet and innocent. Juxtaposed with the sexual assault ( which is forced and terrifying ) by Larry who abuses his power.

3:The sexual assault (74-75)The assault is described in one, long sentence without a breath which could suggest the pace it happens at and the paralysis that Francis feels outside.
“She was more important to me than Larry Lasalle” - Unhealthy competitiveness in the ‘love triangle’ between Francis, Nicole and Larry. He decided to stay outside the room to let them have private time - which shows his respect for Larry- although Nicole asked him to stay with her. He obviously cares about Nicole as he couldn’t completely ignore her request which is why he did leave but planned to wait in the foyer then tell her he would “never desert her”.
“whimpering , like a small animal caught” - The name Nicole symbolises the victim she becomes-so powerless and weak with her “swollen” lips. Her last name, Renard represents a fox which could be why Cormier refers to her as an animal.
“My betrayal of her in her eyes” - what began as a “flash of recognition” has now changed to a flash of “anger”. Nicole is very upset that Francis chose to stand outside - although he did this out of love for nicole - and heard all the noises but didn’t help her. He practically let her suffer.

4:The next day (78-80)
“The hell that I had earned” - heat of frenchtown is symbolic of the guilt francis now feels about not helping nicole. He has a conscience but this is not his fault.
“Leaning against the bannister” - Their relationship dies at the point where it began linking back to the first time they spoke when francis was so impressed that Nicole actually knew his name and warned him not to fall off. This shows the lost potential they had.“Poor Francis” - Nicole has always been more mature, but the small gap has been turned into an insurmountable, experiential chasm by the assault.

5:Final meeting (98)
“Cheekbones more prominent” - loss of weight maybe because of the trauma. She is portrayed as a victim.
“Frozen clock”- symbolic of their obsession with the past. They cannot let go or move on from what happened.
“Tennis court” - Larry’s influence is always there in the background as they are actually both victims of Larry ( Francis more mentally Nicole physically) and he is the elephant in the room. Constantly on the minds of the both of them.
“My gift to her” - He goes, leaves her to get on with her life because he knows that seeing him has only brought back bad memories. All the good times they had and the innocent period of time when they were dating has been wiped out by that one horrible, traumatising memory. He is sacrificing his future for hers.
“She looks at me with affection. But affection is not love.” - Their relationship can never be repeated. She did blame him which is why he was filled with guilt and ended up going to war to attempt suicide however now it is more of a sympathetic affectionate look because she doesn’t blame him now which shows she has matured and now knows that it weren’t his fault. She gives Francis purpose, and again when she puts the idea of becoming a writer in his head.

Hope this helps, just some revision notes I made last week :-)

Heroes and AIN went well today! Much better than OMaM and unseen poetry

Sheila came up! Was so happy with that question. Didn't like heroes very much and answered the extract poorly. What questions did you choose? I went for Sheila and secrets

Lol I had no idea about the questions one (didn't really have any quotes for it). Did the Sheila one and Francis and Nicole's relationship. An Inspector Calls went better that heiress but for both I did 1.5 pages for extract and 2.5 pages for long answer

Aww it's fine, hope it goes well! :-)

Sheila came up! Thank you so much for your quotes, it really made a difference (hope your exams went well!)

I accidentally wrote an audience of 1936 rather than 46 do you think that will matter too much?


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Hopefully not lol - I did 1945 (not as bad though, it was when he was writing the play)

How did everyone find it? I really liked avftb and hated lotf especially the 24 marker. Was really prepared for a character question.