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OCR A2 English Literature, F663/01: Drama & Poetry pre-1800, 6 June 2014

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Reply 20
Original post by jamesmact
As far as predictions of questions goes.. it could really be anything :/ They give you so many options and it's possible that a couple won't relate to either text. If we get something on oppression and women that would be a dream come true. Alternatively, as you suggest, persuasion/temptation may come up although temptation was also a question on last year's paper. I sat that paper for my mock and I did the temptation question. I forget what the precise wording was and I can't seem to find a link to the appropriate exam.

Thank you for the advice for quotations! I think everyone finds it such a daunting concept, especially at A2 where they expect you to go into a lot more historical detail. Paradise Lost is just fantastic though... We studied Book X in just as much detail, then we moved onto Books I and II. Even if you can't be bothered to battle through the density of the text, reading up about summaries and connections between the different Books is really useful and constitutes AO3/4 (I'm guessing?!). Volpone I just find too long and quite frankly fairly dry in a lot of areas... The only bits I actually enjoy are the scenes with the Avocatti and the whole issue of the fairness of their judgment


Yeah that's the thing about the comparative question, there's such a range of texts being studied that so many different things can be asked and some of them could hold no relevancy to our texts at all. Was that persuasion one the one about forbidden pleasures? I can definitely see how that applies to the texts really well but I really don't know what my argument would be if I was answering that question :s-smilie:

Yeah learning quotes is extremely irritating. I honestly can't see any reason why they would have a closed text exam, it just turns it into a memory test which is really not what English should be. Yeah I definitely find Paradise Lost very interesting, I find Milton hard to understand at times but he's undoubtedly a brilliant writer. Completely enjoy with you about Volpone, I like the general principal of it and find some aspects really funny such as the sheer ridiculousness of Corvino, but I definitely agree with you that it's way too long. With Paradise Lost I feel every line is important pretty much (same with Shakespeare) and it's a case of cutting it down to the most important parts, whereas I feel that going through Volpone there's so many long parts that are just purely drivel and holds no significance whatsoever. The sub plot irritates me as well :mad:
Reply 21
btw could anyone tell me the exact amount of marks that are given to each AO for each question? I don't think I've been given anything from my school about it and I found something about it on the OCR site but it was really confusing.
Reply 22
I've never felt as unprepared for an exam, as i do for this exam.... don't even know where to start properly. We do Chaucers the wife of bath, and trying to quote that is going to absolutely impossible!
Reply 23
Original post by Kateeyk
I've never felt as unprepared for an exam, as i do for this exam.... don't even know where to start properly. We do Chaucers the wife of bath, and trying to quote that is going to absolutely impossible!


I'm doing the wife of bath too! So hard to quote, I've stuck to just memorising a couple of words to quote.

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Original post by NiallD
btw could anyone tell me the exact amount of marks that are given to each AO for each question? I don't think I've been given anything from my school about it and I found something about it on the OCR site but it was really confusing.


Asked my teacher this at Easter revision last week! Also found deciphering what was on the OCR site really confusing...

Shakespeare:
AO1 - 5
AO2 - 10
AO3 - 10
AO4 - 5

Comparison:
AO1 - 5
AO2 - 5
AO3 - 10
AO4 - 10
Reply 25
Original post by Zoelingua
Asked my teacher this at Easter revision last week! Also found deciphering what was on the OCR site really confusing...

