AS AQA English Lit B- Dramatic Genres Coursework

I am completely stumped on what to do for my first piece of coursework, what to talk about etc
We are studying Much Ado about Nothing and my question is: The play is ultimately about human flaws, which can be used to highlight and create comedy, discuss

I've thought of some flaws but i dont know what i need to really include in this essay.

I havent been at school for 3 months due to personal circumstances so i have missed out on all the help the teachers have been giving and im starting to panic really.

Any help? :s-smilie:

Reply 1

username1601611

Hey,
I'm doing the same course as you and we've written our drafts except I did the question about Benedick and Beatrice not only having comedy but psychological depth in their relationship. For human flaws you can just find a flaw about each character and see which ones you want to talk about in your essay in depth as you could not talk about all of them - for example a flaw of Claudio could be how he believed Don John over Hero about her sleeping around (when it was Margaret) because even though he saw it you can argue their relationship is not built on trust as he did not even wish to hear Hero out and accused her straight away, you could link this to his insecurities

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Reply 2

username1601611

To make sure you talk in depth just follow something like adding the point you are making (with reference to Shakespeare throughout), the quote, the context (what was happening at this point in the play), voice/tone, imagery and metaphors or connotations, other interpretations, the language - the significance of particular words from the quote you are talking about
One of my Lit teachers told us something along those lines, hope this helps :smile:

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Reply 3

username1601611

Almost forgot! Your points should be related to an aspect of comedy or drama as that is the focus of the coursework e.g Shakespeare uses wit to...
Then end each paragraph linking to your essay question as you would

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Thank you

Original post by vetgirl12

Hey there,

I studied Much Ado last year for AQA LITB2 and got full marks (however, I used this as my recreative piece with a commentary), so I might be able to help you!

Just a quick question first, did you come up with the question or your teacher? The conventional essay is supposed to invite debate, which will be possible with the question you've stated, but would be easier if it were phrased in a different way (Ie. ' To what extent is Much Ado About Nothing ultimately a play about human flaws, which are used to highlight and create comedy'). If you've made the question up yourself, I'd consider tweaking it just a tad, as it's easier to access the higher bands by phrasing it the way I've just said, if not, don't worry about it :smile:

Anyway, I'd speak about some of the flaws you've said, particularly by analysing certain characters as different kinds of Shakespearean fool. For example, Claudio as a natural fool as a means to criticise the contrived nature of courtly love, Benedick as either a knowing fool or a natural fool etc etc. Make sure you're analysing aspects of form, structure and language, especially structure because that's where a lot of your marks are coming from.
It'd be worth doing a little bit of research on Aristotle and Plato in relation to comedy too, for example 'Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better'. Generally Plato argued the opposite, so maybe it'd be nice to create some debate there. So, it might be worth asking your teacher if they want you to argue to converse of your question to.

Hope this helps, any questions, don't hesitate to ask me!

AS AQA English Lit B- Dramatic Genres Coursework

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