(OCR) A2 English Literature *F663* | 2016 Official Thread

For the Lear question on justice: 'the ending of the play denies justice' or something along that lines-

did anyone else talk about justice within Lear as a whole and not purely focusing on the actual text of the end?

I did a paragraph on Edmund's death allowing justice and then counter argued because Edmund was acting out of a role he was destined to fulfil, being illegitimate so we therefore can't apply modern context to him (Sartre - "naturally bastards betray, what else would they do?"

Then Cordelia's death denying the possibility of justice, her death reduced Lear to nothing.

Then one on the play as a whole denies the possibility of justice with Gloucester's assertion that "the gods kill us for their sport"

God knows if that was right but oh well!

Good to hear so many of you found the exam alright, sounds like a lot of people did some really good answers! Unfortunately I can't say the same for myself...I have done so badly in this exam! I've been working so hard for months writing notes for all the possible themes and collecting piles of critics but I just didn't leave enough time to revise it all. I predicted that the presentation of women would come up for both sections (I did 'Midsummer Night's Dream' for section A and WoB and The Rivals for section B) but I didn't get chance to revise for that particular theme because I left it too late and had to prioritise which things to go over.

I think I spent too long planning in the exam and I couldn't remember enough critics so only used 3 for each essay!
I think my section A answer was quite good, apart from lack of critics, and well developed (did presentation of women for 'Dream' but by the the time I got to section B I only had half an hour so my essay was rushed, I only used 3 critics and the points and comparisons were not well developed. I've always been bad with time management but this was the worst I've ever been. I don't know what happened with this exam but I really don't think I've got more than a C and I needed an A to get what I need overall for uni. I actually want to study literature at uni as well so I'm devastated. Did anyone else make these mistakes? And does anyone know what they will do about resits and stuff as this is the last paper for this spec?

omg did very similar things:What did you do for section A? (I do Lear)

I had a huge grin on my face the second I saw Enobarbus through the paper

After reading someone else's post about the women question (number 5), I have a feeling that I did pretty well in the exam.

I did Q8 (studying Blake poetry and Tis Pity She's A Whore by John Ford) and I think the stem (I'm not sure if you mean the quote above the question or?) was 'It is rarely good to get what you want'. I hope that answered your question?

I'm wondering if anyone would kind of guess the type of band that my exam would fall into as I'm really worried I'm not going to get the grade that I need.


For the Lear question I went for "The end of the play denies justice"

I started off saying there are a few different types of justice human, divine poetic (coined by Thomas Rymer), and that Cordelia's death is the greatest example of injustice in the end due to her being the only one who truly loved Lear in the beginning and being a very good character. I said how the very first lines let out the injustice of the first act and its superficially.

I spoke about Nahum Tate's production who had Cordelia and Lear both not die in the end, and the newly wedded Cordelia and Edgar inherit Lear's throne.
Then I spoke about how unjust the blinding of Gloucester was, and how in the end there is some hope for justice because of Edgar being the hope for Britain and being present in Lear's insight into justice (shake the super flux etc).

For Paradise Lost and The White Devil, I went for the one about Women.
I spoke about how both writers challenge the Eve stereotype and how the strength shown in Eve's argument against Adam (virtue unassayed) and its similarities to Milton's own Areopagitica, I compared this to the strength in Vittoria's trial and the wit she shows which likens us as an audience to her.

Then said how they also conform to the stereotype of Eve: Milton shows Eve to be ambitious and deceptive of Adam, and how Vittoria manipulates Brachiano into murder with the Yew Tree homophonic "foolish idle dream".

I'm a bit disappointed because I don't think I'd fully anticipated how little 2 hours is and am worried how short or maybe brief my essays were compared to the ones I had been writing in preparation, there is so much context, interpretations and structure, form and language to mention and not enough time.

Grade boundaries have gone up what is this evil

They're horrible ( no way I can get my C up to a B now. Just gotta hope my firm is lenient!

This has to be the most harshest grade boundaries on any exam

I need an A* in English for my firm and there's no way that's going to happen now

A* boundary didn't go up (still 57/60)

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I know it didn't go up but with my coursework I need around 100 UMS for the A* and that is higher