Shakespeare:
AO1 - 5
AO2 - 10
AO3 - 10
AO4 - 5

Comparison:
AO1 - 5
AO2 - 5
AO3 - 10
AO4 - 10


Thanks for this! Wow didn't realise the marks for A02 are so small in comparative, I think I'm fairly knowledgeable of the context of my texts though so I should be fine. I really don't know why my teachers haven't really mentioned the weightings as it will largely influence how I revise and how I go about the exam :s-smilie:
Reply 26
Original post by dramaqueenx
Hi guys :-) great thread! Really going to help! I am doing William Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience' with a comparison to John Webster's 'The White Devil' and then a singular essay on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. Is anyone doing these too? I am slightly worried because, due to family circumstances, I didn't do as well as I wanted to have done last year. I am therefore retaking that exam on Shelley's 'Frankenstein' and Robert Browning poetry. Slightly freaking out about learning five texts and five critics as well as my other exams!! And breathe! I suppose it's taught me to have tried harder this year though! ;-) If anyone is doing Blake, a really good quote on him is, 'There is no doubt this poor man was mad but there is something in the madness of this man.' (William Wordsworth) - Though my teacher told me it sounded as if I had made it up :eek: haha. She seems pretty convinced Prospero will come up for 'The Tempest' though. Just have to wait and see...


Hey I'm also doing Webster/Blake Songs of Innocence and Experience for comparison. How are you finding it? What exactly is there to compare because I'll be honest with you, the only thing I can see is religion and corruption. I doubt a question on women will come up because Blake hardly mentions them. How are u revising?

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Reply 27
Anyone else doing King Lear with Blake/Webster comparison
?

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Anyone else doing John Ford's Tis a pity she's a whore and William Blake's Songs of innocence and of experience for comparison? Finding it really difficult to find comparison points :frown: and I'm doing A Midsummer Nights dream for Shakespeare :smile:


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Reply 29
Original post by Sixdegreesofsoph
Anyone else doing John Ford's Tis a pity she's a whore and William Blake's Songs of innocence and of experience for comparison? Finding it really difficult to find comparison points :frown: and I'm doing A Midsummer Nights dream for Shakespeare :smile:


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Me! I know what you mean, the comparisons seem really vague and forced, doesn't help with it being such a rare OCR combination.
Original post by jessic4
Me! I know what you mean, the comparisons seem really vague and forced, doesn't help with it being such a rare OCR combination.


I agree, not the easiest combination seeing as they are so different, I literally have no idea where to start and there aren't any resources out there for it either.
Original post by Spartz
Anyone else doing King Lear with Blake/Webster comparison
?

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I'm doing King Lear. And Webster, but for comparison with Milton 😃


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Original post by Spartz
Hey I'm also doing Webster/Blake Songs of Innocence and Experience for comparison. How are you finding it? What exactly is there to compare because I'll be honest with you, the only thing I can see is religion and corruption. I doubt a question on women will come up because Blake hardly mentions them. How are u revising?

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Hey there :-) Themes I have for both of them: Power, Love, Religion, Fate, Injustice, Misogyny, Corruption, Deception, Defiance and Restrictions. All I'm doing is writing out 3-4 quotes per theme and cross comparing them to each text. Like for religion, there's a quote in TWD from Cornelia that says: 'By thy act Judas-like' and in Blake's 'The Poison Tree', the speaker says, 'my foe beheld it shine,/And he knew that it was mine' -> in both quotes, they refer to bad people within religion (Judas and the Serpent) so then I'll just spurt some religion context as to why Blake hated organised religion and the mocking gestures that Webster included in TWD. Then I'll just chuck in a couple of critics to argue with and then yeah. I can share quotes with themes if you want :smile:
Original post by NiallD

Hey! I'm doing The Tempest as well :biggrin: Yeah I can definitely see Prospero coming up. My dream questions though would be Ariel for the character question (or Caliban but there's 0% of that) and Colonialism for the theme question. I would literally be so happy if they came up :biggrin:

Wow that must be pretty tough with the retakes, although I imagine you should ace the AS stuff now as it will seem easy in comparison to A2? I did Yeats and Frankenstein last year and I miss them so much now considering what we have to learn for A2, I really did not appreciate them enough at the time :biggrin:


Colonialism? Really?! I think I would cry if that came up hahaha. I want setting to come up - although I can't think of anyone thinking the island is bad, they're all so optimistic haha. Or, justice/injustice. I would be pretty happy if that came up. Caliban was my dream character to come up, he's soo interesting but nah. I think we'll get a pair like Miranda or Ferdinand or Stephano and Trinculo (which I actually wouldn't mind). I think Ariel or Prospero would be good - though Ariel is the most annoying character. He's even more annoying than Victor Frankenstein which says a lot. hahaha I think English is making me go mad...
Reply 34
Original post by dramaqueenx
Colonialism? Really?! I think I would cry if that came up hahaha. I want setting to come up - although I can't think of anyone thinking the island is bad, they're all so optimistic haha. Or, justice/injustice. I would be pretty happy if that came up. Caliban was my dream character to come up, he's soo interesting but nah. I think we'll get a pair like Miranda or Ferdinand or Stephano and Trinculo (which I actually wouldn't mind). I think Ariel or Prospero would be good - though Ariel is the most annoying character. He's even more annoying than Victor Frankenstein which says a lot. hahaha I think English is making me go mad...


I think colonialism would be great! The whole thing fits so well in a colonialism set up, and it works really well in terms of context etc as Shakespeare got his inspiration for the play from a letter about the wreck of a ship that was part of the Virginia colony. Also I did post colonial literature for my coursework so I know lots about colonialism already :tongue: Although I'm not sure they'd ask a question on something as specific as colonialism, although if they asked about the theme of power or something I guess you could bring colonialism into it (which I probably would!)

I don't think I'd be happy that happy with setting as I'm not really sure what I'd argue? You could say about the way people seeing the island reflecting on their character (e.g Antonio or Sebastian seeing it negatively and Gonzalo seeing it positively) but I'm not sure how far you could go with that. Justice/injustice would be good, again I'd probably bring colonialism into that if I was answering a question on it :tongue: Yeah I think aside from Caliban, Ariel or Prospero would really be the only ones I feel I could answer a full essay on so the character question will probably either be on one of those or a pair. I don't mind Ariel haha, he is a tad irritating I guess but if a question on him came up I feel like I'd have loads to say. I don't think I could ever find a literature character more annoying than Frankenstein :tongue:
Original post by NiallD
I think colonialism would be great! The whole thing fits so well in a colonialism set up, and it works really well in terms of context etc as Shakespeare got his inspiration for the play from a letter about the wreck of a ship that was part of the Virginia colony. Also I did post colonial literature for my coursework so I know lots about colonialism already :tongue: Although I'm not sure they'd ask a question on something as specific as colonialism, although if they asked about the theme of power or something I guess you could bring colonialism into it (which I probably would!)

I don't think I'd be happy that happy with setting as I'm not really sure what I'd argue? You could say about the way people seeing the island reflecting on their character (e.g Antonio or Sebastian seeing it negatively and Gonzalo seeing it positively) but I'm not sure how far you could go with that. Justice/injustice would be good, again I'd probably bring colonialism into that if I was answering a question on it :tongue: Yeah I think aside from Caliban, Ariel or Prospero would really be the only ones I feel I could answer a full essay on so the character question will probably either be on one of those or a pair. I don't mind Ariel haha, he is a tad irritating I guess but if a question on him came up I feel like I'd have loads to say. I don't think I could ever find a literature character more annoying than Frankenstein :tongue:


I think I'd argue that the island brings out Caliban's rare sensitive side as it shows his sense of ownership (or rightful ownership at least). And how the setting allows the audience to see Caliban's better side. Yeah, i'd definitely go with the pessimism of Antonio and Sebastian (which could also be another pair!) and talk about Ferdinand's foolishness too. My biggest argument would be Caliban haha.

I don't think they would be that specific with colonialism but you never know - definitely spider out into it if power or injustice came up. Injustice is definitely the theme I want hahaha. But I bet we'll get something stupid like Time or Fate and a character question on Boatswain. I think I would then cry hhahaa. Oh God, I've jinxed it!
Reply 36
Original post by dramaqueenx
I think I'd argue that the island brings out Caliban's rare sensitive side as it shows his sense of ownership (or rightful ownership at least). And how the setting allows the audience to see Caliban's better side. Yeah, i'd definitely go with the pessimism of Antonio and Sebastian (which could also be another pair!) and talk about Ferdinand's foolishness too. My biggest argument would be Caliban haha.

I don't think they would be that specific with colonialism but you never know - definitely spider out into it if power or injustice came up. Injustice is definitely the theme I want hahaha. But I bet we'll get something stupid like Time or Fate and a character question on Boatswain. I think I would then cry hhahaa. Oh God, I've jinxed it!


lmao a character question on Boatswain would be ridiculous :eek: Even though I feel like I have better knowledge on The Tempest than I do on my texts for the comparison questions, I kind of feel more nervous about The Tempest question as there are so many different things that could come up, and there's not a set list of themes that everyone will be studying so each school will study different themes and it's possible that a theme could come up that I haven't even thought of! The comparisons questions are much more vague and I feel more comfortable that I will be able to answer at least one of them confidently. There's still quite a bit of time till the exam though so I think I'm going to try and make essay plans for every possible theme or character that could come up for The Tempest so I'll hopefully be able to answer anything they give me.
Original post by NiallD
lmao a character question on Boatswain would be ridiculous :eek: Even though I feel like I have better knowledge on The Tempest than I do on my texts for the comparison questions, I kind of feel more nervous about The Tempest question as there are so many different things that could come up, and there's not a set list of themes that everyone will be studying so each school will study different themes and it's possible that a theme could come up that I haven't even thought of! The comparisons questions are much more vague and I feel more comfortable that I will be able to answer at least one of them confidently. There's still quite a bit of time till the exam though so I think I'm going to try and make essay plans for every possible theme or character that could come up for The Tempest so I'll hopefully be able to answer anything they give me.


Haha could you imagine if he came up?! Here are my themes and characters that could come up: Power, Betrayal, Magic/Supernatural, Setting, Revenge, Otherness, Justice/Injustice, Love (it's weak), Compassion/Forgiveness, Humour, Imprisonment/Freedom, Fate and Negligence.
For characters, Prospero, Ariel & Caliban are the only singular characters worthy of a decent essay. The others don't say enough. Caliban won't come up probably :/ For pairs, Stephano and Trinculo, Ferdinand and Miranda, Antonio and Sebastian, Prospero and Ariel's relationship might also be interesting. I think Stephano and Trinculo would be a good pair to come up; they're comedic, idiotic, controlling, try to expose Caliban yet Caliban, at the end, has more power than they do. I don't know. There's quite a big choice but I think they're all my themes. Have you got anymore?
Reply 38
Original post by dramaqueenx
Hey there :-) Themes I have for both of them: Power, Love, Religion, Fate, Injustice, Misogyny, Corruption, Deception, Defiance and Restrictions. All I'm doing is writing out 3-4 quotes per theme and cross comparing them to each text. Like for religion, there's a quote in TWD from Cornelia that says: 'By thy act Judas-like' and in Blake's 'The Poison Tree', the speaker says, 'my foe beheld it shine,/And he knew that it was mine' -> in both quotes, they refer to bad people within religion (Judas and the Serpent) so then I'll just spurt some religion context as to why Blake hated organised religion and the mocking gestures that Webster included in TWD. Then I'll just chuck in a couple of critics to argue with and then yeah. I can share quotes with themes if you want :smile:


Brilliant, I got an English lit buddy :smile: yeah that's a good idea we should definitely start exchanging quotations and stuff I've mainly been focusing on the white devil this easter tomorrow I'll start on Blake but the predominant theme I see in TWD is corruption in both religion and the state, linking towards deception aswell (I'm basing this on both Blame and TWD) I wouldn't bother playing too much emphasis on women as Blake doesn't talk about them.

The main way the world is presented as unjust is obviously through the big character abusing their power, eg Monticelso in court case and Brachiano when he escapes banishment (which Lodovico points out in Act1sc1) I'll gather quotes once in studying I have no idea why I'm on here at 11:30pm haha

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Does anybody have any themes/comparison points for Tis pity and Blake? finding it difficult to compare the two.

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